Rouhani’s Supporters Are Against Lifting of Sanctions

Speaking to a group of banking officials including those of Iran’s central bank on Monday president Hassan Rouhani said, “With the help of God we will remove these sanctions. Some people of course may not like this. There are some who fish in troubled waters, but the majority of people, the cultured, the youth, theologians, academics and the supreme leader all want to break the chain of these cruel and wrong sanctions and inshallah we will do it.”

Within 24 hours hardline Kayhan newspaper whose editor is directly appointed by the country’s supreme leader responded by pointing the finger of blame on Rouhani’s supporters. Kayhan has been at the forefront of the media opposing a nuclear deal with the West since Rouhani launched his overtures to the West.

Kayhan editorialized in insinuating words, “It was the ill-intentioned who provide the address of sanctions to the arrogants (a term some Iranian officials use for the West and particularly the United States) to harm the Iranian people.” The article continued, “These people incidentally are the very same ones who deceitfully claim that they are supporters of the administration and the president, and Mr. Rouhani has succeeded in winning the votes through them! They are deeply part of the 2009 sedition (a term some officials use for the 2009 public protests against the rigged elections election) and are now striving to free themselves from the accusations against them through false groupings. If removing the sanctions is really the goal, then these people must be put aside.”

Rouhani on his part has on a number of public occasions openly and strongly attacked those who criticize his administration for its talks with the West over the nuclear issue. In one speech about four months ago he said, “Some chant slogans but are political cowards, they openly say that they shiver whenever talks take place. You can go to hell, to a place where you will not shiver.”

News outlets such as Kayhan and Vatan Emrouz run by Mehrdad Bazrpash, Raja News website and politicians close to the hardline Steadfast Front claim that Rouhani’s diplomats have plans to cross the red lines that have been set by the regime leadership for the nuclear talks. Officials from Rouhani’s administration have repeatedly refuted such claims. Just yesterday, the spokesperson of Iran’s atomic energy organization Behrouz Kamalvandi told a TV network that the administration did not intend to stop work at Fardow and Arak or ship uranium out of the country.

Kamalvandi also said that while the Western negotiators were initially after closing the Fardow and Arak nuclear plants, they are no longer calling for that. The next issue of contention between the two sides, according to him is the level of enrichment.

It should be noted that while uranium was enriched to 20 percent purity levels at the Fardow enrichment plant in 2013, these activities have been frozen because of and since the November 2013 Geneva interim Joint Plan of Action accord between Iran and the six world powers and enrichment remains at no more than 5 percent purity level. The stockpiles of 20 percent LEU hexafluoride enriched uranium have also been converted to oxide form.

But Kamalvandi went even further and said that under certain circumstances it was possible to completely forego enrichment activities. “If we can obtain our enrichment needs less expensively than the cost of producing it domestically, we will definitely do this.”

In the meantime, Iran’s leading official at the nuclear talks deputy foreign minister Araghchi said, after the new round of talks that were held in Geneva on Monday between Iran and the six world major powers, “The atmosphere of the talks was good but there is still a gap. Almost all of the issues between us were discussed, particularly the sanctions, both at the deputy foreign minister level and at the experts level.” He also spoke of the very specific details of issues at the talks and stressed, “There are solutions on some issues while more efforts and talks are needed on others.

The Geneva round that began this Monday are the first time that talks are held over all the issues for a comprehensive solution between Tehran and the P5+1 powers.