Iran's Chief Negotiator Criticizes Opponents With Rare Realism
Behrouz Turani
Iran International
Iran's nuclear negotiators since 2003 have oscillated between ruthless fundamentalism, ultraconservative idealism, and moderate conservative pragmatism.
Iran International
Iran's nuclear negotiators since 2003 have oscillated between ruthless fundamentalism, ultraconservative idealism, and moderate conservative pragmatism.
The hardline ruthless fundamentalism has consistently simmered beneath the surface, irrespective of the government in charge of foreign policy, whether ultraconservative like the Ahmadinejad and Raisi administrations or more pragmatic like former President Hassan Rouhani, former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani, and former Nuclear Chief who, at times, guided Tehran's nuclear policy.
Until recently, Iran's current Chief Nuclear Negotiator, Al Bagheri-Kani, a protégé of former hardliner chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, was believed to oppose any rapprochement with the United States and the West over the nuclear issue. His behavior, including avoiding the press, reinforced this perception.
When for the first time Bagheri defended the negotiations with the West as a means of securing “national interests" in early September, many of the same observers did not believe him. Pundits in Iran had been constantly criticizing the government for appointing Bagheri as the man in charge of the nuclear talks and linked him to Jalili whose sinister remarks about the negotiations have continued here and there although officially, he has nothing to do with the matter. Many Iranian politicians and military commanders often pass naïve and sometimes funny judgement on the nuclear case and Jalili is no exception.
Bagheri, however, has been mysteriously silent about his mission since 2021. His early September comments in which he levelled criticism at opponents of negotiations, accusing them of stripping the regime of a vital and crucial “instrument for securing national interests,” came at a time when Iranian moderate politicians and foreign policy analysts began to call for a milder approach in the nuclear issue, insisting that an agreement with the United States could help Tehran to improve its problematic economic situation.
This shift in Bagheri's stance was seen as "a new Bagheri-Kani" by Khabar-Online website in Tehran, which praised him for criticizing hardliners who portrayed negotiations as an anti-revolutionary trend while disguising their opposition to the negotiations as defending revolutionary values.
The website praised Bagheri as a man who has tried many ways to resolve the dispute with the West over Iran's nuclear program.
Khabar Online's in a new article on September 24 made another attempt to portray Bagheri as a new moderate voice among an army of hardliners. The headline of the report is self-explanatory: "Ali Bagheri encircled by those who wish to benefit from sanctions." The report characterized Bagheri's new approach as "realistic and unprecedented" and asked whether Raisi can put an end to the negotiation-resistance bipolar.
However, Khabar Online reminded that two weeks after Bagheri voiced his new idea about how to further the nuclear talks, President Ebrahim Raisi had not yet reacted to the hardliner advocating sanctions as a blessing for Iran. Khabar Online further assessed Bagheri's idea as an honest attempt to secure Iran's national interests regardless of his political affiliation.
While hardliners in Iran and the United States have been calling for tougher stances in recent weeks, and there were indications that Washington was softening at least part of its view toward Tehran by facilitating Iran's access to some of its frozen assets, there is still no tangible indication of further rapprochement.
Although Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has been optimistic about Oman's attempt to restart indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States, there has been no news from Washington or Muscat on that matter. In Washington, it takes some time for the administration to show any inclination toward an agreement with Tehran after facing opposition to its attempts to appease Iran.
Al-Ansari stressed Doha's openness to hosting any direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran on the Iranian nuclear file, in the next few weeks.
He elaborated that “After the recent agreement between the two countries, which was concluded with Qatari mediation (the release of American prisoners and the lifting of the freeze on Iranian funds in South Korea), international interest in the Iranian file increased, and the possibility of reaching new understandings about it that would ease tension in the region."
Western and Iranian media have been reporting secret indirect talks in recent months that aim to de-escalate tensions, with Iran slowing down its nuclear program in return for financial rewards by Washington, including lax sanctions enforcement.
Qatar is among the nations to step forward and offer to be the intermediary in talks to revive the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, including Oman and according to Iran, also Japan.
However, the US has denied the claims, even suggesting that Iran is far from ready to come to the diplomatic table. During Tuesday's State Department press briefing, spokesman Matthew Miller said Iran must take de-escalatory steps if it wants to reduce tensions and create a space for diplomacy.
“We have not yet seen indications, despite some of these public comments, that Iran is serious about addressing the concerns that we have, the concerns that other countries have about its nuclear program,” Miller told reporters.
Referring to the decision this month to ban one third of the Atomic Energy Agency Inspectors from Iran, Miller said the regime is only undermining the IAEA’s ability to do its work.
