Alleged Birthday Party For EU Envoy In Tehran Prompts Controversy

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who was in Washington for a week, highlighted the fact that Iran has refused to allow his agency to replace cameras in a key facility producing uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Iran’s parliament last December passed a law reducing cooperation with the IAEA in a bid to force the new US administration to lift sanctions. Iran’s tough posture came as candidate Joe Biden in September 2020 had expressed his readiness, if elected, to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which Donald Trump had abandoned two years earlier.

In February, Grossi reached a temporary agreement with Iran to continue taped monitoring by cameras and the arrangement has remained in place but gradually eroded.

Grossi also told NBC that he has not been able to establish the kind of direct communication with the new hardline Iranian government. He complained that after more than two months, he has not been able to speak to the new foreign minister.

The Islamic Republic newspaper (Jomhouri-ye Eslami), enjoying close connections with the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in an editorial note wrote that there is a lot to say about an October 18 interview by state television with Raisi, but most of all “an interview with the president should not be a formality”.

The paper, established after the revolution in 1979, is managed by Masih Mohajeri, a widely respected veteran cleric known for eschewing factions.

The newspaper noted that despite earlier promises to accept questions from the public, no such opportunity was offered, and the interviewer did not challenge Raisi when he repeatedly blamed the former administration for current problems people face. The paper asked that more than two months have passed since Raisi took office and why there is no positive movement toward solving the economic hardship people face.

Iran’s hardliners were lambasting former president Hassan Rouhani in the media for the deteriorating economic conditions since the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA) in 2018. The criticism usually left out the fact that without oil export income constituting half of the government’s budget Rouhani’s hands were tied. The same applies to Raisi.

The Islamic Republic daily wrote that when the price of poultry increased, the state television was attacking Rouhani but now when egg prices have doubled in two months it does not question Raisi.

The paper said that everyone knows the answer as to why egg prices have jumped but Raisi should have been asked about it, so he could have explained that his government is also challenged by the same “external factors”, Rouhani faced, which are beyond the president’s powers to address.

The sharp statement implicitly refers to Iran’s nuclear program and negotiations with the West that have so far not succeeded, leaving the country to struggle amid US sanctions.

The newspaper advised the president “to tell the people the reality, openly and honestly.” In this case, people would welcome his conduct and he would have a better chance of success. In other words, Raisi should come out and admit that US sanctions have led to the serious economic crisis, but the power to change that with a nuclear agreement rests with Khamenei.

Raisi was handpicked by Khamenei to become president after all serious rivals were barred from running in the June election by a constitutional body under the Supreme Leader’s control.

Both before the vote and after assuming office, Raisi has been echoing Khamenei’s slogans for self-sufficiency, and making lofty promises of revolutionary solutions to modern day economic issues. He issues a dozen orders a day for local and national problems to be solved, without saying how his officials can build roads, provide drinking water and electricity or pay workers when there is close to 50-percent budget deficit.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remark in Tehran on Saturday in a meeting with Khosro Nazeri, the General Secretary of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) a regional agency created by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan in the 1980s.

Based on a report of the meeting by local media. Amir-Abdollahian referred to his talks with European Union chief negotiator for Iran talks Enrique Mora and said these discussions will continue in Brussels, promising that talks will resume soon.

Iran asked the European Union to have a meeting in Brussels to clarify issues related to the first six rounds of talks in Vienna, but the United States objected, saying such a meeting is not necessary. It appeared Tehran wanted to open a new negotiating track without the presence of Washington.

Iran stopped attending the Vienna talks in June and despite pressure from other participants it has mage a vague pledge to resume the negotiations “soon”. Meanwhile, it is continuing to enrich uranium creating concern in many capitals that it is getting close to having enough fissile material for a bomb.

Voices outside the government have emerged as several reports in the Iranian media say as the country faces its worst economic crisis ever, a large part of the Iranian population cannot make ends meet. Inflation is at least 50 percent and food prices have claimed even faster.

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al-An TV in the United Arab Emirates during his visit to that country last week, "both Iran and the United States have sustained losses during the past 40 years" because of the impasse in their relations, adding that "it is time now for Tehran and Washington to start a dialogue in this direction based on a fair framework."

Speaking also about the impasse in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, Ahmadinejad said that "the JCPOA was initially intended to solve existing problems between the two countries, but after several years not only it failed to achieve that, but it has led to more complication." Ahmadinejad acknowledged that "This means the agreement was not successful because it was not fair."

