Zarif Discusses JCPOA, Israeli Policies Against Iran, and 'Collaboration with NIAC' in Online Speech

Mohammad Javad Zarif, former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, delivered a lengthy online speech addressing issues such as the JCPOA negotiations, Israel's positions against the Islamic Republic, and his relations with the NIAC organization. In an online meeting held on Tuesday evening, June 6, 2023, in Clubhouse, Zarif commented on the positions of domestic opponents of the JCPOA, stating that "anyone who says guarantees can be obtained in an international commitment is ignorant" and added: "Our friends should not whitewash Trump and say Zarif left the way for him to exit the JCPOA." Zarif claimed that "if Trump exited the JCPOA, he also exited the Treaty of Friendship. Some lawyers tell me that if we had access to the International Court of Justice, Trump could not have exited it." He asserted that a group of critics of the JCPOA should not "whitewash Trump and say Zarif left the way for him to exit the JCPOA," emphasizing that "anyone who says guarantees can be obtained in an international commitment is ignorant." This senior former official claimed that Europeans managed to form a security consensus against Trump after his presidency, but such a consensus did not form against Iran. He stated that he sent "all negotiations and minutes" of the JCPOA to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and acted based on his opinions and after obtaining permission. According to Zarif, the Russians made the nuclear negotiations "difficult and lengthy" because they wanted the Islamic Republic's case to "stay in the Security Council," and despite their "significant obstruction," they "could not succeed." In another part of his speech, Zarif emphasized that without Qassem Soleimani, "we could not have had that active presence in the Bonn Conference related to Afghanistan." He claimed that he coordinated "word for word" discussions and negotiations in Afghanistan with Soleimani. Zarif stated that Bush labeled the Islamic Republic as the "axis of evil" in January 2002, noting that two weeks prior to that speech, Israel had discovered a weapons-carrying ship for Arafat in the West Bank. He also added that Ahmadinejad and his slogan of "the nuclear train without brakes and steering" helped Americans in "securitizing" the Islamic Republic. Zarif claimed that the Islamic Republic, based on a fatwa from Ali Khamenei, was "seeking knowledge" and was not "after nuclear weapons," asserting that "nuclear weapons do not help Iran's security and are dangerous" and "threaten Iran." He stated that if "Israel was truly concerned about the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons, it should have supported the JCPOA," as he argued that the JCPOA "prevented access to nuclear weapons." Zarif claimed that Israel's project was "securitization," and thus "the threat that we are pursuing weapons was in their favor." He emphasized that Israel's problem with the Islamic Republic is not "nuclear weapons" but rather "Iran's irregular wars." The former Foreign Minister also referred to the production of the security series Gando, stating that "the goal of Taeb was to hit me; he thought I had established NIAC." He stated that "NIAC did not receive a single rial from Iran or the UN," explaining that while there were groups that received assistance, NIAC did not receive any money. He noted that his cooperation with NIAC was limited to providing information. Zarif added that there was sensitivity in Iran towards NIAC, and they claimed to be critics of Iran's human rights policies. He mentioned that Taeb thought he had established NIAC and was against them. According to Zarif, the goal of sanctions is to create a rift between the government and the people so that "the people exert pressure and the government changes its mechanisms." He stated that the people's participation in the 2013 elections "opened our hands in negotiations," explaining that "we wanted to break the security consensus against Iran, and that is why we negotiated; lifting sanctions was not our only goal in the negotiations." Jamal Abdi, the head of the "National Iranian American Council" (NIAC), denied any collaboration or support for the Islamic Republic in a conversation with VOA in November 2022, stating that they have always taken their positions based on the wishes and interests of the Iranian people. Zarif also commented on the former president's statements, saying that "when Ahmadinejad spoke about the Holocaust at the UN, I told Araqchi right there that we were doomed." He noted that on the first night Ahmadinejad arrived in America, there was a discussion about removing Zarif and replacing him with "one of my friends who had studied at Imam Sadiq University" as the head due to lobbying by Saeed Jalili. He added that this plan faced opposition, and "after that, I was deprived of political activity for nearly two years and worked as a freelancer." Zarif, who was the ambassador of the Islamic Republic to the UN during Ahmadinejad's presidency, stated that he did not even have access to Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush and ultimately learned about the letter through an American journalist. Mohammad Javad Zarif emphasized that "during my ambassadorship, no tasks were assigned to me from Tehran," and he only presented "two speeches based on personal ideas and was encouraged by the leadership." Note: Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, has a history of making many false statements and has repeatedly claimed, without regard to valid evidence and documents, that there are no political prisoners in Iran or that Bahá'ís are not persecuted. This report of his speech is solely to inform the audience of the latest positions of a senior former official knowledgeable about the behind-the-scenes politics in the Islamic Republic, and given his history, the veracity of these claims cannot be accepted without verification.