“If Iran really is serious about taking de-escalatory steps, the first thing it could do would be to cooperate with the IAEA. We have not seen them fully do that,” he said.
On the topic of direct talks, Miller remained tight-lipped, saying that while the US is open to diplomacy, he was unwilling to talk about how that would transpire. It would first of all, be conditional on Iran’s taking de-escalatory steps such as allowing all necessary access to the IAEA’s team.
“I could give you a long list of things we would like Iran to take in terms of changed behavior, but I’m speaking specifically with respect to the nuclear program right now,” he said on Tuesday in Washington.
Iran's foreign ministry Tuesday dismissed reports suggesting direct negotiations with the United States over sanctions relief have been given the green light by the Supreme Leader.
A website in the UK had earlier claimed that Iran was planning to engage in direct talks with the US in Oman concerning its nuclear program, given the go-ahead by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
The Qatari foreign minister’s statement is questionable at best, not backed up by anything substantial from either the US or even Iran, which is always only too happy to portray itself as the pillar of diplomacy, as was seen most recently at the UN where President Ebrahim Raisi even denied the country’s nuclear ambitions in spite of plentiful evidence otherwise.
It perhaps suggests the nation which is now managing Iran’s $6bn freed up from South Korea as a result of a prisoner swap deal this month which saw five wrongfully imprisoned American-Iranians exchanged for five regime agents, is once again trying to position itself as the region’s ‘peacemaker’.
Qatar has a history of engaging with terror groups in the name of diplomacy, hosting both the Taliban and Hamas, while claiming to be acting as mediator. During the four-year blockade of Qatar by the Persian Gulf states, Qatar grew closer to Iran, and the two nations share the world’s largest gas field. During the recent World Cup 2022, dissidents were harassed in Qatar by regime agents openly operating on Qatari soil.
Meanwhile, as the expiration of the United Nations’ sanctions on Iran approaches next month, a bipartisan group of senators have written a joint letter asking the governments of the UK, France and Germany, known as the E3, to prevent the sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile program’s expiration.
The letter, addressed to the ambassadors of the three nations, signed by 31 lawmakers including members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, thanked them for deciding to maintain their own sanctions beyond the deal’s expiry in October, but calling on them to help prevent the collapse of the sanctions.
The report, published in two versions simultaneously by Iran International and Semafor on Tuesday, depicts a close yet lopsided relationship between the Islamic Republic and three associates of Robert Malley, Biden’s special envoy on Iran, who’s been suspended and is under investigation by the FBI for his handling of classified documents.
Within hours of the report’s publication, several prominent members of the Congress had weighed in on the subject.
Ted Cruz, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the revelations ‘indescribably troubling’ and asked for a “halt in secret Iran negotiations.”
“Americans have rightly been asking why the current administration is so friendly with the Iranian regime,” he said in a press release, “and why Biden administration officials have so single-mindedly enabled Iranian nuclear progress and terrorism. These reports and emails suggest a vast Iranian influence operation that goes to the very top of the administration.”
Jim Banks, the Republican congressman whose Iran-related MAHSA Act passed the House earlier this month, reposted the report on X: “When Republicans warned that the Biden admin’s desperate attempt to revive Obama’s failed nuclear deal was a gift for the Iranian regime we weren’t exaggerating…”
A series of emails by Iranian diplomats cited in the report reveal close cooperation and coordination between IR Foreign Ministry officials and individuals of Iranian origin who seem more than willing to be the regime’s eyes, ears and mouth on the international stage.
Senator Lindsey Graham also expressed his concern. "If the allegations in this story are remotely accurate, it would be stunning on so many levels."
Republican Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X, "Senior officials in both the Biden and Obama administrations were likely party to an Iranian-backed PR campaign."
“As an Iranian, based on my national and patriotic duty, I have not hesitated to help you in any way,” reads an email from Ali Vaez of the Crisis Group to Javad Zarif, the then Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, “from proposing to Your Excellency a public campaign against the notion of breakout, to assisting your team in preparing reports on practical needs of Iran.”
Vaez challenged on Tuesday the evidence that Iran’s Foreign Ministry oversaw the initiative.
“The Iranian correspondence on the IEI is a one-sided and self-congratulatory load of nonsense,” he said in a long thread on X, formerly called Twitter. He added that he shared a draft of one of his opinion pieces with Iranian officials before publication, as a courtesy. He also said Tehran had accused him of being too harsh to their position.
Another ‘expert’, Ariane Tabatabaei, reports on two invitations from Israel and Saudi Arabia and seeks advice from IR Foreign Ministry officials whether she should accept those.
Tabatabaei was another close associate of Malley, who served on his Iran nuclear negotiating team in 2021. She is currently the chief of staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, a position that requires a US government security clearance.
