Iran's Declining Position in OPEC

The newspaper Shargh in the headline of its July 21 issue titled "Gray Sunday" wrote: "Nuclear negotiations are proceeding amid fear and hope." Zeynab Ismaili, a reporter dispatched by Shargh from Vienna, reported that at the negotiation site "time passes slowly and is marked by news, rumors, fatigue, and waiting. Almost no one knows what is happening behind the glass doors of the Coburg Palace; the lights in the rooms remain on, sometimes someone comes to the balcony and waves, and sometimes there is no news for hours. The continuous negotiations in Vienna have entered their third week. Any news, any rumor, any tweet can excite everyone; each message can be interpreted in two ways: positive or negative. Those tired of waiting share the positive message, while the more pessimistic share the negative one. Whether someone has said that news has come, news is on the way. Even if an hour later, the message is deleted after concerns about its impacts." The newspaper wrote: "It seems that this Sunday and Monday, this marathon will reach its final station. Saturday, a semi-holiday, has once again cast a shadow of calm before the storm over Vienna. The latest deadline is July 13 (Tir 23), which has been chosen for the fourth time. Some believe the remaining hours are golden, while others believe that if an agreement is not reached by Monday, negotiations will be postponed to September (Shahrivar) and the margins of the UN General Assembly." The newspaper Etemad dedicated its front page photo to three senior Iranian negotiators Mohammad Javad Zarif, Abbas Araqchi, and Majid Takht-Ravanchi, with the headline "Waiting," stating: "The eyes of Iran and the world are fixed on the last hours of the nuclear marathon on the power of diplomacy in Vienna." Sara Masoumi, a reporter for Etemad, also reported from Vienna that "the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 1+5 have finally entered a phase of moment-to-moment events after two weeks since Saturday morning." The newspaper Kayhan, which is among the media critical of the negotiations and the Geneva agreement and Lausanne understanding, criticized the U.S. commitment to the "Lausanne understanding" on its front page, writing: "The U.S. has no intention of dismounting from the Lausanne horse." This newspaper also wrote: "Given the strange insistence of the Americans on realizing the Lausanne understanding as the final agreement, the question arises: what promises and agreements were made in Lausanne that the Americans are so eager about?" Kayhan also published previous remarks by Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader in this newspaper at the time of announcing the "Lausanne understanding," quoting him as saying: "In the Lausanne understanding, we have given the saddled horse and received the broken reins." The newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported with the title "Western Challenge with Arms Sanctions" that "the negotiations have reached their sensitive days while one of the most important challenges ahead between Iran and the West is the issue of arms sanctions against our country." Javid Qorban-Oghli, a diplomacy expert, in an editorial for the Iran newspaper titled "The Crime of the Path to Agreement" wrote: "The negotiations are spending their final days, hours, and perhaps minutes, and their rhythm is accelerating with each moment, and the world is in suspense over the emergence of white smoke from the Coburg hotel in Vienna. We are in the last hours of negotiations that have been ongoing for nearly two years." This foreign policy expert emphasized that "it is not an exaggeration to claim that the announcement of reaching an agreement between the 1+5 negotiators and Iran should be considered the most significant political event in the world in recent decades," stating that this "is a clear indication of the effectiveness of wisdom and rationality in confronting and resolving one of the most complex and intricate open cases in the field of international relations." The editorial writer of the Iran newspaper explicitly praised the positive role of the U.S., writing: "It must be acknowledged that the new approach of the negotiating parties with Iran, especially the U.S., was one of the important factors for realizing this event." Javid Qorban-Oghli wrote: "Certainly, the announcement of a comprehensive agreement with the 1+5 will have an earthquake-like impact on the region and the world. In light of this transformation, Iran's relations with the world will undergo an undeniable transformation. Having a structured program to manage these transformations, both in the chaotic region surrounding the country and on a global level, is a priority for foreign policy." Meanwhile, several newspapers close to the hardliners, including the Resalat newspaper, quoted the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic as saying: "Prepare yourself for the continuation of the struggle against arrogance." This newspaper, referring to Ali Khamenei's speech to a group of students, quoted the Supreme Leader as saying: "Holding mixed concerts to create excitement in universities is a wrong act." The Law newspaper reported on the request of the father of Mohsen Rouh al-Amini, one of the victims of the Kahrizak detention center, for the summons of Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam and Ahmad Reza Radan to court. The Etemad newspaper published an interview with Ali Soufi, a member of the "Strategic Council of Reformists," reporting on the "formation of provincial councils of reformists for the upcoming parliamentary elections" in various provinces of Iran. The Shargh newspaper reported that "according to the latest annual report of the OPEC secretariat, Iran ranked fourth in production and eighth in terms of exports in OPEC in 2014." This newspaper reminded that Iran "for over five decades since the establishment of this organization, has usually ranked second in OPEC in terms of production and exports," but according to the "annual statistical bulletin of the OPEC secretariat," with the decline of Iran's position during 2014, Iran "ranked fourth in production and eighth in terms of exports in OPEC." R-Etemadi [Rajabali Etemadi], a journalist from the years before the revolution and a well-known writer of popular stories in Iran, criticized the low circulation of books in Iran in an interview with the Aftab Yazd newspaper, stating: "We have 20 million educated people, but the circulation of books is 500 copies."