Zarif and Mohajeri Respond to Zakhani's Election Interviews: 'You Lied Again'

Alireza Zakhani, one of the six candidates for the Iranian presidential election, faced threats of legal action from Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former foreign minister of Iran, during his campaign on Sunday. Political activist Mohammad Mohajeri also accused him of 'lying' and corruption. Zakhani, considered a hardliner among conservatives and who has held the mayoralty of Tehran for the past three years, made promises during this election, such as constructing 10 million housing units and delivering food items 'with dignity to people's doorsteps', which have become subjects of criticism and sometimes humor on social media. However, his statements regarding Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers, known as the JCPOA, and his attacks on this agreement, which resulted from negotiations by Zarif with his American and European counterparts during Hassan Rouhani's first term, angered the former foreign minister. Zakhani accused Zarif of not reading the nuclear agreement and hiding the JCPOA document from high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic, such as the then Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, emphasizing that the JCPOA was 'not the will of the Islamic Republic'. According to him, the 'will of the system' was 'to negotiate', but the negotiators failed to successfully carry it out. The former foreign minister's office, however, issued a statement accusing Zakhani of 'spreading falsehoods and disturbing public opinion' and warned that if he did not apologize, they would pursue the matter legally. The statement referred to the key term 'heroic flexibility' used by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, regarding nuclear negotiations, stating that the results of the negotiations were regularly reported to Khamenei through meetings of the heads of the three branches of government and that the JCPOA was approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Guardian Council, the Supreme National Security Council, and ultimately by the leader of the Islamic Republic. Zarif's office emphasized that Zakhani could only claim 'the JCPOA was not the will of the system' if he considered himself and his minority supporters equivalent to the system. The statement also addressed the accusation of not reading the JCPOA, stating that Zakhani forgot that 'the full text of the JCPOA, along with its Persian translation, was uploaded to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately after the JCPOA was concluded and made available to the country's media'. Regarding the accusation of hiding the JCPOA from high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic, it stated: 'The least result of Mr. Zakhani's disgraceful claim... means that in such an important matter, all government and supervisory structures of the country were either asleep or incapable during more than two years of negotiations.' The nuclear agreement with world powers, which led to the lifting of sanctions against Iran in exchange for limiting its nuclear program until the arrival of Donald Trump's administration in the U.S., has been a target of severe criticism from conservatives for years. Mohammad Mohajeri: 'Oh God, save our country from lies.' However, it was not only Zarif from the reformist camp who protested against Alireza Zakhani on Sunday; from the conservative camp, Mohammad Mohajeri issued a statement declaring Zakhani's one-year tenure as head of the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly tainted by corruption, a statement titled: 'Mr. Zakhani! You lied again in the television roundtable.' This statement refers to one of Zakhani's television interviews where a program expert asked him about establishing new deputy positions and employing redundant staff in Tehran and Qom without coordination with the Assembly's organs during his time at the Research Center, but he left this issue unanswered. Mohajeri wrote in his statement: 'Mr. Zakhani hired dozens of staff without coordination and requested significant budget amounts for their salaries. I exposed this illegal act, and Mr. Zakhani's organization filed a lawsuit against me.' The statement mentions that the lawsuit was referred to the court, but since Mohajeri's evidence was 'sufficient and court-worthy, and two or three members of Parliament' also confirmed his statements, he was issued 'an acquittal and a non-prosecution order'. Mohajeri continued: 'Thus, Mr. Zakhani, just as he made false statements in his political program that were rejected by officials, has again resorted to falsehood today.' This conservative political activist concluded his statement with the phrase: 'Oh God, save our country from lies.' Alireza Zakhani is competing in this presidential election against four conservative candidates and one candidate supported by reformists, although many believe he is a 'cover candidate' and will eventually withdraw from the competition. In another development, Mansour Arzi, a famous conservative cleric with radical views, criticized the statements of Masoud Pezeshkian, a candidate close to reformists, regarding 'morality patrol' and 'the Noor plan', calling him 'crazy'. On Sunday, Arzi said: 'The police are working hard to implement the Noor plan, and then that crazy man comes and says it is not a Noor plan but a black plan; does he want to become our president?!' This conservative cleric referred to Pezeshkian's comments on June 15, where he stated in an election meeting: 'For 40 years, we have been trying to institutionalize hijab through intervention. Those who are pursuing the Noor plan should say whether this issue leads us to light or ends in darkness?' In response to Mansour Arzi's remarks, Pezeshkian briefly replied, 'If I am crazy, I am crazy for my people, not crazy for power.'