Alamolhoda: They Want to Blame the Leader for the Failure of the JCPOA

The Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, without naming names, rejected Hassan Rouhani's remarks about 'consultation' with the Supreme Leader regarding all of Iran's actions in the JCPOA and accused government officials of trying to place the blame for the 'failure of the JCPOA' on the Leader. According to Fars News Agency, Ahmad Alamolhoda, in his sermon on December 10, referred to the approval of the extension of sanctions against Iran in the U.S. Senate, stating, 'Those who were beautifying America and said that America's hostility had changed... what happened in the end?' He added, 'Now that the situation has come to this point, they want to drag the Leader into it, claiming that it has reached this point with the Leader's opinion, but that was not the case at all; the Leader's statements are completely clear.' Alamolhoda then referred to government officials, saying, 'They themselves came to the Leader and said, the Leader set red lines, and those red lines have not been met, and at the same time, they want to say that the whole story was with the Leader's opinion.' Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, stated on December 7 during a speech at Tehran University that the government has taken 'no step' in the JCPOA without 'consultation' with the Supreme Leader. Rouhani emphasized, 'His written letters are addressed to me, and there is no letter that he has written and I have not acted upon and that has not been executed. Of course, in some cases, we did not reach the desired hundred percent.' Previously, some close associates of the Supreme Leader, including Ali Saidi and Ali Akbar Velayati, had announced that some of the 'red lines' set by Ayatollah Khamenei were not implemented in the Vienna nuclear agreement. In contrast, Abbas Araghchi, a member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, stated on July 18 that insisting on some red lines meant 'no agreement,' and thus, with the Leader's consent, 'in several cases' the red lines set by him were shifted during the negotiations. According to Araghchi, one of the red lines was the lifting of all sanctions against Iran, but U.S. officials stated that the U.S. government could not lift the congressional sanctions, and if the Iranian negotiation team insisted, 'it would mean no agreement.' The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives recently voted to extend the Iran sanctions law for another 10 years, which has faced protests from senior officials, including the President and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, who have assessed this resolution as a 'violation' of the Vienna nuclear agreement. Meanwhile, U.S. officials say that the extension of the Iran sanctions law is not contrary to this agreement, and at the same time, the U.S. Secretary of State has the authority to waive provisions that conflict with the JCPOA. The 'JCPOA Monitoring Board' in Iran announced on Wednesday, December 8, that the implementation of the extension of the 'ISA' law, the Iran sanctions law, is considered a 'gross violation' of this agreement, and in response, it will implement 'necessary measures.' Some close associates of the Supreme Leader have considered this resolution as evidence of the correctness of Ayatollah Khamenei's statements regarding distrust of America. The Supreme Leader had predicted before the Vienna nuclear agreement that the nuclear negotiations would not yield results and stated that he was not optimistic about these negotiations, but he did not oppose them either.