"Six countries oppose Iran's nuclear activities and Iran has been holding talks with all of those six countries to reach a settlement. This means Iran will always be the loser because it has one vote against six votes by those countries," Ahmadinejad explained.

"So, what are Iran and those countries going to return to? I do not think any one of those seven parties would want to return to that agreement. The US side might want to return to the JCPOA, but what about the Iranian side," he asked.

However, Ahmadinejad concluded that "the nuclear issue is only a pretext. The differences between Iran and the United States are deeper than that. They have a bigger problem, which the JCPOA failed to solve. Wise men from both sides should sit together and solve that problem."

Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, a former Guardian Council member who is said to be 104 years old and has at times offered ideas different from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has called for an end to Iran's isolation in the world and said in a meeting with Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Frida: "I am seriously concerned about the country's economic situation and the people's problems."

The Grand Ayatollah suggested: "We should maintain relations with all the countries in the world. It is not good to be sulking with many other countries. In order to restore the rights of the people and put an end to the current situation which Iranians do not deserve, we should maintain relations with the world."

Meanwhile former Lawmaker and one of the leaders of Iran's reform camp, Mohammad Reza Khabbaz has said in a commentary published by reformist daily Arman on Thursday that "the people of Iran are waiting for a brave decision to be made by the government in order to solve difficulties people face."

Explaining the economic hardships Iranians are experiencing, Khabbaz said that although the problem is serious, it can still be solved with a surgical operation and the sooner this surgery is done, the less painful it will be. But if remained untreated, more serious and dangerous consequences will follow.

Khabbaz was in fact saying in his cryptic language that if the sanctions are not lifted and the country's economic problems continue to worsen hungry people will take to the streets and endanger the regime's existence. This is what several sociologists and economists have predicted throughout the year.

He said the government's problem is that it is consisting of a bunch of like-minded individuals, and everyone is supporting the government's approach. During the past week, many conservatives have criticized the Raisi Administration's inaction and indecision about restarting the negotiations for reviving the JCPOA.

Khabbaz suggested that the Raisi administration has only two options: waiting and seeing the gradual collapse of the country's economy or surrendering to a surgical operation by experts.

Reports published last week in Iran, including one in the proreform Fararu website said a typical government employee spends one-third of his or her salary to buy for a family's requirements for only a few days. Another report by Nemat Ahmadi, a prominent lawyer in Tehran, which was published in Arman on Thursday, listed the price of some staples and warned that Iran is headed toward a situation that happened during the 1918 famine which killed millions of Iranians.

Indirect nuclear talks that the Biden Administration started in April in Vienna with Iran stopped in June when Tehran arguing that its new president needed time to form a government suspended participation.

There have been references by Iran’s foreign minister and other officials that Washington must “take concrete steps” or “show goodwill” for the negotiation to resume and succeed. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian even said in early October that while in New York the previous month he had told intermediaries the US should unfreeze $10 billion of Iran’s blocked funds.

Spokesperson Ned Price who was answering a question from a reporter during his press briefing on Friday said that the United States and other world powers are “united in the belief that diplomacy continues to provide the most effective pathway to verifiably and permanently prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and we are united in the belief that negotiations should resume in Vienna as soon as possible and that they should resume precisely where they left off after the sixth round.”

By rejecting the idea of new demands or changes to the process, Price also used the words “permanently prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” The existing nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, has sunset clauses which end in the next few years, theoretically allowing Iran to pursue its nuclear program as it wishes. Critics have always said this constitutes the agreement’s main weakness.

It is not clear if the reference to ‘permanently’ means other, more stringent arrangements have been discussed in Vienna. Those who opposed Biden’s decision to negotiate a return to the JCPOA have been arguing that even if the deal is restored and Iran resumes compliance with its restrictions, in a few years most would go away, and it can do what it wishes.

Price was also asked if a discussion that took place earlier this month between US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley and a South Korean diplomat signaled a move to have Seoul free Iran’s $7 billion frozen by two of its banks. If true, this would have meant that Washington was trying to entice Tehran to return to the talks.

Price did not directly address the issue of the frozen funds and argued that Malley is always in touch with US allies, and South Koreans “are important across a range of fronts, and that includes Iran.” He added, “That includes with the enforcement of the sanctions regime that continues to be in place on Iran unless and until there is a negotiated return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

But South Korea has never been involved with the JCPOA except as an oil customer of Iran that stopped doing business once US sanctions were imposed and froze $7 billion it owed Iran.