Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has lashed out at Tehran’s top diplomat in a powerful rebuke that could hobble Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as international nuclear talks continue in Vienna and a presidential election looms.
Khamenei did not identify Zarif by name in his televised speech on May 2, but he cited as “a big mistake” his leaked criticism of the conduct of foreign policy that frequently left him out of the loop.
The embattled Zarif publicly apologized earlier in the day for comments he made in a recording that emerged last week in which he criticized the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its forrmer commander, assassinated General Qasem Soleimani.
“This was a big mistake that must not be made by an official of the Islamic republic,” Khamenei said.
“Nowhere in the world does the Foreign Ministry determine foreign policy,” Khamenei, who holds the final word on religious and political decisions, told the country. “There are higher-ranking officials that make the decisions and policies. Of course, the Foreign Ministry is also involved.”
Zarif was a key participant in the talks that resulted in the 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran to curb Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
He is helping steer tense multilateral talks that began last month to revive the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after U.S. President Joe Biden signaled his desire to return to the deal, which his predecessor Donald Trump exited in 2018.
Zarif wrote on Instagram on May 2 that he hoped Soleimani’s family and the Iranian people would forgive him for the controversial comments.
The leaked recordings have touched off a firestorm in Iran less than two months ahead of a presidential election. On the recording, Zarif criticizes the IRGC’s involvement in diplomacy and charges that Soleimani maintained separate relations with Russia.
Source : Radio Free Europe
