Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) with Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC, in Tehran, Oct. 9, 2017. Photo: Tasnim News Agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday reached for the language of behavioral psychology to denounce US policy toward the Tehran regime.

The US-educated Zarif — who is often presented as the intellectual face of the Islamic Republic — declared in a Twitter post that “Bipolar demonization of Iran as either ‘taking over MidEast’ or ‘fighting for survival’ indicates US cognitive disorder & demagoguery unleashed by collapse of America’s moral compass.”

Iran, he continued, “has been and always will be a stable, powerful & responsible regional actor.”

Zarif was referring to what he regards as a contradiction in the US presentation of Iran’s rulers as lacking the support of the Iranian people as they assert themselves militarily and politically in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

While millions of Iranians live in poverty, according to Iranian analyst Heshmat Alavi the regime allocated $8 billion for its feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in 2018 alone.

Bipolar demonization of Iran as either "taking over MidEast" or "fighting for survival" indicates US cognitive disorder & demagoguery unleashed by collapse of America's moral compass. Iran has been and always will be a stable, powerful & responsible regional actor.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 31, 2018

Zarif meanwhile paid an official visit to Pakistan this week, whose new government, led by the former cricket champion Imran Khan, is regarded as favorable to Tehran. Arriving in the capital Islamabad, Zarif told reporters that Iran was seeking “the best and strongest of ties with its neighbor, Pakistan.”

Iran has undertaken a diplomatic offensive in recent months, following the decision in May by the US to reimpose tough sanctions and withdraw from the JCPOA — the nuclear deal of 2015 which Zarif, along with his US counterpart John Kerry, played a key role in crafting.