Mohammad Javad Zarif has tweeted a link to a video based on figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on US arms sales abroad over the past 67 years.
US destabilizes the world with arms exports, draining budgets that could be used for a brighter future. Yet its arms can't even secure its citizens: 35% of global military spending failed to stop 15 Saudis from murdering & injuring >9000 Americans on 9/11. https://t.co/cwfjx5Y7SY
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) 19 июля 2018 г.
The video, compiled by data scientist Will Geary, shows the flow of US weapons to other countries over the decades, and how these transfers shifted during the Cold War and since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The video shows how US arms sales to Middle Eastern countries surrounding Iran over time began considerably outstripping exports to other countries.
"US destabilizes the world with arms exports, draining budgets that could be used for a brighter future. Yet its arms can't even secure its citizens: 35% of global military spending failed to stop 15 Saudis from murdering & injuring >9000 Americans on 9/11," Zarif wrote in his commentary, referring to the September 11, 2001, attack, the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil.
Iranian-US relations have sunk to new lows in recent weeks after Washington's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May. Zarif earlier pledged that Iran would come back to the negotiating table if the United States adheres to the deal. Iran filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice this week against what it says is the US's unlawful re-imposition of unilateral sanctions.
