Iran International
Iran could have ended US sanctions before even negotiations began in April 2021, if parliament had not intervened, former president Hassan Rouhani said Friday.
A brief overview of Rouhani’s remarks were carried by Aftab News website in Tehran.
Rouhani who was meeting with former officials and aides in his office in Tehran on the occasion of Eid Ghadir, said his administration could have removed US sanctions in 2021, in the Iranian month of Esfand (February 21-March 20). He added that “unfortunately” the parliament passed the ‘Strategic Action to Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests’ bill on December 1, 2020,
The bill, adopted by the hardliner-dominated parliament, boosted uranium enrichment, limited nuclear inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), demanding the removal of all sanctions.
The February-March date Rouhani mentioned as the time when his administration could have lifted United States’ sanctions predates the start of negotiations on April 7, 2021, in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA.
If Rouhani’s claim is true, it means that his government had already reached an agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration, which had just assumed office, which in turn could mean that some sort of negotiation might have taken place even before Biden took office.
The parliament’s bill that Rouhani referred to was adopted as a reaction to the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh a few days earlier, presumably by Israel, but in fact the outlines of the law had already been proposed on November 4, one day after the US presidential election.
During Rouhani’s eight-year, two-term presidency, hardliners loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei persistently criticized him for the talks that led to the signing of the JCPOA in 2015, although without Khamenei’s blessing no agreement would have never materialized.
The criticism continued and intensified after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in May 2018 and imposed sanctions on Iran.
With the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi in June 2021, Iran suspended the Vienna talks for five months and when they resumed in November an agreement remained elusive until another suspension in March 2022, which still continues. The prospects for a deal have diminished, as Iran demands the removal of all post-2018 sanctions, including terrorism-related designations.
Rouhani has rarely responded to criticisms by hardliners over the nuclear issue and Iran’s economic crisis since he left office in August 2021.
Although some ‘reformist’ and former politicians and even senior clerics call for an agreement to lift the sanctions and ease hardship for the people, no one dares to say that Khamenei makes all decisions over key foreign policy and nuclear issues.
Rouhani told his former colleagues during the Friday meeting that he hopes the negotiations to revive the JCPOA will succeed. He added, “We have many enemies in the world and in the region and internal disagreements and divisions is not in the interest of anyone. We all have to help the government.”
Gharazi argued that the Guardian Council, a body tasked with vetting presidential and parliamentary candidates and ensuring that all legislations are consistent with the religious law (Shari'ah) and the country's Constitutional Law is so powerful that politicians have lost the courage to question its behavior.
Gharazi's comment as part of an interview with Didban Iran website comes a few days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reinstated Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 96, and two other clerics for another six years.
Although the Guardian Council's very existence has always contradicted the Iranian establishment's claim about being a democratic system, its decision to disqualify nearly all of pro-reform candidates since 2019 has made it subject to many criticisms from within the system.
The Guardian Council, which was established in 1980, has 12 members, including 6 clerics chosen by Khamenei, and 6 lawyers chosen by the Judiciary Chief and endorsed by the parliament. The 6 clerics do not need the blessing of the parliament. In fact, as the Judiciary chief is also directly appointed by Khamenei, all 12 members of the council are hardliners trusted by the Supreme Leader. The members' term of office is 6 years and every 3 years, half of them may change or be reinstated.
Ahmad Jannati has been the secretary of the Guardian Council since its establishment in 1980. Based on the new order by Khamenei, he can carry on doing his job until he turns 102 in 2028.
Gharazi said about Jannati's reinstatement: "I hope he lives for 120 years. God knows how long one lives. Who am I to say anything about this?" There are many jokes about Jannati's long life, including one that says he was the witness in Adam and Eve's marriage.
Gharazi, who was Iran's Post, Telephone and Telegraph Minister in the 1980s, said in a damning comment that "Neither the Guardian Council, nor the other councils in the Iranian government have ever done any service to the revolution," adding that the Guardian Council has given big jobs to individuals who have not been able to help the people in any way.
Gharazi said: "When I wanted to become a candidate in the 2017 presidential election, somebody from the Guardian Council told me that I cannot be a candidate as I was over 75 years old at that time. I told him how come a 75-year-old person can be a member of the parliament but cannot run for President?"
The same question was raised in another way following Jannati's reinstatement. Iranian cleric Rashid Davoodi, a graduate of the Qom Seminary who holds a Ph.D. in political science according to his Twitter bio, wrote In a 16 July tweet referring to Jannati’s son, "In 2018 when Ali Jannati was less than 70 years old he was dismissed from his post as an adviser to the Office of the President based on a law that prohibits employing retirement age people. In 2022, his father Ahmad Jannati, 96, was reinstated as a member and the secretary of the Guardian Council for another six years!"
The Guardian Council disqualified all the reformist candidates and even conservative candidates who could be real contestants in the 2020 Majles election, an act that paved the way for sending 290 "revolutionary" hardliners to the parliament. Critics have also lashed out at council for barring reformist candidates from the 2021 presidential elections.
Mohammad Marandi, who was a member of Tehran’s team in the Vienna nuclear talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal known as JCPOA, was quoted by Rouydad24 website in Iran as having told Sputnik, that reports by Western media about the demand to remove the Revolutionary Guard from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) is not true.
“This issue was never a pre-condition…What has been on the table is the [US] track record in partial implementation of the JCPOA and its ultimate violation. Iran deems this unacceptable and Washington’s unwillingness to remove sanctions,” Marandi was quoted as saying.
The Sputnik website is not accessible in most countries after the invasion of Ukraine and Iran International cannot verify Rouydad24’s exact quotations, but a website in Iran would hardly dare to be inaccurate in reflecting the words of an important official.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Kowsari, an IRGC officer and an influential member of parliament said Monday that, “It would not be acceptable at all that the Guards…remain under sanctions.” He also demanded “guarantees” that “all sanctions be removed” and rejected any notion of a selective approach in the matter.
Kowsari went on to accuse the US of using the issue of IRGC’s terror designation to refuse providing “permanent” guarantees to Iran. “At least there should be guarantees for the two remaining years of the Biden administration,” he said.
After the Vienna talks stalled in March, reports emerged that Tehran was demanding the delisting of the IRGC and Washington’s position was that the issue was not related to nuclear sanctions, which it had agreed to suspend or remove.
Lately, the issue of guarantees is again being raised by Iran, which if applied to assurances for full economic and financial access by entities sanctioned for terrorism or human rights violations, basically means the removal of all sanctions.
US administration officials and President Joe Biden himself have said that a final offer has been made to Iran months ago and it is up to them to decide. At the same time, during his trip to the Middle East last week Biden pledged bot with Israel and Saudi Arabia not to allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state.
Marandi went on to argue that the United States is in not “in a strong position to act against Iran,” and the best option for them is to come to an agreement to unlock Iran’s oil flow, which they need.
The US-born Iranian official who plays a role in reflecting Iran’s positions in English language with international media, also spoke about reports about the creation of an air-defense alliance between Israel and Arab states concerned about Iranian missile and drone threats. He reportedly told Sputnik that even if such a system is set up it cannot pose a challenge for Iran.
“There is no regional country that can be considered Iran’s rival. Our only rival is America. Israel and Saudi Arabia are small and weak. Iran is the most militarily advanced country in West Asia,” Marandi claimed.