Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, Aug 23, 2018 – Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei gave a speech on August 10 that was quoted in Iran’s media in different versions. In parts of his speech, Khamenei made remarks about negotiating with US and JCPOA that some state-run media initially published but later censored when the national television aired the full remarks. His office and affiliated websites also redacted the controversial parts of Khamenei’s speech.
In the initial coverage of the speech, websites quoted Khamenei as saying: “I made a mistake in the matter of the negotiations and in response to the gentlemen’s persistence I allowed this experience and indeed they crossed drawn red lines.”
Later, national television aired the remarks quoting Khamenei as follows: “Why should we negotiate? JCPOA is a clear example of this. And indeed, all the red lines that we drew were not respected. The other party behaved like this, acted like this…”
The clear censorship created a lot of controversy among both Iranians and the Iranian regime’s forces. Khamenei’s office was compelled to issue a statement saying that the matter “had created controversies in the cyberspace” and “caused questions for some people.” The statement continued to clear the matter by publishing the correct sentence in Khamenei’s remarks as saying: “In the matter of JCPOA, I made a mistake to allow our foreign minister to talk to them [and] we made a loss.”
But this statement is also different from what Iranian media initially published. It is also not what the national television aired. In the end, it’s not clear what the Iranian Supreme Leader has really said, and his office’s statement only adds to the charlatanism and deception of the matter.
But there are a few takeaways!
Even Khamenei’s remarks are heavily edited and altered before made public. This could indicate the precarious situation the Iranian regime is in.
It is important to note that a confession to mistake by “Imam Khamenei” in these times is a big mistake itself. For the Iranian regime’s low IQ base, it is vital to see Khamenei as the innocent Imam who doesn’t make mistakes.
Ahmad Alamolhoda, Khamenei’s representative in Mashhad and the city’s Friday prayer Imam, tried to cover and clear the matter and said in last week’s Friday prayers: “When the Supreme Leader says clearly that this much that we advanced and allowed was a mistake and then says that they didn’t respect my red lines. If they had respected my red lines, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble. Well, you didn’t respect the Supreme Leader’s red lines and we took the hit.”
It is evident that Alamolhoda is trying to cover up for Khamenei and pretend that the Supreme Leader has been able to contain damages until now. In other parts of his remarks, Alamolhoda tries to make a scapegoat out of Hassan Rouhani for the Supreme Leader saying: “The president confessed that if not for your constraints [referring to Khamenei’s constraints for the negotiations] we would have made more concessions.”
It is noteworthy that during the negotiations, Hassan Rouhani and some of the negotiations team, including Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, repeatedly said that the talks were under the supervision of the Supreme Leader. Khamenei himself, during the talks and after signing the JCPOA, repeatedly praised the negotiations team as trustworthy.
But now that the JCPOA turned to be a noose around the regime’s neck instead of the Holy Grail it was meant to be, Khamenei tries as usual tries to accuse the government and president to keep the holy and innocent aura that he needs in front of his followers.
If the negotiation team wasn’t respecting the Supreme Leader’s red lines, why didn’t he point that out back then, while they repeatedly told that the whole process was under his supervision?
