Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 5, 2018 – Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday rejected any dialogue with the U.S., saying the regime has “no other choice than to resist.”
“At this special juncture, our option is to persevere. Our option is to resist. I will frankly say that if there was any option other than to resist, I would have mentioned it. But today, we have no other option than to resist, Rouhani said speaking to a group of regime-backed university professors. “The other side who has disrupted the negotiating table, the side who has defaulted on its agreement, must return to the normal circumstance. For as long as this doesn’t happen, our only option is to resist.”
The mullahs’ president discussed once more the difficult situation the clerical regime engulfed in.
“Our country is today in a very peculiar situation. The Americans themselves claim that there has never been such an extreme pressure exerted on the [regime] of Iran. They have time and again acknowledged this. We are also witnessing the very tough situation, unlike anytime before, that they have created for us,” he added.
Whether to negotiate with the U.S. or not has become a major issue in the domestic politics of the regime in Iran. The subject is vitally important for the mullahs in Tehran, not only due to the fact that its crumbling economy threatens to ignite an already explosive mood among the population, but also because a decision on the perspective of future talks with the current U.S. administration will also set the path for other Iranian policies.
Generally, there are two paths before the ruling mullahs in Iran. To sit at a table with the U.S., and as the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei puts it, accept the humiliation and consequently die a slow and silent death of disintegration, or confronting the Iranian people and the international community as a whole.
The meeting between Iranian regime Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein during his recent visit to New York made the headlines in Iran last Friday. While Iranian authorities stayed silent on the subject, for the most part, the regime’s rank and file could not help but feast on the controversy.
Tabnak, the website affiliated to former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) chief Mohsen Rezaie, now Secretary of the regime’s Expediency Discernment Council, published an article titled, “Zarif is traveling around the world to decrease U.S. pressure while some representatives inside the country are obstructing!” The article approved Zarif’s meeting with the U.S. Senator.
The article quoted Zia-Allah Azazi, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), opposing Zarif’s meeting.
“It appears that some government officials are not heeding to the Supreme Leader’s orders and are implementing other measures. Our Foreign Minister negotiating with a U.S. Senator is a clear violation of his [the Supreme Leader’s] orders,” he said.
Some of the attacks against the camp close to Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani in the Majlis do not clearly mention Zarif’s recent meeting.
“Honorable Mr. President Hassan Rouhani, if you believe you are on the forefront of an economic war, then you have to accept the necessities of an economic war. In war, setting your heart on an enemy who has repeatedly violated its commitments is wrong. Be careful that the Europeans don’t steal the opportunity from you by promising INSTEX and delaying it. All the while, the Americans sing the song of ignorance and sleep for you by giving telephone numbers or soft speeches and a green light for negotiations or [the promise] of a softening of the situation by a change of Republicans with Democrats,” the piece reads in part.
State-run media outlets also attempted to bring Khamenei’s position into the equation against Zarif’s meetings.
Vatan Emrouz, a newspaper close to Khamenei’s camp, published an article titled, “It’s enough Mr. Zarif.”
“Zarif’s meeting with this Democrat Senator took place while yesterday, in a meeting with government officials, the Supreme Leader called negotiations with the U.S. in general as poison, and negotiations with the current U.S. administration as double poison,” the article reads. “These gentlemen want to continue the same path which its evil end has been revealed after spending six years of the nation’s time and treasure.”
The Keyhan daily, known as Khamenei’s mouthpiece, attacked Zarif
“On the eve of war, what crazy person negotiates about his weapons?” the piece reads. “However, news reports indicate they don’t just say we should negotiate. They have practically started the preludes of negotiations, but away from the eyes of the media and at a lower level,” Keyhan wrote.
“The President of Switzerland, responsible for U.S. interests in Iran meets U.S. officials; Japan officially invites Zarif for a visit; the Foreign Minister of Oman pays an unannounced visit to Tehran. What is common in these three countries when it comes to Iran? Mediation! For what? Negotiations! And all of a sudden there is news that our country’s foreign minister has met a representative of the U.S. Senate! And she was commissioned by the U.S. State Department to meet Zarif!” Keyhan continues.
On the other hand, the state-run website Bahar, close to former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s faction, launched its own verbal attack.
“… the movements which have described negotiation, engagement, and agreement with other countries as surrender” and implicitly says that the only escape route left for the Islamic Republic is to negotiate and come to an agreement with the international community.
