Moslehi Insults Zarif

After Ahmadinejad administration’s intelligence minister belittled Hassan Rouhani’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif retreated from his original remarks about the military power of the Islamic republic versus the United States. At the same time, the former top commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps attacked White House’s policies and pro-state Fars news agency played a video criticizing the United States.

Even though Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardline minister of intelligence has been gone for four months from his cabinet post, he continue to attack cabinet ministers in Hassan Rouhani’s administration. The latest of such verbal attacks resulted in Zarif’s retraction of his express remarks on the military power of the Islamic republic of Iran.

Zarif, whose remarks at Tehran University were strongly rebuked by Heidar Moslehi, tried on Saturday to rephrase and deflect what he had said earlier. “In response to a question, I stress the role of power of public resistance and at the end of the session I also said that what the US fears is the resistance of the Iranian people while at the same time we are proud of our defensive powers and capabilities and also those of the Basij, which are irrefutable,” he said.

Four days earlier, speaking at Tehran University, Zarif had responded to questions from Basiji forces in a different light. He had expressly said that the military power of the Islamic republic was small compared to that of the United States: “Do you really think that the US, which with a single bomb can destroy all our military systems, is afraid of our military power? Is it really because of our military power that the US is not taking us on?” Moslehi did not like this, spoke out, forcing Zarif to respond differently and present a more acceptable message.

These remarks were made even as Revolutionary Guards and hardline politicians have been since the first year of the Islamic republic, and particularly during Ahmadinejad’s eight year presidencies, proclaiming the view that the United States had not engaged the Islamic republic in war because of its fear of the military might of the Islamic republic.

Last year, for example, on the anniversary parade of the start of the Iran-Iraq eight-year war, IRGC air wing commander Hajizadeh had said, “We announce that with these capabilities (that we have) we will not allow anyone to think about invading Iran.”

Hassan Firuzabadi, the top commander of Iran’s armed forces had also made similar remarks. “Today the armed forces have acquired modern defensive means to the point that no country has the courage to attack Iran,” he said.

Amir Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the commander of the army echoed these words. “If anyone takes steps to implement a threat, the armed forces of the Islamic republic would give it a teeth-breaking response.”

For intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi, who was among the extremist members of Ahmadinejad’s second term, responded to Zarif’s remarks on Thursday and said, “A person who was amid university students has said that if the US wants, it can destroy all Iran’s nuclear and strategic facilities in ten minutes. I am looking for that person to tell him he has no right to speak. You have no knowledge of the country’s defensive power and are not in the main stream of the revolution. How can you allow yourself to make such remarks?”

Prior to this, ayatollah Khamenei-appointed editor of Kayhan newspaper had expressly accused the Iranian nuclear negotiations team of “giving ransom” and of “being under the influence of the seditionists,” a term used for the Green Movement leaders who challenged the 2009 presidential election. Still, this was the first time that an Islamic republic official had said that a member of Rouhani’s cabinet was not in line with the path of the revolution.

Moslehi decided to use Zarif’s remarks and twist them to attack Rouhani’s administration and its foreign minister. He had previously harshly criticized Rouhani’s brief telephone talk with US president Barack Obama in New York.

Fars news agency provides a video on its website titled “Six Decades of US Intervention in Iran’s Affairs” which quotes the supreme leader’s words about distrusting the US government, which it says is in the hands of international Zionism.