Zarif Enters
At 14:30 on Tuesday, June 19, 2024, a foreign policy roundtable was held with the presence of Masoud Pezeshkian, a presidential candidate, and two of his advisors. To Pezeshkian’s right sat Mohammad Javad Zarif, and to his left was Mehdi Sanaei, the former Iranian ambassador to Moscow.
Given Zarif’s announced presence in this program and the inclusion of a university professor close to Saeed Jalili among the experts, it was anticipated that important and heated discussions might arise. However, the composition of the roundtable’s experts was arranged fairly.
In the foreign policy program for all candidates, Seyed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, an experienced diplomat, friend, and advisor to Zarif, Ebrahim Motaghi, a professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, and Fouad Izadi, a professor at the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, are present as experts.
Sajjadpour represents moderation, Motaghi has different stances with an unspecified ideological spectrum, and Izadi is at the radical end known as revolutionary.
Predictions were that a potential clash between Zarif and Izadi might occur, with the biggest criticisms and fallacies expected to come from Izadi.
Rouhani and his two administrations were also brought up, but in the last few minutes of the program when Zarif expressed his views, he did not address this expert and merely focused on responding.
Zarif’s mastery over foreign policy issues, the discourse of the Islamic Revolution, and emphasizing those parts of the truth that have not been expressed by hardliners over the years were among the topics that attracted users’ attention on social media.
Hesamodin Ashna, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, wrote about Zarif’s television appearance: ‘8 years were reviewed in 8 minutes, 11 years went up in smoke in 8 minutes.’
According to some media interpretations, his reference was to the 8 years of Rouhani’s administration, 11 years of the shadow government under Saeed Jalili, and Zarif’s 8-minute talk in the foreign policy program.
Back and Forth with Pezeshkian
Fouad Izadi said in the previous session you were asked whether your government would be Rouhani’s third term, and today we see you attending the program with Rouhani’s minister and the ambassador of that period, hence the notion that your government could be Rouhani’s third term is not far-fetched. The issue of sanctions was prominent in your remarks. Do you know that sanctions increased after the JCPOA, and the CAATSA sanctions, which are the most severe, were enacted after the JCPOA?
During the JCPOA negotiations, some individuals warned that trusting America was not wise, and adopting the program at the United Nations would obligate America to remain in the outcome. However, at the same time, Trump announced he would exit the JCPOA, and there was a possibility of Trump’s presidency. Mr. Rouhani declared in May 2013 at Sharif University of Technology that America is the ‘headman,’ and it’s easier to reach an agreement with the ‘headman,’ which was Rouhani’s main project. If your government is different from Rouhani’s, how will it differ in this area?
Pezeshkian stated the necessity of lifting sanctions, saying, ‘It’s very simple. Do we want to fight or solve the problem? If we want to fight, then nothing. If we want to solve it, experts must help. If we fight, we will make people more miserable day by day.’
If we solve the sanctions, we will make people’s lives easier. The problem is how the country’s politicians want to solve issues. If we remain under sanctions, we will make people miserable and will not grow. We should not give in.
Zarif’s Entry
Zarif’s remarks had two parts. In the first part, the former foreign minister of our country said that the Islamic Republic’s policy is presented by the leadership as general guidelines based on the constitution, and the three principles of dignity, wisdom, and expediency guide foreign policy and form its framework.
In this foreign policy, it is very, very important who is sitting on Pasteur Street and in the president’s house. It is the president who formulates the policies and presents them for approval to the Supreme National Security Council and the leadership.
It is the president who implements the policies, and someone with a clear vision who believes in using specialists and experts can have a role in the country’s future.
In this section, Zarif responded to the insinuations about the JCPOA being bad, humiliating diplomacy, CAATSA sanctions, power elements, increased oil sales statistics, and other points raised by Izadi and Motaghi.
