‘Interference’ In Nuclear Talks Reportedly Irks Iran Foreign Minister

A foreign ministry ‘source’ reportedly denied Wednesday that the foreign minister had complained to the Supreme Leader over a critic of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Several media outlets, including Fars News, cited an “informed source” in the ministry refuting claims on social media platforms that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had written to Ali Khamenei to complain about interference in the Vienna talks.

This was probably a response to a claim on the Chand Sanieh website Tuesdaythat Amir-Abdollahian had written a letter to complain that Saeed Jalili, the former top security official 2007-13 who led nuclear talks with Europe, was damaging the process underway in Vienna to revive the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

According to Chand Sanieh, an unnamed "revolutionary" social media channel recently claimed that the foreign minister had "seriously complained" to Khamenei, in written form and verbally, about the attacks of the so-called "Jalili Group" on the negotiation team and accused them of "creating hurdles" in the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iranian media had reported a long letter from Jalili, a veteran conservative, to Khamenei expressing opposition to the Vienna talks. While some have suggested Jalili has kept a distance from the negotiators, Ali Bagheri-Kani, the lead negotiation, has been described as a Jalili ally.

Dumping Bagheri

In a commentary asking "Will Jalili Dump Bagheri?," the reformist Shargh daily February 1 claimed Jalili had proposed in the letter that Iran boost uranium enrichment to 90 percent –considered ‘weapons grade’ – as a means to negotiate the lifting of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, with Russia and China meanwhile blocking any moves to restore United Nations sanctions.

Shargh quoted its own "informed source" that Jalili had written his missive after failing to convince Amir-Abdollahian and Bagheri-Kani to leave the Vienna talks.

In a speech Tuesday to Basij militia students, Jalili said he was often in correspondence with Khamenei and had written six months ago to criticize the Hassan Rouhani government's approach to the nuclear talks. He said that making a controversy of his known opposition to the talks "when the enemy has confessed its defeat" amounted to sedition.

The Vienna talks face opposition in the US as well as in Iran. During his first classified debriefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, President Joe Biden's Iran envoy Robert Malley faced questioning from Republicans slamming last week’s decision to reinstate US sanctions waivers ‘allowing’ foreign firms to carry out non-proliferation work on Iran’s nuclear program.

One Republican, Claudia Tenney, said she was left with "more questions than answers" and demanded Malley immediately testify in an open setting on what exactly the US was offering Iran in the Vienna talks. The Biden administration has said it will lift US sanctions incompatible with the JCPOA if Tehran restricts its nuclear program to JCPOA limits, including a 3.67 percent cap on uranium enrichment.