27/04/2021 In Iran, foreign minister says army has caused diplomatic damage

INTERNATIONAL • IRAN

In Iran, foreign minister says army has caused diplomatic

damage
Conservatives are trying to use leaks from an interview with the foreign minister ahead of the
presidential election scheduled for June 18.

By Ghazal Golshiri ()

Posted today at 11:19 a.m. • 5 min read

Article reserved for subscribers

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif upon arrival at Baghdad airport on April
26. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP

A few weeks before the Iranian presidential election, the internal struggle within political factions has
reached a new height. On Sunday April 25, a three-hour interview between an Iranian journalist and
the Minister of Foreign A airs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, leaked to foreign media in Iranian language.
In this recording, the head of diplomacy dares to break red lines, attacking in particular one of
Tehran's great allies, Moscow, as well as the Revolutionary Guards, the country's ideological army.

On several occasions, Mr. Zarif criticized the Force Al-Quds, the branch of the guards in charge of
extraterritorial operations, accusing his ex-commander Ghassem Soleimani of having harmed the
political e orts of his ministry, in particular during and a er the signing in 2015 of agreement on
Tehran's nuclear issue with world powers. His remarks have already raised an outcry in the
conservative camp, which calls for his departure from the government and even his arrest.

Read also the editorial: The worrying drift of Iran

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27/04/2021 In Iran, foreign minister says army has caused diplomatic damage

"I can say, boldly, that I have helped the military eld by using diplomacy more than the military eld
has served diplomacy" , affirms Mr. Zarif in this interview. Recorded on February 24 as part of an "oral
history" program documenting the experiences of officials in the administration of President Hassan
Rouhani, this interview was not intended to be broadcast quickly to the public. The origin of this leak
as well as its reasons remain uncertain for the time being.

In another passage of this interview, Mr. Zarif explains that Ghassem Soleimani, killed in an
American drone strike in Iraq in January 2020 and who is now a martyr in Tehran, dictated to him
what he should do in his negotiations with foreign authorities. "Almost every time I had to negotiate
talks, Martyr Soleimani demanded: 'I want you to get this advantage, this point, "  " Zarif explained.

Severely restricted role

By making these remarks, Mr. Zarif con rms what many have suspected for a long time: that his role
as representative of the Islamic Republic on the international scene is severely restricted. The
decisions, he explains, are dictated by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, but also by the corps of the
guardians of the revolution.

The leaked recording comes at a critical time for Iran, as its diplomats resumed talks in Vienna on
Tuesday to nd a way for Tehran and Washington to both comply with the nuclear deal. Since the
unilateral exit of former US President Donald Trump from the agreement in 2018, Iran has also
withdrawn from a signi cant number of its commitments made under the "deal", signi cantly
accelerating enrichment. uranium.

Read also | "Forty-two years of radical hostility have widened an abyss of mistrust between
Iran and the United States"

The Iranian foreign minister also expresses his dissatisfaction with the fact that General Soleimani
authorized Russian ghter jets to y over Iran to bomb Syria, in order to come to the aid of President
Bashar Al-Assad, and that 'he used the national airline Iran Air, unbeknownst to the government, to
move military equipment and personnel to Syria. However, in other passages, Mr. Zarif praises
General Soleimani and explains that they worked together “productively” during the US invasion of
Afghanistan and Iraq.

Russia, another signatory to the nuclear agreement and Iran's strategic partner, is also singled out by
Mr. Zarif for having sought to sabotage the agreement by creating "obstacles" so that it does not
succeed. not. “Look at the photo a er signing the agreement. The Russian Foreign Minister [Sergey
Lavrov] is not there, ”he slips into this recording. Aware of the sensitive nature of his remarks, on
several occasions, the Iranian foreign minister asks the interviewer, economist and supporter of
President Rouhani, Saïd Leylaz, not to broadcast certain passages.

Read also the interview with Mohammad Javad Zarif: "To allow the United States to permanently
destroy the Iranian nuclear agreement would be to return to the law of the jungle"

A few hours a er the publication of these large extracts, the spokesperson for the Iranian foreign
ministry, Said Khatibzadeh, did not question their authenticity. Speaking to reporters, he said the
recording was only part of a seven-hour interview with Mr Zarif, which was supposed to be archived
by a think tank associated with the Iranian presidency.

Dissuade the people from voting

the conservative camp, reproaching their "naivety" to President Rouhani and his head of diplomacy
vis-à-vis the West in the nuclear negotiations, has since multiplied its criticisms. The Fars site , close
to the Revolutionary Guards, welcomed the fact that "Zarif's aberrant positions, far from the axes
engaged by [their] revolution", have become "even clearer" with this leak. According to Fars, the
authors of the leak seek above all to make believe that in Iran "the president has no role", trying to
dissuade the people from voting in the presidential election on June 18. The last legislative elections,
held in February 2020, were marked by a record abstention of 57.5%.

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/04/27/en-iran-selon-le-ministre-des-affaires-etrangeres-l-armee-a-cause-des-dommages-diplom… 2/3
27/04/2021 In Iran, foreign minister says army has caused diplomatic damage

Read also | By announcing the enrichment to 60% of its uranium, Iran hardens its
diplomatic standoff

For now, many former Revolutionary Guards, including ex-commander Mohsen Rezaï, former
defense minister Hossein Dehghan and ex-oil minister Rostam Ghasemi, have indicated their
intention to enter into contention. Among the reformers, completely sidelined by the increasingly
strong domination of the conservatives, Mostafa Tajzadeh, the former deputy minister in charge of
political a airs under President Mohammad Khatami, has announced that he will be a candidate. He
is unlikely to receive the approval of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, which examines
the candidates.

Many reformers are pushing for a candidacy from the head of diplomacy. But, according to analyst
and political advisor Amir Mohebbian, in Tehran, "the leak of the recording of his interview has a
de nitive consequence: Mr. Zarif will not be a presidential candidate." He adds: “Some reformers could
now support Ali Larijani's candidacy, which increases the latter's chances. "

Read also | “Between Ali Khamenei and Joe Biden, who will take the first step towards
appeasement? "

This former head of Parliament, from 2009 to 2020, has always supported President Rouhani's
diplomacy and the nuclear deal, while maintaining close relations with the Supreme Guide. He was
recently Ali Khamenei's representative in the negotiations with China , which culminated in the
signing, in March, of the twenty- ve-year cooperation agreement between the two countries. Even if
Ali Larijani is less progressive on freedoms issues than reformers like Mr. Tajzadeh, the support of
reformers and moderates may rally in his favor some voters in order to prevent the stranglehold of
the ultraconservatives on the presidency, while the judiciary and Parliament are already theirs.

Ghazal Golshiri ()

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