Zarif stated about the elements of power that what has given Iran power is the moral power, which is the saying of Ayatollah Khomeini, meaning the victory of blood over the sword, and the moral power implemented resistance. Power in Iran was created in 1982 in the middle of the war, in the resistance of Lebanon and Palestine with the message of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and rejecting force.
He continued, ‘Because of this moral power, Israel, which used to win any war in a month, today, after 8 months, has not been able to stand against a group, and the myth of Israel’s victory has been shattered. We have stood by resistance, and we will not lose this moral power of the revolution.’
Zarif, reacting to Izadi’s remarks, the program expert, and the statements of known and unknown users related to Jalili’s ideological stream, said, ‘Sanctions are not counted by numbers, and this is a fallacy. They say 800 sanctions during Ahmadinejad’s era were increased to 1,500 by Zarif. Two sanctions were imposed on me personally.’
These sanctions are related to individuals, institutions, and companies, but ask when Iran’s banking system, oil, petrochemicals, and shipping were sanctioned.
The former foreign minister of our country said about the claim of new sanctions imposed after the JCPOA: ‘CAATSA did not have any new sanctions. The CAATSA law has no new sanctions because the JCPOA did not allow new sanctions to be imposed by America.’
It consolidated previous sanctions. Our people saw that in 2016 and 2017, we had consecutive years of single-digit inflation and double-digit growth.
This former diplomat of our country, in response to one of the questioners, said, ‘I can also say that at that time, they said that America saying it would exit the JCPOA was a show because the JCPOA was in America’s favor, so let’s not use these discussions.’
Zarif continued, ‘Iran was the only country that could use the snapback mechanism, and in the same Rouhani administration that you are upset with, we were able to condemn America three times at the United Nations Security Council and increase Iran’s IR-4 centrifuges to IR-9 and enrichment from 20% to 60%.’
In response to the question of why Biden did not return to the JCPOA, he replied, ‘Biden intended to return to the JCPOA but did not for two reasons: first, Israel did not allow it, and then Mr. Fakhrizadeh was assassinated, and another factor was the strategic law passed by the parliament. Let’s not say what happened in those 6 bitter months.’
Zarif stated, ‘In those 6 bitter months, we could have revived the JCPOA multiple times and not suffered from this misery for 3 years.’
If the number of sanctions during Mr. Rouhani’s administration with Trump went from 1,000 to 1,500, during Raisi’s administration, it went from 1,500 to 2,570, meaning in 8 years, 500 sanctions were added, and in 3 years, 1,000 sanctions were added. If we want to deceive people with numbers, let’s do it properly.
He continued by showing charts related to inflation rates, ‘People, see what happened during the sanctions, see where they took your inflation, see where they took your economic growth and oil sales. They said we taught them how to sell oil. No, when Mr. Biden came, the policy was to loosen the screws.’
Let Mr. Trump return, and then let’s see what friends will do.
Unlike previous debates and other candidates, a closed view of the charts used by Zarif was not shown. Zarif posted the charts on Twitter on the X network hours after the program ended.
Our former foreign minister said, ‘It is important who is sitting in Pasteur, and it is important to see if we can improve your life with this situation.’
He reminded that we have three governments in the past. Mr. Hojjatoleslam Khatami acted under the leadership’s orders and made Iran proud.
The miracle of the third millennium, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also thought he was acting under the leadership’s orders, but achieved nothing but sanctions with the respected Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who is now a presidential candidate.
Rouhani’s government was also able to make the country proud. According to the whole world and Trump himself, the JCPOA was the biggest trick played on America. Unfortunately, you also said the JCPOA was the biggest trick played on Iran.
Our former foreign minister emphasized, ‘If the JCPOA was bad, why did Trump exit it? If you say Trump’s exit from the JCPOA was bad, didn’t Trump exit the climate agreement? Didn’t Trump exit the intermediate-range missile agreement? Were those also poorly negotiated by the former Soviet Union? Why do we attribute the colonizer’s mistake to the fighters against colonialism?’
Zarif said, ‘Let us not forget that just as our weapons are important, so are the people. Let’s not belittle the people.’
