Mir-Salim: When They Were Short in Nuclear Negotiations, They Requested Missile Launches

Mostafa Mir-Salim, a candidate for the Iranian presidential election, claimed on Monday, May 7, that Iranian diplomats requested missile launches when they were at a disadvantage in nuclear negotiations. According to the IRIB news agency, Mr. Mir-Salim, who was visiting the University of Science and Technology, responded to a question from an attendee about why missiles are launched during negotiations, stating: "This was the request of the negotiators; if you don't believe it, ask the Minister of Defense." He did not provide further explanation on this matter. However, an 'informed source' at the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied the statements of the presidential candidate a few hours later. This source told the IRNA news agency that "the negotiators exerted the utmost sensitivity to lift the dangerous restrictions imposed by Resolution 1929 on Iran's missile program during the previous government." He added that the nuclear negotiators "never backed down and never requested missile launches, contrary to the strange and new claim of one of the esteemed candidates. It is unclear where these gentlemen have been dreaming to make such statements." Mr. Mir-Salim's claim came during an election meeting after Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of sabotaging nuclear negotiations during his second debate with five other candidates on May 29. On May 5, Mr. Rouhani stated: "We saw what they did; they came and showed how they displayed underground cities to undermine the JCPOA; they wrote slogans on missiles to undermine the JCPOA; so that we could not utilize it 100 percent." These statements prompted an immediate reaction from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, with Masoud Jazayeri, the spokesman for this military organization, saying that "the candidates of the twelfth presidential election should avoid entering into contentious military issues" and, according to him, "should refrain from giving misleading addresses to the people." Tehran and six world powers negotiated for two years to resolve Iran's nuclear case after Hassan Rouhani took office in the 2013 elections, eventually reaching an agreement known as the JCPOA in July 2015. During these negotiations and after the implementation of the JCPOA, the IRGC repeatedly conducted missile tests and even wrote in Hebrew on one of their missiles that "Israel must be destroyed." Gholamhossein Ghaibparvar, the head of the Basij Organization of Iran, emphasized on May 7 in response to Hassan Rouhani's criticism of the slogan "Wipe out Israel" written on one of the IRGC's missiles that "wiping out" this country is part of the "goals" of the Islamic Republic. Support from the Combatant Clergy Association for Ebrahim Raisi In further developments related to the twelfth presidential election, the Combatant Clergy Association, an important conservative organization, issued a statement supporting Ebrahim Raisi's candidacy in the elections. Mr. Raisi is a member of the Combatant Clergy Association, while Hassan Rouhani is also a member of this political organization, although it is said that he has not attended its meetings for years. This is the second significant conservative political organization to support Mr. Raisi in the upcoming elections. Previously, the Society of Teachers of Qom Seminary also supported this electoral candidate. The support of these organizations will tighten the space for Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, another prominent candidate close to the conservative front, who has yet to gain the support of a significant group. In another development, Ebrahim Raisi's campaign wrote a letter to the Guardian Council, complaining about what they called "intimidation and threats to villagers" by the election organizers in recent days. According to Tasnim news agency, this campaign accused the Rouhani government’s Ministry of Interior of attempting to "engineer votes," claiming that "some village councils announced that not voting for the incumbent president would result in the cutting of budgets and facilities for villages, thus attempting to engineer the election atmosphere on a large scale." In the mentioned letter, they called for "increased supervision in villages" and requested the Guardian Council to "pay maximum attention to safeguarding the people's rights." Hashemi-Tabba and the 'benefit' of continuing Rouhani's government Meanwhile, Mostafa Hashemi-Tabba, another presidential candidate, stated in an interview with Young Journalists Club that he considers the continuation of Hassan Rouhani's government to be "beneficial." He called the promises of the two main conservative candidates, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Ebrahim Raisi, to double the "government revenue" and create several million jobs as "exaggerated" and said, "They say we will create 10 million jobs. I can also create one million jobs in a month. For example, I can have bricks made and tell young people to make bricks. Job creation must be useful and constructive, and the produced goods must have buyers." The ongoing controversy over the 'Karaneh' website The issue of creating five million jobs, raised by Mr. Qalibaf and which has drawn much criticism, was also discussed on Tuesday during his meeting with the representative of the Supreme Leader and the Friday Imam of Lorestan, where he stated that "if jobs are not created, a major social crisis will arise in the country." Mr. Qalibaf attributed the closure of the job search website 'Karaneh,' launched by his campaign, to the "four percent" group. The 'four percent' group refers to individuals who, according to him, have access to large bank loans, while the remaining 96 percent do not have such opportunities. The Iranian Minister of Communications denied the Rouhani government's involvement in the closure of this site, but the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the country stated that Mr. Rouhani's campaign had, in a letter dated May 5, "formally complained about the activities of the Karaneh site and requested swift action from security agencies and the Presidential Election Advertising Commission against this site." According to ISNA news agency, Abdolsamad Khormabadi added that this issue was reviewed in the working group for determining the criteria for criminal content and "based on the decision of the majority of members present at the online session, an order was issued to filter and block this site." He added that representatives from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Intelligence participated in this vote on behalf of the government and voted in favor of filtering this site, while the Ministry of Interior voted against it. Mr. Khormabadi emphasized: "The statements of the Minister of Communications, who announced that this site was filtered by judicial order and that the government played no role in its filtering, are false and completely untrue, and certainly if two government members had opposed the filtering of this site, it would not have been filtered." In this context, Sunni elites will announce their opinions regarding the elections "after negotiating with the candidates." Rouhani's hint to electoral rivals: Don't talk about freedom as freedom is embarrassed. Rouhani's complaint about Raisi's statements regarding the cultural fund. The spokesman for Rouhani's campaign: Qalibaf should explain his son's business activities. The Leader of Iran: If there were no elections, nothing would remain of the Islamic Republic.