Today, Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif (محمد جواد ظریف خوانساری), the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be speaking via video conference at the University of Denver. The conversation, which will be streamed live at this link at 2 pm EST, will be moderated by Ambassador Christopher R. Hill, Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. The setting for today’s talk makes sense–since Dr. Zarif received his second MA and PhD at the University of Denver. In fact, Iran’s government has more cabinet members with Ph.D. degrees from U.S. universities than the U.S government does. Iran also has more American Ph.D.s in its presidential cabinet than Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain or Russia—combined.
Here’s a blurb from the University of Denver’s press release about this “momentous event in US and Iranian diplomatic history”:
Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif is the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prior to assuming that post in August 2013, Dr. Zarif served as Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations (2002-2007) and Iran’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992-2002). In addition to his distinguished diplomatic career, Dr. Zarif is also a proud University of Denver alumnus, earning both his MA and PhD in International Studies from DU’s Graduate School of International Studies (now the Josef Korbel School) in 1984 and 1988, respectively. Dr. Zarif will discuss the current contours of US-Iranian relations with Dean Hill via video conference from Vienna, Austria, where he is working with Secretary of State John Kerry on finalizing a deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
