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

What is the story behind the dispute between Zarif and Ali Vaez?

What is the story behind the dispute between Zarif and Ali Vaez? According to Iran Gate, about a year ago, domestic hardline media claimed that a group of American spies were in contact with Zarif and that significant parts of the JCPOA were drafted under their influence. The value-oriented media close to revolutionary hardline factions referred to Ali Vaez, a senior Middle East analyst and a colleague of Rob Malley at the International Crisis Group.

Recent remarks by Mohammad Javad Zarif on Clubhouse have sparked reactions from many observers. Among the most significant of these comments is the disagreement between the former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic and Ali Vaez, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, which Zarif has now revealed. But what was the real story, and what was the dispute between Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ali Vaez about?

Where did the story begin?

After Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2017, many political factions within the country sought someone to blame and point the finger at him and his affiliated faction. During that period, there was no shorter wall than Javad Zarif’s, and the numerous photos of him with Western leaders published in the media were considered the best evidence of his betrayal.

However, after the Biden administration came to power, the situation changed. Hopes for the revival of the JCPOA were rekindled, and many believed that the administration under the Democrats would quickly return to the JCPOA. The appointment of Rob Malley as the Special Envoy for Iran at the U.S. State Department also strengthened these optimisms, as he was one of the main supporters of the nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic during the Obama administration, and many viewed his appointment as a signal from Biden to Tehran to show goodwill in negotiations.

However, as time passed, the deep divide between the positions of Ebrahim Raisi’s nascent government and the seasoned Western diplomats became more apparent than expected. The images from the Vienna and Doha negotiations published in the media were reminiscent of the times when Saeed Jalili was constantly traveling to Almaty and Istanbul, returning home with a load of tough UN Security Council sanctions. Amidst this, media supporting the thirteenth government also turned their artillery towards Javad Zarif and Hassan Rouhani, accusing them of compromising with the West and betraying the country.

In the midst of this, a controversial comment caused Javad Zarif to be demoted from a negligent politician who fell short in securing Iran’s interests to a traitorous minister who succumbed to American officials. Ali Vaez, a longtime colleague of Rob Malley at the International Crisis Group, suddenly shared a comment on his personal Twitter account, which intensified the hardliners’ attacks on the nuclear negotiators of the eleventh and twelfth governments.

Who wrote the JCPOA?

Ali Vaez published a comment on Twitter summarizing that ‘we, the International Crisis Group led by Rob Malley, wrote the JCPOA.’

According to Majid Tafreshi, a historian and prominent professor of history, some Western sources in 2022 revealed that Vaez, in a report to the U.S. State Department, claimed that the set of texts written by the International Crisis Group ultimately became the JCPOA.

However, Tafreshi claims that Zarif directly told him that from 2005 until the day the JCPOA was concluded, various texts were provided to Western officials, including Catherine Ashton, the then High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. According to Tafreshi’s account of Zarif’s statements, there was no news of the International Crisis Group’s involvement in preparing these texts.

Even this history professor in a Clubhouse room held on June 7, 2023, claimed that Ali Vaez, in various meetings held in Zurich, London, and Vienna, approached him and others who did not have news authority to obtain information, and he could not have been as influential in preparing the JCPOA text, let alone that Vaez, guided by Rob Malley, prepared a text from which the JCPOA ultimately emerged in 2014.

Of course, after Ali Vaez’s comment in 2022, Zarif announced on his Twitter account about the direct role of the Iranian negotiating team and American officials in preparing the JCPOA text. Tafreshi also confirmed this statement, believing that the former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s account aligns more with reality, and Ali Vaez’s comment cannot be accurate.

Revolutionaries and Dissidents on the Same Front

However, Tafreshi believes that Ali Vaez’s comment, which practically turned him into Rob Malley’s spokesperson in the Biden administration, might have been out of personal ambition and should not be taken too seriously. But the problem starts when conservative and hardline domestic media, along with radical dissident platforms abroad, in a coordinated action, declared the JCPOA as written by Americans and referred to Javad Zarif as a traitorous diplomat.

According to Tafreshi’s account of this story, Ali Alizadeh, a leftist media activist known for his resistance axis, along with Yousef Azizi, a conservative media activist close to Saeed Jalili, also claimed that not only Ali Vaez but also Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American journalist, are spies for the U.S. government, and this faction, guided by Robert Malley, imposed the JCPOA on the Iranian negotiating team.

This prominent Iranian historian believes that the accusations against Javad Zarif by Vaez are pure falsehood and baseless. In the same Clubhouse room on June 7, 2023, he strongly criticized Ali Vaez, emphasizing that such statements are not only contrary to reality but also against Iran’s national interests and undermine the dignity of Iran’s Foreign Minister in important negotiations like the nuclear talks that have lasted about 20 years.

In this conversation, Tafreshi describes Yousef Azizi as an ambitious and corrupt individual and Ali Alizadeh as an agent of the British MI6 foreign intelligence service. He believes these two individuals, by addressing Ali Vaez on Twitter, fueled the fire of this story and laid the groundwork for the formation of a dark and false scenario that was exploited by radical factions inside and outside the country.