Monday, February 10, 2025
HomeIran News NowKhamenei Sends Zarif to Davos in Desperate Attempt to Deflect Global Pressure

Khamenei Sends Zarif to Davos in Desperate Attempt to Deflect Global Pressure


Iranian regime Deputy for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif speaking at the World Economic Forum, January 2025

Three-minute read

The Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, dispatched Mohammad Javad Zarif, Deputy Strategic Advisor to Masoud Pezeshkian, to the World Economic Forum in Davos to counter mounting international pressure. Zarif’s remarks showcased the regime’s duplicity, attempting to project a moderate image while deflecting criticism of its destabilizing policies in the region and its human rights violations at home.

At Davos, in a conversation with CNN’s Farid Zakaria, Zarif denied Tehran’s involvement in the October 7 attacks, claiming, “We were supposed to have a meeting with the Americans on JCPOA renewal on October 9, which was undermined and destroyed by this operation.” He insisted that Iran has no control over regional militias, asserting, “There is not a single instance where these so-called proxies have acted on behalf of Iran.”

Yet, in the same breath, Zarif warned against prematurely celebrating the weakening of Iran’s regional allies, declaring, “Resistance will persist as long as occupation and repression continue. Resistance to Israel existed before the Iranian Revolution and will remain as long as the Palestinian issue remains unresolved.” This contradictory narrative—denying responsibility while affirming ideological support—exposes Tehran’s longstanding strategy of plausible deniability.

Javad Zarif is infamous for his skillful whitewashing and diplomatic rhetoric aimed at downplaying the regime’s atrocities. At the Munich Security Conference in February 2019, when questioned about the Iranian regime’s plot to bomb the Iranian Resistance Free Iran Rally in 2018, Zarif replied, “Do you think we’re crazy? That we’d do this, on that day? We’d at least do it a day before, a day after, 10 days after. To do it on the same day our president comes here? Give us some credit… It could have been a false flag operation. It could have been entrapment. It could have been a rogue operation. But it is certainly not the work of a government. You don’t gain the influence we have by being crazy.”

Similarly, after the IRGC shot down Flight PS752 in January 2020, a leaked recording revealed that Zarif suggested authorities should have tasked him with “explaining the incident,” claiming he would have known “thousands of ways” to justify the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane.

He also conceded that “the truth will never be revealed” due to decisions made at the highest levels of Iran’s government and military, contrasting sharply with his public alignment with the official narrative of human error.

At Davos, Zarif also attempted to deflect scrutiny from Iran’s human rights record, claiming the government had softened its enforcement of mandatory hijab laws. “If you walk the streets of Tehran, you will see women without hijabs. Despite this being illegal, the government has chosen not to put women under pressure,” he said, crediting Pezeshkian’s efforts. He emphasized that “this was a promise by President Pezeshkian, agreed upon by senior officials, including the heads of parliament, judiciary, and the National Security Council.”

However, this claim is at odds with the regime’s actions. Since the 2022 protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, authorities have intensified their crackdown on women defying hijab mandates. Measures include heavy fines, business closures, and arrests. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has warned of increased violence and systemic discrimination under these policies, further exposing Zarif’s statements as hollow.

At the Davos summit, Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, claiming, “If Iran wanted a bomb, it would have built one long ago.” He argued nuclear weapons are developed in hidden labs, not under international supervision, and accused critics of using “Iranophobia and Islamophobia.”

This gambit by Khamenei, embodied in Zarif’s carefully crafted rhetoric, is seen as an attempt to send a message to the Trump administration in hopes of mitigating future pressures and advancing the regime’s long-standing policy of deception. Despite internal opposition from factions close to Khamenei, Zarif was personally approved by the Supreme Leader and appointed outside parliamentary procedures as Masoud Pezeshkian’s strategic advisor, replacing Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to represent Iran in Davos. However, four decades of failed appeasement policies have demonstrated that the true nature of the regime is defined not by the words of figures like Zarif, whom some in the West may label as moderates, but by its actions—regional warmongering, global terrorism, and systematic human rights violations at home.