Raisi Defiant As Pundits In Iran Say He Should Make A Nuclear Deal
While many urge Tehran to make a deal with Washington to rescue its economy, President Ebrahim Raisi says Iran will not retreat from its "rightful positions."
While many urge Tehran to make a deal with Washington to rescue its economy, President Ebrahim Raisi says Iran will not retreat from its "rightful positions."
Raisi further advised the United States on Wednesday "to see the facts to learn from the past and not to repeat the failed experience of the ‘maximum pressure’ policy on the Iranian nation," official news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
He reminded that US officials have repeatedly said that the pressure Washington imposed on Iran was unprecedented, but "the spokesperson of the State Department has officially announced that these pressures did not work in any way and failed shamefully."
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had also quoted the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, to argue that US sanctions were a failure.
Raisi went on to say, "the US claims that Iran should return to the nuclear deal while Iran has never withdrawn from the JCPOA." Meanwhile, Raisi advised the Americans not to speak to Iranians using "the language of coercion.”
Raisi, who like other Iranian senior officials, appeared to be shaken by the possible military implications of the US President's regional tour, warned that "if American visits to the regional countries are aimed at strengthening the position of the Zionist regime and normalizing its relations with certain countries, their efforts will not in any way bring about security for the Zionists."
Referring to the new alliances in the region between Israel and regional Arab states, and the idea of creating an integrated air defense in the region to thwart Iran's threats, Raisi said "Iran is watching the region closely," adding that "Tehran has repeatedly told those who convey US messages to Iran that the slightest move against Iran's territorial integrity will face a decisive response."
Raisi's comments coincided with the posting of an interview on the moderate conservative Khabar Online website in which Alireza Soltani, a Tehran University academic and an expert in political economics, said that the revival of the JCPOA should be Iran's priority in its diplomacy with foreign officials in and beyond the region.
Referring to Iranian officials' occasional doubts about the impact of a nuclear deal on Iran's economic situation, Soltani warned that the window of opportunity will not always remain open. Soltani's warning came as Iranian officials acted defiantly to a French Foreign Ministry statement reminding Tehran that the window of diplomacy may not remain open for Iran longer than a couple of weeks.
The academic further warned that without the revival of the JCPOA, Iran cannot even think of improving its foreign relations even with China, India and Russia. Soltani added that if the 2015 nuclear deal is not revived, there is a chance that the United States and Europe will take Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council.
Soltani said Iran's approach to the negotiations is non-transparent and unclear for public opinion, political circles, and the media. He added that the shadow of doubt on Iran's approach to the negotiations has become heavier after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting change in Tehran's positions.
Soltani said that this situation is undesirable for the Iranian economy and the people whose livelihood and businesses are being held hostage in the negotiations to revive the JCPOA.
Recently, international lawyer Reza Nasri pointed out that that Iranian officials who seek guarantees from the US about economic benefits of a nuclear deal have no idea what they are looking for as in fact, there are no such guarantees.
The publication of Rafsanjani's memoires started when he was still alive, and several volumes came out during the years before his suspicious death in 2017. All the volumes thatwere published after his death were examined by his son Mohsen before publication.
According to Chand Sanieh [A few seconds) website, which first published the new, unpublished parts are about Rafsanjani's angry reaction to unltraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "radical behavior". Rafsanjani believed this offered “a pretext” to the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran and form a global consensus against the Islamic Republic in 2006, one year after Ahmadinejad was first elected as Iran's President.
It was the re-publication of the memoires by moderate conservative website Khabar Online on July 10 that lent some credibility to the disclosures about the beginning of Iran's isolation in the international community as a result of its secret and controversial nuclear program.
Rafsanjani wrote on March 21, 2006, that "factional disputes in Iran and the dismissal of efficient diplomats as well as uncalculated remarks by Ahmadinejad about uranium enrichment, human rights and terrorism provided an opportunity for the United States and its allies to portray Iran as a threat to the international community."
In November, Rafsanjani wrote about his visit to the enrichment site in Natanz, adding that "Even Hassan Rouhani who is usually skeptical about these matters acknowledged that the efforts have been successful. Both Rouhani and I told -then – nuclear Chief Mohammad Aghazadeh that Ahmadinejad's uncalculated remarks hinder Iran's progress."
On December 11, Rafsanjani noted that the UN Security Council has unanimously ratified a resolution against Iran with even Qatar voting for it. "Ali Larijani [then secretary of the Supreme Council of National Security] came to see me. He was nervous and critical of Ahmadinejad because of his uncalculated remarks. He said he told the President to stop two of the enrichment cascades to avert the resolution, but he refused to do so. He has told Ahmadinejad to go and seek Khamenei's view about this."
Rafsanjani wrote on March 20, 2007: "We have a bad situation in foreign relations. We have been isolated except for relations with a few countries including Syria and Venezuela. Two resolutions have been issued against us and a third one is coming. Sanctions have been imposed on Iran anda US military attack is probable."
Rafsanjani was a major advocate of Iran's nuclear program and missile development since late 1980s when he realized that the armed forces were not capable of resisting Saddam Hussain's army. Iran's declining arsenal from the pre-revolutionary days under the monarchy and its lack of an effective air force and navy made it vulnerable in the region.
In 2006, when these parts of his memoires were written, his once deep influence in the Iranian political system had been indirectly curtailed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and he was on course to his final isolation in 2009, when Ahmadinejad became Iran's President for the second time in a rigged election marked by IRGC intervention.