In a closed interview whose details were leaked, the Iranian foreign minister was heard claiming that Russia and the commander of the Quds Force that was eliminated last year - tried to thwart the agreement with the powers
Internal struggles.
Qassem Suleimani, Muhammad Javad Zarif
Photo:
AFP, API
In an leaked and detailed article in Iran International, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was heard sharply criticizing the Revolutionary Guards, defying the legendary Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, and coming out against Russian policy in the face of the nuclear deal he allegedly tried to defeat.
The conversation took place last March for alleged internal documentation purposes, and the person who led it was the Iranian journalist and economist Saad Lilz, who is considered close to Reform President Hassan Rouhani.
The call shows that Zarif had a long-standing rivalry with Suleimani, the Iranian general who was assassinated in January 2020 with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, in an airstrike near Baghdad airport.
Zarif meets with IAEA chairman // Photo: Reuters
"I have never been able to get Suleimani to do anything that will serve my diplomatic moves," Zarif says, continuing with a description of the former Quds Force commander's visit to Russia, immediately after the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal.
"The visit was a Moscow initiative without the Iranian Foreign Ministry having any control. Its goal was to destroy the nuclear deal," Zarif explained, harshly criticizing Putin's foreign policy in Syria.
He admits that he sometimes had to use "rude and non-diplomatic language" in front of his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
In this context, Zarif noted that Suleimani would not have involved the Foreign Ministry in Iran's military operations in Bashar al - Assad's country.
"US Secretary of State John Kerry was the one who told me that Israel had carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian forces in Syria," he admitted.
The date of the leak comes at a particularly inconvenient time for the regime in Tehran, given the significant progress in the nuclear talks between the powers and Iran, in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
Days ago it became known that the parties had even started exchanging drafts and even President Rouhani admitted that the move was in advanced stages.
Zarif's remarks are a glimpse into the force that influences Iranian policy and the importance of the military dimension in the country vis-à-vis the political dimension, with an emphasis on the Revolutionary Guards and of course on Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
