🎥 Zarif: When the existence of the state is in danger, one must seek survival

🔹 The former foreign minister said at the unveiling and review meeting of his authored books: If you want to paint national interests based on material and semantic interests, then, as Dr. Sajjadpour said, survival is definitely the most important national interest. Whoever told you that development is the most important national interest, know that he has never suffered the pain of survival.

For every living creature, nothing has a higher priority than survival. Of course, we must not mistake one another and say that they are only looking for survival; everyone is looking for survival.

Almighty God wants to invite us to martyrdom. What do you say? "And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive." That is, when He wants to invite to martyrdom, God says that martyrs are alive; in martyrdom there is survival. Therefore, if someone told us that development must be put as the top priority, we must pay attention that even if development is the top priority - which I also believe should be the top priority today - development is necessary for survival.

When the existence of the country is in danger, you seek survival. Why were the treaties of Golestan and Turkmenchay signed? Because the enemy reached the back of Qazvin and tried to conquer Tehran, and the existence of the country was in danger. In such a situation, an agreement is made to preserve survival.

For example, God forbid, if someone gets diabetes and their foot turns black and there is a fear of the disease spreading to their heart, what do they do? Their foot is amputated so that they can live.

These are difficult decisions that an official may have to make at any stage. Of course, the optimal governance is to manage the situation so that there is actually no need to make such decisions.