Analysis by PMOI/MEK
March 9, 2019 – Following the impasse in the Iranian regime’s Expediency Discernment Council over approving the required bills to join the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the regime published footage of an eight-month old speech by Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei titled “Don’t waste your time with Europe.”
And while the faction of regime president Hassan Rouhani tries to ignore the statements altogether, officials close to Khamenei who previously felt depressed in the face of a possible approving of the bills for the regime’s “expediency” have become emboldened.
Fararu website, close to Rouhani’s faction, quoted Iranian MP Hossein Ali Haji Delijani saying that a group of MPs have raised the issue of leaving the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and want to put it to a referendum.
“Considering the various proposals raised by members of the parliament about this issue, we’re in the process of summarizing them to present a complete proposal,” Haji Delijani said.
Khamenei’s media outlets and apparatchiks exploited the Supreme Leader’s statements to snipe at opponents and blame the so-called reformists for the JCPOA dead-end and the failure to negotiate a compensation with Europe.
Ali Khamenei’s Keyhan newspaper, while trying to exonerate Khamenei, painted Rouhani as the culprit of the Iranian regime’s current situation and wrote: “In recent years, Khamenei has repeatedly reiterated the need to avoid linking the country’s economy with foreign policy, but unfortunately, Rouhani’s government has not worked in this regard in an acceptable way. Right now, senior officials have linked the people’s livelihood to FATF and claim that in order to lift economic difficulties, FATF must be approved.
“Now, the government and foreign ministry must say what they’ve done during this eight-month period since Khamenei’s accurate prediction and warning? Why have they accepted Europe’s cheating in compensating [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s exit from the JCPOA?” the newspaper further asked.
Alef, the news website of Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the Expediency Council and a close Khamenei ally, writes: “Eight months after that meeting [referring to Khamenei’s speech in that meeting], it begs the question that to what extent has the Rouhani government paid attention to the orders and statements of Khamenei and implemented them?”
“The situation has reached a point where you can hardly believe that there is a supervising and policymaking government that seeks to solve problems. It seems like the society and economy is left loose and you should not expect anything from the government,” the website further writes.
Siasat-e Rooz newspaper attacks Rouhani’s faction and writes: “You can’t believe in the principle of the Velayat-e Faqih [the founding tenet of the Islamic Republic where the Supreme Leader has the final say in all things political, cultural, and economic] and listen and implement his [the Supreme Leader’s] statements selectively.”
Fact is that Khamenei release his eight-month old remarks because his entire regime faces a dead-end in terms of the JCPOA, Europe’s promised financial mechanism (INSTEX), and the FATF bills.
In order to blame his opponents for the miserable outcome, the Supreme Leader is amplifying his previous warnings.
But it was Khamenei himself who approved the nuclear deal negotiations in the first place, back when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still the regime’s president.
“A dignitary from the region came to use as a mediator… and we accepted to try this issue one more time and the negotiations started,” Khamenei’s website wrote in 2016.
