Khamenei Loyalist Accuses IAEA Inspectors Of Spying For Mossad, CIA

Following a report from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency this week expressing dissatisfaction at Iran’s answers to queries over its pre-2003 nuclear work, the US and E3 – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – have been discussing moving a resolution at the 35-member IAEA board meeting June 6-10.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian Friday that Moscow was in “definite opposition” to such a move The Iranian foreign minister told Lavrov that such a resolution would contradict the diplomatic process wherebyTehran and Washington exchanged notes over the past two months through Europeans.

Echoing a Chinese view expressed Thursday, Lavrov said that such a resolution would have “no positive impact” and that “issues of cooperation between IAEA and Iran should be resolved within IAEA’s technical path.”

Over the past year, the US and E3 have held back from moves critical of Iran’s co-operation with the IAEA so as not to undermined negotiations in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which the US left in 2018.

But questions over Iran’s pre-2003 nuclear work, and alleged lack of transparency over it, were recently revived by documents from 2004-5 released by Israel purporting to show Iranian efforts to hoodwink IAEA inspectors using information gleaned from purloined agency documents. This has blurred the distinction between the supposed ‘technical’ issues dealt with the agency and the ‘political’ process of JCPOA renewal.

‘Shrinking’

The administration of President Joe Biden, which came to office committed to re-joining the JCPOA as a means to gain cap Iran’s nuclear program, has insisted that not all US sanctions put in place by the previous administration of President Donald Trump contravene the 2015 agreement. Reports have suggested the 2019 listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ is a particular sticking point.

Joseph Borrell, the European Union foreign affairs chief, tweeted Saturday after a phone-call to Amir-Abdollahian that while the chance of reviving the JCPOA was “shrinking,” it could still be done “with an extra effort.” Borrell wrote he would “stand ready any time to facilitate a solution to the latest outstanding issues.”

US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said May 31 that the JCPOA revival was “absolutely within reach” and that the US would continue efforts to revive the deal as long as this held out clear non-proliferation benefits. But Iran’s accumulation of uranium enriched to 60 percent, the most serious violation of its JCPOA limits since 2019, has strengthened domestic criticism of Biden, both from JCPOA critics and from those arguing Biden needs urgently to revive the agreement.

Price Friday cited Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking with Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi to thank him for efforts to mediate both over the current truce in Yemen and to discuss Iran.

Ayoob Entezari, who held a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Tehran’s Sharif University, died last week with some reports mentioning food poisoning as the cause of his death, Iranian and Israeli media reported on Saturday. He reportedly took part in several projects at the Yazd Institute of Technology.

The circumstances surrounding his death are shady as some people on social media say the Iranian scientist was killed and Mossad is also mentioned in some reports as being responsible but no official source has yet spoken out about his death.

The reports came a day after Iran confirmed the death of another colonel from the Quds Force, Ali Esmailzadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the second in two weeks from the unit which allegedly oversees terror operation abroad.

Iranian government and IRGC media said that Col. Esmailzadeh died “in an incident in recent days” at his home without mentioning any details after Iran International quoted sources in Iran as saying that the IRGC killed him over suspicions of espionage. Officials of the Revolutionary Guard told Esmailzadeh’s family that the reason for his death was suicide.

He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was earlier shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike.

"Today, the enemies' most important hope for striking a blow at the country is based on popular protests... But the enemies' calculation is as wrong as many earlier ones," Khamenei said in his televised speech.

He also attacked “traitors” of Iranian descent who give “wrong advice” to the Americans about conditions the Islamic Republic faces.

Iranian opposition and activists in the United States and Europe have become much more vocal and organized in recent years, partly because of rising dissent inside Iran and bloody government crackdowns.

Khamenei was speaking on the death anniversary of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic and one day after Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi called for unity to overthrow the clerical regime.

Khamenei apparently could not help but see the political irony and implicitly warned that after the French Revolution, monarchy and decendants of the royal family returned to power in France.

The aging authoritarian ruler of Iran has in the past sharply condemned mass anti-government protests when they occurred in 2017-2018 and in November 2019, always seeing the hand of ‘enemies’ and calling ordinary protesters people who have been deceived.

Protests reignited in early May when the government of President Ebrahim Raisi scrapped billion of dollars in food import subsidies and overnight doubled and tripled prices for essential food items such as bread and cooking oil.

These protests were met with the overwhelming force of the Islamic Republic's security forces that have tens of thousands of specially trained troops to crack down on any show of dissent. But hardly the price protests had died down when on May 23 a 10-story building collapsed in the oil-rich Khuzestan province killing close to 40 people.

Accusations and evidence of corruption that had allowed the owner to ignore regulations and building codes ignited protests in several cities in the province and elsewhere.

A general perception of constant government failures, endemic corruption and a losing battle against economic chaos has gripped Iran in the past few months, exacerbated by events in May.

Tehran’s refusal to compromise in nuclear talks with the West and lift United States economic sanctions has added to the perception of a downward spiral. Even in government-controlled media warnings of a deteriorating situation can be seen daily, while outlets under direct government control or affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard try to present a rosier picture.

In what could be seen as a manifestation of Khamenei’s constant denials about the crisis facing his rule, he claimed that popular support for “the revolution” today is stronger than when the monarchy was overthrown in 1979.

Khamenei, however, implicitly acknowledged that the building collapse in Abadan was a disturbing event, although he attributed its highly negative impact on the public to the “enemy”. This was presumably a reference to Persian speaking media and television stations based abroad that beam news and information into Iran, contributing to public awareness and debate.

