Ali Motahari: The Entire System Has Decided to Accept the JCPOA

Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated: "The entire system has decided to accept the JCPOA with all its pros and cons." On Tuesday, April 16, he told the IRNA news agency: "We should not present it in a way that the benefits of the JCPOA are attributed to part of the system and its drawbacks to Dr. Rouhani and Mohammad Javad Zarif; rather, the entire system has made this decision and accepted the JCPOA with all its pros and cons." This principlist representative positively assessed the core of the nuclear agreement, stating: "It was predictable that the implementation of the commitments by the other side in the JCPOA would face some obstacles." He continued: "We do not have much of a problem with the Europeans, but the sanctions imposed by the U.S. are old, and it was clear that their removal would be slow." Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, harshly criticized the U.S. government's performance in the implementation of the JCPOA during his speech on the occasion of Nowruz 1395. Khamenei, without naming Rouhani's government, expressed strong dissatisfaction with those who, according to him, have pinned their hopes on negotiations with the U.S. to solve the country's problems. Following Khamenei's Nowruz remarks, a wave of attacks against the eleventh government began from the appointees of the leader of the Islamic Republic. Senior military commanders, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the head of the judiciary were among those who attacked the government's policies or its supporters during this period. Motahari also spoke about a tweet attributed to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Council, and the Supreme Leader's reaction to Iran's missile tests. Recently, a tweet attributed to Rafsanjani has led to a wave of attacks from principlist media against him. This tweet, published on April 4, states: "The world of tomorrow is a world of discourses, not missiles..." Principlist media have heavily criticized this tweet attributed to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. This tweet faced severe criticism from Ayatollah Khamenei last Wednesday, to the extent that he stated if this statement was made knowingly, it would be considered treason. The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported on Thursday, April 12, citing an "informed source," that the content of the tweet attributed to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is not related to him, but rather this Twitter account is managed by "one of his admirers." On Tuesday, Motahari commented on this issue, saying: "The remarks recently made by him [Ayatollah Khamenei] regarding the role of negotiation and missile testing in foreign policy have no connection to the content attributed to Mr. Hashemi." He continued: "Mr. Hashemi's remarks were about the importance of discourse and the message of the Islamic Revolution in today's world and do not negate the importance of the country's military power." Ali Motahari described Hashemi Rafsanjani as a reformist and a caring individual for the revolution. This principlist representative added: "The attacks against Hashemi are not fair."