What is the story of the disagreement between Zarif and Ali Awaz?

What is the story behind Zarif and Ali Vaez’s disagreement?

The story of Zarif and Ali Vaez’s disagreement goes back almost a year, as reported by Iran Gate. Hardline domestic media claimed that a group of American spies had been in contact with Zarif and that important parts of the JCPOA had been influenced by their opinions. Media close to revolutionary movements and values referred to Ali Vaez as a senior Middle East analyst and financial collaborator in the International Crisis Group.

Mohammad Javad Zarif’s recent statements at the Clubhouse have sparked reactions from many observers. One of the most important of these statements relates to the disagreement that had occurred between the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic and Ali Vaez, a senior analyst in the International Crisis Group. Now Zarif has revealed the truth, but what really happened and what is the disagreement between Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ali Vaez about?

Where did the story begin?

After Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2017, many political factions within the country were looking for someone to blame and point fingers at him and his affiliated movement. During that period, there was no wall shorter than Javad Zarif’s wall, and the numerous photos of him with Western leaders published in the media were considered the best evidence of his betrayal.

But with the Biden administration coming into power, hopes were revived for the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, and many believed that the government under the Democrats’ leadership would quickly return to the JCPOA. The appointment of Rob Malley as the Special Assistant to the US Secretary of State for Iran Affairs also reinforced these optimistic views, as he was one of the main defenders of the nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic during the Obama administration, and many saw his involvement in the US diplomatic apparatus as a signal from Biden to Tehran to express goodwill in negotiations.

As time passed, a deep divide became apparent between the positions of the inexperienced government of Ebrahim Raisi and the seasoned Western diplomats, more than was anticipated. The images that were being published in the media from the Vienna and Doha negotiations were reminiscent of a time when Saeed Jalili was constantly on the road to Almaty and Istanbul, and after each trip, he would return to the homeland with a skirt full of tough sanctions from the UN Security Council. In this ongoing media frenzy, the supportive media outlets of the thirteenth government also turned their artillery towards Javad Zarif and Hassan Rouhani, accusing them of colluding with the West and betraying the country.

Amidst all this, a controversial statement caused Javad Zarif to be demoted from a neglectful statesman who had fallen short in securing Iran’s interests to the position of a treasonous minister who submits to American authorities. Ali Vaez, who had long been a financial advisor in the International Crisis Group, suddenly shared an opinion on his personal Twitter account that intensified the fierce attacks on nuclear negotiators in the eleventh and twelfth governments.

Who wrote the JCPOA?

Ali Vaez had published an opinion on the social media platform Twitter, the essence of which was that we, the International Crisis Group, wrote the JCPOA.

As Majid Tafreshi, a prominent historian and professor, has narrated, some Western sources in 2022 revealed a statement by Wa’ez, claiming that a collection of texts written by the International Crisis Group had ultimately turned into the JCPOA, which he submitted to the US Department of State.

However, Tafreshi argues that Zarif directly told him that from 2005 until the day the JCPOA was signed, he had provided various texts to Western officials, including Catherine Ashton, the then High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs. According to Tafreshi’s account, there was no mention of the international crisis group’s intervention in the preparation of these texts.

Even in the Rome Clubhouse meeting held on June 6, 2023, this history professor claimed that Ali Wa’ez attended various meetings in Zurich, London, Vienna, and Paris to gather information and consulted him and other individuals who had no official authority. Essentially, Wa’ez could not have had such a significant influence on the preparation of the JCPOA text, let alone directing the financial resources to create a text that eventually gave birth to the JCPOA in 2014.

However, it was in 2022 that Zarif, in his Twitter account, announced the direct role of the Iranian negotiating team and US officials in preparing the JCPOA text, following Ali Vaez’s statement. Tafreshi also confirmed this proposition and believes that the narrative of the former Iranian Foreign Minister had a closer alignment with reality, and Ali Vaez’s statement cannot be accurate.

Revolutionaries and overthrowers in one front

However, Tafreshi believes that Ali Vaez’s statement, which has practically become the spokesperson for Robert Malley in the Biden administration, was based on personal ambition and should not be taken too seriously. But the problem begins when conservative and radical media outlets inside the country, as well as radical opposition tribunes outside the country, in a coordinated move, write that the Americans announced the JCPOA and labeled Javad Zarif as a traitorous diplomat.

According to Tafreshi’s account of the incident, Ali Alizadeh, a leftist media activist known as the axis of resistance, along with Yousef Azizi, who is a conservative media activist and close to Saeed Jalili, have claimed that not only Ali Vaez but also Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American journalist, are spies for the United States government, and this movement has shaped the leadership of Robert Malley in the Iranian negotiating team for the JCPOA.

This prominent Iranian historian believes that the accusations against Javad Zarif by Ali Vaez are pure lies and baseless. He strongly criticized Ali Vaez on June 7, 2023, at the Rome Club House, emphasizing that these statements are not only contrary to reality but also against the national interests of Iran. He further stated that they contradict the role of Iran’s Foreign Minister in important negotiations such as the nuclear talks, which have been ongoing for about 20 years.

In this conversation, Tafreshi describes Youssef Azizi as an ambitious and corrupt person, as well as Ali Alizadeh as an agent of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6. He believes that these two individuals, by putting Ali Vaez in the spotlight on Twitter, have fueled this incident and provided the groundwork for the creation of a black and false scenario, which has been exploited by radical groups inside and outside the country.