Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Al-monitor – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has taken issue with recent claims by conservative presidential candidates about the nuclear deal and what was termed the “weak” diplomacy of the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani, who is seeking re-election.
AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi
In a video interview with Entekhab news site May 9, Zarif, who played an important role in the international talks that resulted in a nuclear deal in July 2015, said, “Unfortunately, many of the statements we are hearing have no relationship to reality, especially regarding foreign policy. For instance, they say that the oil revenue can’t be transferred to Iran.” He said that despite statements from the government, the Oil Ministry, the Central Bank and the Foreign Ministry to the contrary, the candidates indicate that “these revenues aren’t transferred to the country.”
He said the conservative candidates have mistakenly said that Iran is forced to receive low-grade commodities instead of oil revenue. “I’m surprised, because these are the realities that happened four or five years ago,” Zarif said. “It was four, five years ago that we had to import luxury goods instead of our oil revenue. … But during that time no one talked about this and I heard less criticism.”
During President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2005-2013 administration, the president enjoyed conservative support. Iran was put under heavy banking and other sanctions, but the conservatives didn’t criticize the Ahmadinejad government’s diplomacy, even though Iran couldn’t receive its oil revenue and resorted to importing goods instead.
Zarif said, “The comrades who were silent during those eight years supported [the government] or described its decisions as a sign of national power. But today, I don’t know where they are getting the data they base their unreal claims on.”
The municipality of Tehran, headed by Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is now running for president, had installed billboards condemning the nuclear negotiations across the city.
Zarif said, “You have definitely heard that a session of my negotiations with Mr. [US Secretary of State John] Kerry lasted nine hours straight, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. We didn’t sit and recite stories for nine hours. Pressure, negotiations and efforts were involved to maximize the interest of the country. Under such circumstances, the comrades, one after another, posted the billboards, banners and posters. Who funded them? … Was it useful? And was it helpful to the negotiation team?”
Zarif also spoke about the deals Iran has made to buy Airbus and Boeing airplanes to replace the country’s aged air fleet; such purchases were made possible by the nuclear deal. Some Iranian hard-line publications criticized the purchases and wondered whether they would come to fruition. While it is feared that the Trump administration might nix the Boeing sales, several Airbus planes have been delivered this year.
Zarif said, “Why have they forgotten their big headline ‘Flight of paper-like planes in the election sky’? Were these planes paper-like that they went and boarded? The comrades who boarded these planes, what they boarded was a kite that flew up? Have they forgotten their own words? … They send this message to the foreigners: ‘Dear gentleman, you are not supposed to give the airplanes [to us], and we are ready for your commitments not to be honored.’ … They are also telling the international community that what we have achieved was just a bunch of paper.”
