Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, Aug. 8, 2019 – Following U.S. sanctions against Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian regime’s foreign minister, regime president Hassan Rouhani visited Zarif’s office on Tuesday, August 6, where he tried to console Zarif while hypothetically inviting themselves to negotiate with the U.S.
“So they [U.S.] came and proposed unconditioned negotiations, later they sanctioned the supreme leader, so how could we negotiate! You [U.S.] know our constitution, based on which the Supreme Leader (Ali Khamenei) is the highest authority in this country that supervises our international relations. In addition, you called for unconditioned negotiations, then you sanctioned our foreign minister, how could we negotiate! We have said repeatedly that we seek negotiations and we underline it once more, and if the U.S. is after negotiations, it has to waive all the sanctions. Whether it's within the framework of the nuclear deal or out of it, it’s the U.S. choice.” Rouhani said.
While threatening the international community to further state piracy in the Strait of Hormuz, Rouhani said, “If you are seeking security in the region, if your soldiers want security you have to take our security in consideration. You can't compromise our security and expect security in return.”
“Peace for peace, oil for oil; you can’t prevent us from selling oil and let other countries in the Middle East do so. You understood well that we are powerful and we keep our word, and what you are doing is wrong. You experienced our power in downing your drone with our missile, made by the Ministry of Defense and shot by the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),” Rouhani added.
Following series of domestic visits of their sanctioned foreign minister, Qasem Soleimani, commander of the terrorist IRGC Quds Force, visited Zarif on Tuesday morning trying to console him by congratulating his sanctioning by the U.S.!
“I congratulate you [Zarif] for being sanctioned because of your close ties with the Supreme Leader,” Soleimani said, as reported Quds-owned Tasnim news agency.
Yet, Hossain Shariatmadari, the Supreme Leader’s representative in the state-run Keyhan newspaper, blasted Zarif and Rouhani following their press conference on Tuesday, and wrote, “Rouhani and Zarif should be held accountable for wasting state’s facilities and potentials during years of nuclear negotiations.”
In answer to a question by Keyhan reporter that, "How could you trust the U.S. during the nuclear negotiations?" Zarif said, “If we had truly trusted the U.S. the deal would have been written in two sheets of paper, yet it has 150 pages.”
In return, Shariatmadari wrote, “Zarif’s excuse only disfigures the truth. It should be said that all of those points you gave to our opponents wouldn’t fit into two pages! If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was two pages long, anyone would understand with one glimpse of how easily we were deceived. So, the U.S. cunningly hid this between 150 pages.”
