Karimi Qodosi Filed a Complaint Against His Accusers

The Deputy Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament announced that Jawad Karimi Qodosi, the representative of Mashhad, has filed a complaint against his accusing colleagues who had accused him of "revealing state secrets and colluding with foreigners." Abolfazl Hassanbeiki, the second deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said in an interview with the Mizan news agency on Thursday, January 9, that Mr. Karimi Qodosi's complaint will first be reviewed by the "Parliamentary Disciplinary Committee and then, due to the personal nature of the complaint, will be examined in court." Hassanbeiki's reference to the review of this complaint in the "Parliamentary Disciplinary Committee" may refer to the board overseeing the conduct of parliament members. He emphasized that the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has not yet concluded that Jawad Karimi Qodosi has committed any misconduct that warrants a complaint against him. According to Hassanbeiki, there is an unwritten agreement that "ordinary discussions" raised in the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission should be announced by the spokesperson of this commission, but legally, there is no prohibition against any member wishing to announce them. He stated that there was "no confidential point" in the statements made by Mr. Zarif that the Mashhad representative had published. Hassanbeiki added, "I told the chairman of the National Security Commission that if these (the representatives who complained about Qodosi) do not rectify the recent events by Saturday (January 11), I will reveal the behind-the-scenes issues in Parliament." He emphasized that the disclosure of the foreign minister's statements "legally" does not concern the parliament members, and the Foreign Ministry can file a complaint in this regard. Hassanbeiki also mentioned that the meeting between the foreign minister and parliament representatives did not take place at the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission's location, and therefore, this commission has no legal responsibility regarding the "leakage of issues." Masoud Pezeshkian, the first deputy speaker of the parliament, had reported on Tuesday, January 6, about the representatives' complaint against Jawad Karimi Qodosi to the board overseeing the conduct of parliament members. On Wednesday, a statement was released quoting the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, which described the disclosure of the foreign minister's statements by Mr. Karimi Qodosi as an "unforgivable sin" and "illogical misconduct and creating unnecessary controversy." The next day, Aladdin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, announced that although this statement was approved by the majority of the commission's members, since the commission had not convened on the matter, it is "not official." On Sunday, January 5, Jawad Karimi Qodosi, the representative of Mashhad, published statements made by Mohammad Javad Zarif. Previously, this member of the National Security Commission had claimed that the Iranian foreign minister had "confessed" to a mistake regarding the JCPOA and stated that he should not have "trusted" John Kerry's words. However, according to the text published by Karimi Qodosi, Mohammad Javad Zarif says that initially, the ISA (Iran Sanctions Act) was supposed to be included in the JCPOA text, but the Americans said that mentioning this law in the JCPOA text would bring Congress into the picture and would require Congress's vote on the JCPOA. According to Zarif's statements, John Kerry verbally accepted that the extension of the Iran sanctions law would violate the JCPOA, but the American team said that it could not be included in the text, as it would involve Congress. Zarif, detailing phone calls with Kerry and meetings between officials of the two countries, states that the U.S. government did not foresee that Donald Trump could win, and for this reason, it was confident that it could prevent the implementation of sanctions. The Iranian foreign minister further states that for this reason, he, as an Iranian official, should not have made a public statement about the violation of the JCPOA before the U.S. government could prevent the ratification of sanctions in Congress and should have kept Congress's actions separate from the JCPOA. Zarif also says, "In a letter I wrote in September to Ms. Mogherini, I stated that this should not happen, and I also wrote to the United Nations that the laws would expire and its extension would violate the JCPOA, even though it is not in the JCPOA text. This is our interpretation." In other words, Zarif implicitly states that according to the JCPOA text, the extension of sanctions is not a violation of the JCPOA, but an extraneous agreement was made regarding it. Mohammad Javad Zarif states, "Based on the agreement we made with Mr. Kerry, and I am now saying this, I am not saying it publicly, but I am telling you, I made a mistake based on an agreement we made; we set aside our strategy and based on that agreement, we came to announce it, which became the position of the Islamic Republic." After the publication of this text of Zarif's statements by Karimi Qodosi, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing this representative of the Front of Steadfastness of disclosing confidential discussions and negotiating tactics of the negotiating team. In this context, the statement of the National Security Commission of the Parliament confirmed Zarif's statements, the Foreign Ministry's reaction to Karimi Qodosi's new claim regarding "contact with Trump," and Motahari: Karimi Qodosi incorrectly reflected confidential information.