December 13-2013
. . . sharpening knives
Twenty conservative Majlis deputies have written President Rohani asking him to think about replacing Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, whom they accuse of hurting Iran’s foreign policy and international stature.
The 20 are not even 7 percent of the Majlis membership, but that didn’t stop Zarif from going into orbit.
Zarif complained Tuesday of what he called “slander, profanity and insults” by conservative hardliners. Zarif is not noted as having a thick skin and last month said he had gone to a hospital after another spate of criticism had affected him.
Some hardliners have complained that Iran’s negotiators gave up too much in Geneva by agreeing to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment temporarily in return for only limited relief from sanctions. (In the United States, hardliners complain the Obama Administration gave Iran too much sanctions relief in return for no major change in enrichment.)
Twenty of the 290 Majlis members wrote Rohani Sunday asking him to reassess Zarif’s post after several public statements they described as “indecent,” the Fars news agency reported.
One occurred during a visit to Tehran University in which Zarif was quoted by local media as saying the West feared the might of the Iranian people, rather than its military defenses, which he said the Americans could destroy with a single bomb if they wished.
Zarif later said that this and other contentious comments attributed to him had been skewed or taken out of context.
“It’s a shame that a small minority distorted my response to one of the students’ questions to further their own political views,” Zarif said in a post on Facebook Tuesday.
“They have made up for their discomfort about the passionate support of the people for the government … with insults, profanity and slander.”
In another statement, Zarif was quoted as saying that Iran was ready to negotiate over Abu Musa, one of three disputed islands to which both the Islamic Republic and the United Arab Emirates lay claim.
One of the most outspoken critics of Zarif is Hossain Shariatmadari, editor of the hardline Kayhan daily, who said Zarif had sent a “signal of surrender” to the West and criticized Rohani for saying Iran had all but run out of funds when he took office in August, a fact he blamed on the Ahmadi-nejad Admin-istration’s mismanagement.
“If the enemy receives a message that our coffers are empty, that the regime’s defense system can be destroyed with one bomb, that the absolute sovereignty of Iran over the island of Abu Musa is negotiable, what hope is there against them thinking the hands of our negotiating team are empty, and [they are] marching to victory?” Shariatmadari wrote in an editorial.
