Iran’s Hardline Daily Criticizes Ex-FM’s Call For Dialogue With US
Kayhan, a newspaper affiliated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, slammed comments by the former foreign minister about the need for talks with the US.
Kayhan, a newspaper affiliated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, slammed comments by the former foreign minister about the need for talks with the US.
In an interview on Sunday, Iran's former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, suggested that both Iran and the US share responsibility for their strained relationship. Salehi pointed out that bilateral ties have been fraught with negativity since the Islamic revolution of 1979. He expressed the continued need for comprehensive political talks with the West considering current regional and international conditions.
In response to his remarks, Kayhan lashed out at Salehi for not learning from past mistakes. The newspaper argued after the 2015 nuclear deal -- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – Iran still faced sanctions despite complying with the nuclear program agreements and that the US could potentially withdraw from future deals, given their past actions.
The newspaper lamented that instead of acknowledging the damage caused by the JCPOA, individuals like Salehi continue to advocate for relations with the US and Europe, using the same damages as justification. It further questioned Salehi's position, stating that he was responsible for the JCPOA's consequences and received personal benefits from the agreement.
Kayhan concluded that “it is regrettable to witness someone who played a role in the JCPOA's creation now promoting dialogue with the US and Europe while ignoring the past negative outcomes of such engagements.” The newspaper implied that Salehi's current stance lacks foresight and fails to consider the consequences of previous attempts at diplomatic engagement with the United States and its allies.
Iran's foreign minister says Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev has assured Tehran that it has no plans to close the Iran-Armenia transit route.
The announcement comes amid ongoing tensions between the countries over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the critical Lachin corridor, which serves as the sole communication route between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Speaking at the press conference alongside his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, who was on an official visit to Tehran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian emphasized the significance of transit routes between Iran and Armenia. He said "Iran and Armenia recognize the importance of the historical transit route, and both nations seek to maintain and strengthen its functionality."
Furthermore, the Iranian foreign minister welcomed the continued peace talks between Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. He said "We are closely following the peace process in the region and are committed to promoting stability and cooperation among our neighboring countries".
However, the Baku authorities have not yet issued a statement regarding President Ilham Aliyev's reported “assurance” to Tehran about the non-closure of the transit routes.
Iran has been deeply concerned about Azerbaijani moves to establish a corridor through Armenia territory to a piece of its territory to the west. While an Azerbaijani military threat exists to force such a corridor, Iran will lose its historic land connection with Armenia.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan has persisted for more than three decades, resulting in numerous military confrontations.
Tensions over the transit road have led to military exercises conducted by the Iranian armed forces near the border with Azerbaijan in recent years.
Iran has once again called on European countries to take stronger action against the burning of the Quran.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaanisaid Monday, “We want governments of countries in which such shameful insults occur to prevent the repetition of such disgraceful actions and to strongly deal with the perpetrators."
Two men publicly burned the Quran outside Stockholm's central mosque late in June -- on the first day of Islamic festivities of Eid al-Adha -- an act approved by a Swedish court. Some 200 onlookers witnessed one of the two protesters tearing up pages of a copy of the Quran and wiping his shoes with it before putting bacon in it and setting the book on fire, while the other spoke into a megaphone.
The incident involved Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant, who repeated the act once again last week, this time in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. Also on Friday, members of the far-right nationalist group "Danske Patrioter (Danish Patriots)" burned a copy of the Quran in front of Iraq's Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In an effort to garner support from believers of other religions, Kanaani said that “insulting celestial sanctities and Abrahamic religions is unacceptable and cannot be justified by any means.”
According to Kanaani, Iran has taken several measures to hold Sweden responsible for the 'sacrilege,' including summoning Swedish Ambassador to Tehran Mattias Lentz two times in the past few weeks, sending out a note of protest to Stockholm, and writing a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahianalso held a conversation with the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in this regard. Iran has also announced that it will refrain from accepting the new Swedish ambassador and has no plans to send a new ambassador to the country.
He also reiterated the call on Stockholm to hand over the individuals behind the burning of the Quran to Islamic countries. “No country can, based on its own laws, infringe upon the values of others, as it would be a clear violation of the rights of other nations.”
