Iran hard-liners lambast leaders over nuclear stance
AS Iran’s foreign minister embarked on a diplomatic tour yesterday to save the nuclear deal, his government faced mounting pressure from hardliners at home who say the West should never have been trusted.
Ayatollah Ali Jannati, the ultra-conservative head of the Assembly of Experts whose responsibilities include choosing the next supreme leader, said the government had already failed to guarantee the country’s interests.
President Hassan Rouhani, the key architect of the 2015 agreement, should “present his apologies to the Iranian people for the damage caused in the cadre of the nuclear deal”, Jannati said.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Beijing yesterday for the first stop of his tour of the remaining members of the nuclear deal.
“We hope that with this visit to China and other countries we will be able to construct a clear future design for the comprehensive agreement,” Zarif said after talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
Zarif and Wang hailed the comprehensive strategic partnership between their countries, with the Chinese minister saying: “I hope and believe that these visits to multiple countries will help protect Iran’s legitimate national interests and peace and stability in the region.”
Zarif will fly to Moscow and Brussels to consult the remaining signatories to the 2015 agreement denounced by US President Donald Trump.
Mirroring the line taken by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Jannati said there was little chance the Europeans would provide the assurances needed for Iran to stay in the deal.
The Europeans had never stopped taking actions against Iran, he wrote.
The head of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, also criticised certain officials who look to outsiders.
“I hope recent events will lead us to ending our trust in the West and the Europeans.
“The Europeans have repeated on several occasions that they will not be able to resist US sanctions,” Jafari said, according to the conservative Fars news agency.
About 100 Iranian legislators have also signed on to a parliament bill that would set a clear deadline for the government to obtain necessary guarantees from the Europeans, without which Iran would resume highlevel uranium enrichment, according to the parliament’s official website.
Although conservatives have tried to score political points against Rouhani in the wake of the US withdrawal, the president has essentially taken the same line.
Immediately after Trump’s withdrawal from the deal last Tuesday, Rouhani said he had told Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation to prepare for industrial enrichment without limit unless Iran’s interests were guaranteed by the remaining parties.
Washington’s decision to withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions angered its European allies as well as China and Russia.
China was one of the six powers – with the United States, Russia, France, the UK and Germany – that signed the historic pact, which saw sanctions lifted in return for the commitment by Teheran not to acquire nuclear weapons. – AFP