Ayatollah Khamenei and the Responsibility of the Nuclear Gamble

Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and threatened to intensify sanctions on Iran by 'taking the Iranian economy hostage.' Despite this major violation of the nuclear agreement by the U.S., the Islamic Republic has not exited the JCPOA. Tehran has decided to maintain a 'conditional survival' in the agreement. Ayatollah Khamenei has not opposed this decision. It can certainly be said that his letter dated October 20, 2015, has been violated. According to this letter, Mahmoud Nabavian (a critic of the JCPOA) considered Khamenei's approval of the agreement conditional on the adherence to 28 conditions. This means that if even one of the numerous conditions set by the leader is not met, the implementation of the JCPOA by the Islamic Republic should be nullified. However, this has not happened. He has thus far accepted conditional survival in the JCPOA. It seems as if the violation of his letter indicates that his nuclear flexibility is not a 'heroic flexibility.' In contrast, he merely repeated the famous slogan, saying, 'I say on behalf of the Iranian people, Mr. Trump, you can't do anything.' Khamenei does not take responsibility for the nuclear gamble. In this same speech, he attributes the nuclear loss to the 'high-ranking officials' of the country, considering it a mistake on their part that only God can forgive. He stated, 'They should not think that 'Sir, why are you insisting on this issue?' Some people used to tell us; may God forgive their mistakes. The decision of the system to negotiate nuclear issues with the Great Satan is surprising for the leader of the Islamic Republic, as he quoted memories from senior officials who advised him to abandon the nuclear project. He said, 'When the nuclear issue and sanctions began, there were high-ranking officials who came to me and said, 'Why are you insisting on this nuclear issue? Why are you insisting? The Americans are making excuses; let it go, let's make it easy for ourselves.' They told me this. Of course, this was wrong. I have said this many times.' He then presents his reasoning in response to those 'high-ranking officials,' stating that 'we will need twenty thousand megawatts of nuclear electricity in a few years; where will we get it from? When we need it, should we just start looking for nuclear energy and nuclear facilities then? Should we start then? The generations of that day will curse us for not starting when we should have.' He also presents a second argument against those high-ranking officials, asserting that 'even if we didn't need it; I told them that the issue of the U.S. making excuses and the sanctions they impose on us and the enmity they show us is not related to nuclear energy; it is an excuse; if we put this aside, they will find another excuse and continue their enmity. They said, 'No, sir, it is not like that'; now you see that it is like this. We accepted the nuclear issue in the JCPOA in a way that our opponents wanted, but the enmity did not end.' Khomeini, without shifting responsibility to anyone, without a hint of sarcasm or curse, took responsibility for ending the pointless war and said he would drink the 'cup of poison.' However, Khamenei absolves himself of everything and refers his advisors to God. With this statement, he considers himself not deceived by the U.S. but deceived by the 'high-ranking officials' of the country and asks God to 'forgive their mistakes.' Khamenei's statement is a significant admission of his four assessments of the process that led to negotiations with the U.S. (the Great Satan in the Islamic Republic's rhetoric). These four admissions are: First: Khamenei's admission that the JCPOA is an agreement favorable to the opponents (read: the U.S. and Europe). Second: Khamenei's admission that 'we (read: the leader) went along with it.' Third: Khamenei's admission that despite this nuclear agreement, 'the enmities did not end,' and now 'they are raising the issue of the Islamic Republic's presence in the Middle East, the missile issue.' Fourth: Despite the important arguments he had against his advisors, Khamenei ultimately sided with their advisory vote and issued the order for 'heroic flexibility' and did not refuse to negotiate with the Great Satan. These four admissions by Khamenei are an important assessment that the leader of the Islamic Republic believes he has lost everything in the nuclear gamble. He has neither nuclear capability in hand nor economic relief achieved. However, perhaps the most important thing is that he does not take responsibility for this nuclear gamble. In this same speech, he considers the nuclear loss to be the 'fault of high-ranking officials' of the country and regards it as a mistake on their part that only God can forgive. He said, 'They should not think that 'Sir, why are you insisting on this issue?' Some people used to tell us; may God forgive their mistakes.' Khamenei has not specified who those high-ranking officials are so that we know which senior officials he has referred to God to forgive their mistakes, but at least one thing is clear to us: Khamenei does not consider himself guilty before God. He considers the 'high-ranking officials' guilty before God. However, he does not. It seems as if he has given lessons on 'enemy recognition' for over three decades. It seems as if he considered the U.S. the Great Satan. It seems as if he was the one who issued the order for nuclear negotiations. It seems as if he ultimately issued the command for 'heroic flexibility!' It seems as if he was the one who described the U.S. hand as 'a fist of iron in a velvet glove.' Despite all this, all his senior advisors are guilty before God, but he is not. This is the difference between Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Khomeini, who, without shifting responsibility to anyone, without a hint of sarcasm or curse, took responsibility for ending the pointless war and said he would drink the 'cup of poison.' However, Khamenei absolves himself of everything and refers his advisors to God. With this statement, he considers himself not deceived by the U.S. but deceived by the 'high-ranking officials' of the country and asks God to 'forgive their mistakes.'