"The military equipment and the armed forces are very important and we should
not ignore boosting them,” Zarif said during a speech at Amirkabir University of
Technology.
Zarif has said repeatedly that Iran’s military power is for deterrence.
In a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in March, Zarif
said during Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s foreigners refused to
sell weapons to Iran to defend itself.
"Iran has learned from the bitter experience of the imposed war that it must
rely on its deterrence power to defend the people,” the chief diplomat noted at
the time.
During the war the Saddam army rained down missiles on Iranian cities. The
Saddam army also gassed Iranian soldiers and civilians.
Source: TEHRAN TIMES