Urging collective action by Islamic countries, Kanaani added, “We believe that Islamic countries must seriously utilize their capacities. It is the request of Islamic countries that actions be taken against criminals.”
He was echoing remarks by Iran's ruler Ali Khamenei, who demanded harsh punishment for the perpetrators, saying that Sweden should hand over the individuals involved to a Muslim country. In the case of some Muslim states, the punishment would be execution.
Following the incident, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, called on all Arab and Muslim countries to expel the Swedish ambassadors from their respective nations and recall their own ambassadors from Sweden, echoing the actions taken by the Iraqi government.
The tensions escalated further when hundreds of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Iraqi Shia cleric, attacked the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting it on fire. A few days later, Baghdad expelled the Swedish envoy from the country.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Commander Hossein Salami has also threatened attacks against those responsible for the incident in their own country, saying that those who burn or desecrate the Quran will not enjoy security.
“We will not allow those who insult the Quran to have security. If someone wants to play with our Quran and religion, we will play with all his world,” Salami threatened. He went on to say, “Sooner or later the vengeful hand of “mujaheds” will reach politicians and stage managers behind this sort of crimes, and we will render the highest punishment to the perpetrator.”
In the late 1980s, Iran’s then-ruler Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Fatwa for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie for his book, Satanic Verses, seen by some Muslims as insulting to Prophet Muhammed. Iran also announced a reward for Rushdie’s killing.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Sunday that the US is pursuing de-escalation with Iran, but it remains unclear if Washington has made any offers to Tehran.
Speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS program, Blinken announced that “We’re now in a place where we’re not talking about a nuclear agreement. We are very clearly making it known to them that they need to take actions to de-escalate, not escalate, the tensions that exist in our relationship across a whole variety of fronts.”
Iranian officials and government media have yet to react to Blinken’s statement. Official and semi-official government media were silent on Monday but a ‘reformist’ website in Tehran, not directly controlled by the government, published the news about his remarks with a clear distortion.
Speaking about long negotiations in 2021 and 2022 that came to a deadlock last September, Blinken told CNN that “An agreement was on the table. Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t say yes.” However, Etemad Online translated the sentence to, “Iran has not made a decision yet.”
Blinken did not explain what de-escalation means from the Biden administration viewpoint. Clearly, high levels of uranium enrichment and stockpiling fissile material for nuclear bombs is the most provocative policy Tehran currently pursues. But is the administration also telling the Islamic Republic they have to also de-escalate in their provocations in the region, such as attacks on US forces and open incitement of terror attacks on Israel?
There is also the issue of Iran supplying kamikaze drones to Russia that the administration has said is one of its pre-conditions for resumption of full nuclear talks. So far, Iran has shown no inclination to de-escalate in any of these areas.
Blinken also did not say what the United States is promising Iran in return for de-escalatory steps. Certainly, Tehran would demand the lifting of at least some sanctions. Already, the Biden administration has not been rigorously enforcing existing oil export sanctions that has allowed Iran to increase its exports to as high as 1.5 million barrels a day. Before former President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, Iran was shipping around two million barrels. One can argue that Iran has almost overcome the oil sanctions, although US banking sanctions are still deterring most banks in other countries from doing business with Iran.
But if we assume that de-escalation applies only to less enrichment or a cap of 60-percent uranium purity in exchange for lifting some critical sanctions, then that was Iran’s plan all along. In December 2020, the Iranian parliament passed legislation to enrich at higher levels to force the US to lift sanctions. In fact, the bill was called the ‘Strategic Action to Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests.’
That negotiating tactic was initiated a month earlier in November by parliament, when Joe Biden won the presidential election and Tehran was certain that his administration was determined to reverse Trump’s decision and revive the JCPOA.
Now, the administration just hopes for de-escalation while it knows that Iran will use every means of pressure to project power.
“We are continuing to work out, to develop, to flesh out every possible option for dealing with the problem if it asserts itself,” Blinken said.
Earlier this month Iran tried to seize to commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and the US Navy intervened to prevent it. Immediately plans were put in motion to reinforce the US naval presence in the region, dispatching more warplanes and warships.
Iran will not confront the United States where a clear deterrent signal has been issued. It most probably will hit back elsewhere or use new tactics.
