Hashemi Rafsanjani: Short-sighted individuals oppose both the JCPOA and lifting house arrest

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council, criticized opponents of the JCPOA on Wednesday, July 13, in Kerman, stating: "There are some short-sighted views within the country that oppose both the JCPOA and the lifting of house arrest." According to the "Rooz No" website, during a meeting with officials from Azad University and managers in Kerman province, he emphasized: "The achievements of the JCPOA are very significant, but these achievements have remained hidden from the people." The official website of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also published a report on his remarks during his trip to Kerman, but his comments regarding lifting house arrest were not included. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, three prominent figures from the 2009 protests, have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011, and efforts to lift their house arrest have not yielded results. Lifting house arrest was one of the demands raised during Hassan Rouhani's presidential campaign in June 2013, and after winning the 11th presidential election, he made promises to resolve the issue. However, earlier, Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, stated that the council cannot currently report on the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi. Mehdi Karroubi, one of the detainees, in a letter to Hassan Rouhani in April this year, emphasized that he does not consider lifting house arrest to be "in his hands," and requested that the president ask what he called a tyrannical regime to hold a public trial for him. According to the official website of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in another part of his speech on the anniversary of the JCPOA's approval, he criticized those who say: "The JCPOA had no achievements," saying: "Pay attention to the issue of oil sales, how we were previously sanctioned, how we sold, and how we sell now." He also referred to the state of Iranian shipping, adding: "Consider the days before the JCPOA when none of the world's ports allowed entry, or remember the plane crashes that critics do not understand with what logic they oppose updating Iran's flight lines." According to the member of the Assembly of Experts, the achievements of the JCPOA are significant enough to be proud of. He described the government's work in this regard as "very foundational and correct." Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani announced one of the honors of the nuclear negotiations as Iran's membership in the "ITER" project, stating: "In the early years of negotiations, the Western side offered us to participate in ITER instead of managing our own Atomic Energy Organization, which we did not accept." "ITER" is one of the largest international scientific collaborations and projects being implemented in France with the participation of 34 countries. In this project, which is an international nuclear fusion project, scientists are trying to provide cheap, clean, and sustainable energy using the same fusion process that occurs in the sun. Iranian scientists from the Plasma Physics Research Center of the Islamic Azad University are also collaborating on the ITER project.