Sen. Cruz referred to Tabatabai without mentioning her name, calling for those linked to these emails to “have their security clearances pulled until these allegations are fully resolved and accountability is imposed.”
Perhaps more worrying for Tabatabaei, the chairmen of the House Armed Services Committee and House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, jointly wrote Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asking for her security clearance to be reviewed.
“Was the Department aware of Ms. Tabatabai’s participation in Iranian government-sponsored influence networks, such as the Iran Experts Initiative?” Reps. Mike Rogers and Jack Bergman asked. They gave the Pentagon one week to answer this and six other questions.
Another question reads: “Are you aware of any instances of Ms. Tabatabai communicating with the Iranian regime, either in her official capacity or unofficially? Are you aware of any communications Ms. Tabatabai had with the Iranian regime prior to her employment?”
As a high-ranking official in the Pentagon, Tabatabai’s case seems to be the most serious of all names mentioned in the exposé. The letter to the Defense Secretary all but guarantees more headache for the Biden administration –already under pressure to provide clarity on Robert Mally’s suspension.
President Biden’s Iran policy has been heavily criticized in recent months, especially after he agreed to unblock $6 billion of Iran’s frozen oil revenues to bring back five Iranian-Americans held hostage by the Islamic Republic.
Many have berated his administration’s approach towards the regime in Iran, which now seems more emboldened than ever.
The revelations seem to have shed some light on the hows and whys of the decision-making in the Biden’s administration. The whole saga is “unbelievable. And yet, totally believable,” as Ilan Berman, Senior VP of the American Foreign Policy Council, says.
The revelations appear to provide insight into the decision-making process within the Biden administration that has led to so much criticism. The entire saga is described as "unbelievable, yet entirely plausible," according to Ilan Berman, Senior VP of the American Foreign Policy Council.
Amid their political calculations, all are more or less aware that the true course of events leading to the election depends solely on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's decision. The aging ruler can prevent anyone’s candidacy through a no0n-democratic and opaque screening process that disqualified hundreds in the 2020 and 2021 elections.
A prominent conservative figure in Iran suggested that former President Hassan Rouhani and former Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani are likely to present a joint list of candidates for the upcoming Majles election.
Expediency Council member Mohammad-Reza Bahonar made this statement during an interview with the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency on Saturday. However, Bahonar added that Larijani is no godfather for any political group in Iran.
According to Tasnim, Bahonar who has been absent from the parliament for eight years, has decided to run in the March election. Bahonar has been a member of the parliament for several terms and was the deputy speaker three times. He leads his own political group, “The Followers of the Imam [Rouhollah Khomeini].”
Bahonar denied that he had been disqualified in the previous round of Majles election, and criticized those who would run in every election until death prevents them from running. He emphasized that in this round of the election, a high turnout is far more important than the election itself.
He mentioned that he had encouraged many reformist figures to participate in the early registration and announce their candidacy. However, he clarified that he contacted only the reformists who do not believe in regime change. Nonetheless Bahonar said that to the best of his knowledge no prominent reformist figures have registered their candidacy, but he mentioned that several moderate conservative figures, such as former Vice President Mohammad Bagher Nobakht have already registered their candidacy at the Interior Ministry.
In the interview, he expressed concerns about discord among conservatives ahead of the election. Bahonar pointed out that the ultraconservative Paydari Party does not believe in an accord among conservatives and will present its own separate list of candidates.
Bahonar also suggested that the Islamic Republic should allow lawful gatherings to prevent protests. He further mentioned that the nationwide protests in 2022 would have occurred anyway, but Mahsa Amini's death in Morality Police custody triggered an early protest. However, he characterized the protests as "riots."
In another development, reformist figure Mohammad Reza Khabbaz said in an interview with Khabar Online that Iran's reformists can send at least 30 reformist figures to the next parliament. However, he said that this will be best feasible if reformists form an alliance with moderate conservatives close to Rouhani and Larijani.
Khabbaz added that reformists are unlikely to secure parliamentary seats if only 8 to 10 percent of voters turn out at the polls in Tehran. Khabbaz, a member of the reformist National Trust Party and a former Governor General of Khorasan Province, has already registered his candidacy with the Interior Ministry.
Addressing rumors of reformists boycotting the elections, Khabbaz stated that five reformist political parties—the National Trust Party, the Executives of Construction Party, Neda-ye Iranian Party, the Labor Party, and the Workers House—have encouraged their members to register their candidacy if they believe they have the potential to serve in the next parliament. However, 25 other reformist parties have announced that they will not field any candidates in the upcoming election.
Khabbaz noted that there are currently four or five reformist members in the parliament, including Masoud Pezeshkian, a lawmaker from Tabriz.