“Today, the enemy seeks to destroy [the reputation] of revolutionary officials,” Khamenei said, adding that “those responsible for sabotage must be punished.”

The website, which takes a centrist political position, argued Iran faced a stark choice between reviving the deal – the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – or announcing its death.

The suspension in March of Iran’s year-long negotiations with world powers in Vienna coincided with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which complicated the situation. There have been no subsequent signs of rapprochement between the United States and Iran.

In the latest round of exchanges, the US State Department Spokesman Ned Price blamed the talks’ suspension on Tehran raising demands beyond the JCPOA. Iran has long argued that sanctions introduced by President Donald Trump – no matter whether under rubrics of ‘human rights’ or ‘terrorism’ – were designed to stymie subsequent efforts to revive the JCPOA, from which Trump withdrew the US in 2018.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said the Biden Administration's inaction has left diplomacy in suspended animation, and that agreement over reviving the JCPOA was a simple matter of all parties honoring commitments.

With the US and the three European JCPOA signatories considering a resolution at next week’s IAEA board critical of Iran for failing to satisfy the agency over its pre-2003 nuclear work, China Thursday said such a move would undermine JCPOA negotiations. Qatar and Oman have been trying to mediate.

Iran Diplomacy website suggested that with the Vienna talks suspended, the US, France, Germany, and the United States might persuade the 35-member IAEA board “to make a political decision and issue a resolution that would send Iran's case to the UNSC [United Nations Security Council]."

‘Technical,’ and ‘political’

Qasem Mohebali, a former Iranian diplomat, told Nameh News website, that a report from IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi on the pre-2003 work, which leaked May 30, was ‘technical’ whereas any decision by the UNSC would be political. In very different circumstances in 2005-6, Iran’s expansion of its nuclear program led to a referral from the IAEA to the UNSC, which imposed multilateral sanctions with the support of both Russia and China.

Mohebali said that any IAEA board decision would be made purely on votes cast by the 35 member states, and that the outcome “depends on how US and Europe can garner support for their idea.”

Political commentator Javad Arianmanesh told Nameh News that the JCPOA was likely to fall aside. " In that case, things can become more difficult for Iran," he said. Arianmanesh argued “the most important obstacle on the way of any settlement" was the disagreement between Tehran and Washington over the US listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’

Arianmanesh argued that the “fate of the country’s economy” depended on lifting US sanctions, and that “the longer the suspension of the talks continues” the more difficult “everything” would be for Iran.

During a press conference in Washington on Friday, Pahlavi said the current regime will fall in the near future but the transition to a new country needs a center to guide and concentrate democratic forces against the Islamic Republic.

He began a short speech expressing sympathy with the families of the victims who died in the collapse of Abadan’s Metropol building last month, which triggered protests in the southwestern province of Khuzestan and several other cities. He also paid tribute to victims of protests in the first half of May when the government raised food prices that led to days of demonstrations in towns and small cities.

Although the Pahlavi dynasty was toppled more than 43 years ago, many protesters in Iran chant slogans in support of monarchy, the dynasty and its founder Reza Shah, who began Iran’s modernization one hundred years ago. The popular support has elevated the political standing of the prince, but he has not campaigned for claiming the throne.

Corruption and mismanagement

Reza Pahlavi added that inefficiency and corruption in the Islamic Republic are not limited to one entity, city, or one group and is not limited to a particular period, noting that the whole country is suffering from disasters.

He mentioned the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 in January 2020 by the Revolutionary Guard and pointed at restrictions in the import of vaccines in the fist half of 2021 that led to thousands of unnecessary deaths, as examples of the disasters resulting from wrong policies or mismanagement of the government.

Khamenei ruled out importing United States- and British-made Covid-19 vaccines in January 2021, arguing that Iran was well placed to develop its own vaccines or should take them from more “reliable” sources. At the time, the US-German Pfizer, US-made Moderna and the British-made AstraZeneca were the only vaccines approved internationally.

Pahlavi added that today the biggest opposition and alternative to Islamic Republic is the Iranian people, who deserve to live in the best country and will reach their goal.

The exiled prince said the people are more united than ever and are standing with empty hands against their corrupted enemy. The priority of the country at this juncture is forming a central authority that can organize the protests to pave the path to victory against the Islamic Republic.

Calling on the army to stand with the people

He also urged the armed forces and officials who oppose the Islamic Republic but are working within the government to help disrupt the repression machine, saying a regime that cannot provide food for its people will not survive, and warned all those who are cooperating with the Islamic Republic’s crackdown to join the people.

His most forceful comment came when he said, “The current regime in Iran will be gone one day; even the USSR with so many nuclear warheads was toppled. Don’t bet on a losing horse, and don’t think you will be able to evade justice later,” he added.

The exiled prince went on to address the country’s traditional army, the Artesh, appreciating them for protecting the people against foreign enemies, and telling them that now it is time to protect the people from the common enemy within.

The traditional army’s command is dominated by the ideological Revolutionary Guard which is loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but many still hope the army can play a role one day to support the people.

He also called on Iranian expatriates to help the world hear the demands of the Iranian people, through sharing news from Iran in different languages and informing the governments of their countries about ongoing events in Iran.

“The most important thing I do in response to the Iranian people’s trust is to reinforce their voices. I don’t tell them what to do. I’m not a political leader,” Pahlavi said.

Underlining that those who live in the country know what they need better than anyone else, he stated, “The smart slogans the people chant indicate that they have identified both the problem and the solution.”

He added that Iran’s future is bright as all Iranians no matter their ethnicity are standing together in unity and solidarity, saying that “Our unity today guarantees our prosperity tomorrow.”