Iran’s former foreign minister Ali-Akbar Salehi in an interesting interview has implied that both Tehran and Washington share the blame for their negative relationship.
Salehi told Etemad newspaper that bilateral relations with the United States were fraught with negativity from the very beginning of the Islamic revolution and has remained so for 44 years. The two countries have negotiated on several issues in the past, such as prisoner exchanges, Afghanistan, and the nuclear issue, but they have never held comprehensive talks to resolve underlying differences.
“Now, considering all regional and international conditions, it is good and appropriate opportunity to hold multi-faceted political talks with the West, including Europe and the United States,” Salehi was quoted as saying.
It is said that Salehi was the Iranian negotiator who first launched talks with the Obama administration in 2013 in Oman to agree to start talks over Iran’s nuclear program. The process led to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, or the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Salehi was foreign minister from 2010-2013 and he also headed the Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) of Iran before and after his tenure as chief diplomat.
As head of AEOI, he was involved in the JCPOA talks, but the chief negotiator was then-foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Salehi said that Iran had grievances against the United States during and after the revolution and it always expected an apology from Washington for alleged interference in its domestic politics in 1953, However, Salehi argued that when Secretary of State Madeline Albright once acknowledged US mistakes, Iran should have accepted it as an apology and smoothed out relations with Washington.
The former chief diplomat also had a message for hardliners currently dominating the government in Iran. “Some people mistakenly believe that being revolutionary gives them the freedom to act without bounds. However, the truth is quite the opposite. Being revolutionary demands the utmost thinking, rationality, and knowledge. A true revolutionary must be well-versed in political knowledge.”
Iranians should also consider the fact, that at the end of World War Two, it was the United States that forced the Soviet Union to withdraw from vast swaths of Iran’s territory, which Moscow could have easily colonized, Salehi pointed out. Americans and Europeans also did not understand the Iranian revolution in the late 1970s and were caught off guard, the former foreign minister argued. Many believed at the time that this was not a clergy-led revolution and suspected that the Soviet Union or China were behind it.
In short, as an Iranian regime insider, Salehi tried to present a more balanced view of the United States and urge comprehensive talks, that US presidents have on numerous occasions urged the Islamic Republic to agree to. However, Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei who has been at the helm of power since 1989, has opposed wide-ranging talks, especially after 2018, when the former US administration withdrew from the JCPOA and imposed sanctions.
The Iranian regime wants to maintain is freedom of action in the Middle East, where it has built an arc of proxy forces from Yemen to Iraq and Lebanon. The regime has also isolated the country from the international economy, maintaining an overwhelming system of government ownership of major companies, banks and media.
Salehi, viewed as one of the more balanced and polished Islamic Republic officials, has occasionally spoken out in the past two years urging better governance, democracy, and a stronger economy.
Last November, current foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian invited his predecessors, including Salehi for a “friendly meeting and discussion” that local media called as urgent in nature. This was during fierce anti-regime protests and after talks to revive the JCPOA reached a deadlock.
In the wake of Quran desecration incidents in Sweden, Iran's Supreme Leader Saturday called for the severest punishment to be imposed on the perpetrator.
Ali Khamenei claimed in a statement that this stance is supported unanimously by all Muslim clerics.
In a message addressing the incident, he described it as "a bitter, conspiratorial, and perilous act," urging the Swedish government to hand over the culprit to the judicial authorities of Muslim countries. The man in question once burned the Quran in June and on Thursday he stomped and kicked the Muslim holy book.
"The consensus of all Muslim scholars is to impose the severest punishment on the perpetrator of this crime," alleged Khamenei. He also cautioned the Swedish government about “their support for the criminal” warning that such support takes a confrontational stance against the Muslim world, leading to enmity and resentment from Muslim nations and several governments.
Khamenei further addressed what he called “the conspirators behind the act”, asserting that “the sanctity of the Holy Quran will only grow stronger each day.”
Prior to Khamenei's response, Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, summoned the Swedish ambassador to express "the strong protest of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
The incident involved Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant, who burned the Quran in front of the central mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha, after obtaining a permit from the Swedish government. He repeated the desecration, this time in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on July 20.
