The tug of war over the nuclear agreement that the Islamic republic of Iran signed with six major world powers (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14 is growing inside Iran. While a group of Majlis representatives insist that the deal needs to be ratified by parliament, government officials argue there is no need for this. And every time some new facts about the behind-the-scenes of the talks surface to the public purview, a new round of denials and confirmations follows, along with fresh accusations and counter-accusations.
After the unexpected publication of Abbas Araghchi’s private remarks in the news agency of the national state-run radio and television network (IRIB), which brought about a retreat even among the officials of the network, now the private remarks of the director of Iran’s Nuclear Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, who participated in the nuclear negotiations, have made it to the national media and are causing their own firestorm.
As reported by Fars news agency, an outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), hardline Majlis representative from Tehran, Alireza Zakani who is also the secretary general of the Rahpooyan Enghelab Eslami hardline group, declared, “Mr. Salehi has said that by turning off the centrifuges we would face a 50 percent destruction and about 50 percent of the centrifuges would be lost during the shut-down procedures and another 30 percent would be lost during the transfers, if we act properly. In other words, a total of 80 percent of all the centrifuges would be destroyed.” Elsewhere in his remarks he said, “Mr. Salehi asked us to go and pray for this deal to fall through.”
Zakani also had some critical words for Salehi as well and said, “Unfortunately some of Mr. Salehi’s remarks are not scientific and he is wrong. For example, while the Fardow nuclear facility is 40 meters underground above which is a 90 meter volcanic mountain, the US possesses no weapon to destroy it but Mr. Salehi wrapped up Fardow in 2010 and turned it into a research center. Where in the world do they turn a center that is 130 meters underground into a center to conduct research? When we asked him about this, he had no response and only said that the goal was to have an advanced research center there.”
Zakani’s remarks of course swiftly brought forth a response from the Atomic Energy Agency. Behrouz Kamalvandi, the deputy director of the agency and its spokesperson wrote, “I want to ask the representative who is quoted by news agencies to have said that Mr. Salehi had told them to ‘go and pray for the deal to be rejected, because it is really dangerous’ why is he listening to unfounded accusations while ignoring the clear statements that Mr. Salehi made at the Majlis session?” He added that Mr. Salehi was not interested in sending a denial to unfounded discussions.
Next came denials in Etemad newspaper by ten Majlis representatives regarding what Zakani had said. The newspaper wrote, “Seyed Bagher Hosseini, Javad Jahangirzadeh and Mansour Haghighatpour have said that they had never heard some words from Salehi. Hadi Shooshtari however went further and said, “Mr. Salehi has come to the Majlis three times so far to talk about the nuclear talks and I have been present at them. I had never heard him such things, privately or officially.”
Another newspaper, Arman, also wrote on the controversy which read, “In view of Salehi’s defense of the CPOA and its accomplishments, one must ask that if Zakani’s accusations are valid – which is contrary to what Salehi has been saying – then why are they being presented only now? Do such claims help keep national unity?”
What appeared on Internet sites was of course much harsher than these remarks published in Tehran’s media. Khordad site for example quoted Safar Naimi, a member of Majlis’s national security committee to have said that the remarks (by Zakani) were treasonous. “There is no doubt about the falsity of these claims,” he said.
Gholamali Jaafarzadeh, another Majlis representative joined the fight and is quoted to have said, “I hope that Mr. Zakani will correct his remarks. How is it even possible that Mr. Salehi would say one thing on the Majlis floor and something completely the opposite somewhere else?
Observers suspect this clash will continue over the nuclear issue until the US Congress votes on the nuclear deal. President Rouhani had warned after the nuclear deal was signed that “Those who benefited from the sanctions in Dubai, Europe, China and Tehran are now angry. We need to have lifted the cruel sanctions and opened the world towards the country to let investment and technology pour into the country and to let us export our goods.”