Iran's FM Zarif tells NBCNews that the U.S. and Iran came “close to the brink” of war and tensions remain high following the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
"I'm still the same foreign minister that dealt with John Kerry in a respectable way."
After Soleimani and the commander of an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq was killed in the U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport, Iran retaliated on Jan. 8 by firing ballistic missiles at two bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq. Zarif said the missile assault was meant to send a message. The Trump administration said the strike against Soleimani was justified because of what it said was a growing threat posed to U.S. personnel in the region by Iran and its proxies, especially after an American contractor was killed in a rocket attack in northern Iraq that Washington blamed on an Iranian-backed militia.
Zarif also acknowledged that Iran is not able to extract information from the black box from the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down by Iranian forces on Jan. 8, but said that Tehran will not hand over the box to outside governments. "We have asked for help, why haven't the United States helped us? This is a humanitarian issue. Why haven't they given us the software? Why haven't they given us the expertise?" Zarif said.
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