The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations defended his country’s nuclear policy and said it has no intention of destroying Israel in response to questions from Boston University students in the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall last night.
Ambassador Javad Zarif faced almost 1,200 students via teleconference from New York as he took their questions, though he urged them to inquire about Iran’s nuclear program. During his opening statements, about 100 student protesters in red shirts reading “We turn our backs on terror” faced the back wall for one minute.
“I’d like to greet all of you, whichever way you are facing or whatever T-shirt you are wearing,” Zarif said.
When a protester asked about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments about wiping Israel off the map, Zarif said Iran “will not use force against any other member of the U.N.”
While Zarif said in his opening words that he expected inquiries about Iran’s nuclear policy, only a few audience members questioned the issue.
“[Iran] wants nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” Zarif said. “We do not see that our security is helped by nuclear weapons.”
Also offering comments were International Students Consortium President Bilal Bilici, Provost David Campbell and international relations professor Charles Dunbar, who rebutted Zarif’s nuclear policy comments, saying, “Iran simply has not been credible on the nuclear question.”
Bilici, who planned the event last fall, said he hoped discussion with Zarif would “emphasize the importance of dialogue” between nations.
Zarif said Iran and the United States need to be “looking for solutions” rather than creating unproven suspicions.
“If the situation [in the Middle East] gets out of hand, the United States can pack up and leave,” but surrounding nations including Iran can still be in danger, he said.
Dunbar, a former ambassador to Qatar and Yemen, opened the session, discussing the escalating tension between Iran and the United States. He warned the audience about forming misconceptions about the two countries’ conflict.
“Our two governments owe it to our two peoples and the rest of the world to make that effort to talk to enemies,” he said.
In the first question of the night, a student asked Zarif his opinion on a recent Iranian cartoon depicting the Holocaust — which Ahmadinejad has called “a myth.”
Zarif responded by calling the Holocaust an atrocity and genocide. He said a genocide is an “abomination that must be condemned” and defended Iran by calling its Jewish population a respected minority group.
Student protesters distributed fliers before the event, urging attendees to turn their backs on Zarif and suggesting questions the students could ask.
Protester Howard Simpson, a College of Engineering junior, said before the event the signs and fliers are a representation of his beliefs that were “not disruptive to the other participants” and did not impair any person’s “ability to hear what [Zarif] had to say.”
Second-year religion graduate student Nousheen Yousuf said she admired the protesters for exercising their civil liberties, but said she thought they were “childish” for turning their backs.
“Dialogue is the first step to getting any type of relationship,” Yousuf said, and it is “better than making military decisions based on assumptions.”
Staff reporter Jenna Nierstedt contributed reporting to this article.