{"id":238877,"date":"2021-04-30T12:30:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T17:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=238877"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:57:16","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T03:57:16","slug":"zarifs-leaked-comments-reveal-that-reform-in-iran-is-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/zarifs-leaked-comments-reveal-that-reform-in-iran-is-an-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Zarif\u2019s Leaked Comments Reveal That Reform in Iran Is an Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iran-zarif-strategy-of-nuclear-program-20012021\"<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s state-run media have begun publishing excerpts from a lengthy leaked interview of the regime\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zarif\u2019s leaked comments underscore what Iran regime critics have always known about the fundamental alignment between \u201chardline\u201d and \u201creformist\u201d factions within the Iranian regime. Even though the audio recording made headlines by featuring rare criticisms of the tensions between Iran\u2019s paramilitary actions and its diplomacy, Zarif used other portions of the interview to express his acceptance of a situation in which military concerns take precedence, and military leaders have the final say in foreign policy decisions. Zarif also reiterated his earlier public reminiscences about close friendships and working relationships with Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the terrorist Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike at the start of 2020.<\/p>\n

Among those earlier remarks was a speech Zarif gave at the IRGC<\/a> headquarters in 2019, shortly after the US designated the entire paramilitary group as a terrorist organization. That designation had long been applied to the Quds Force in recognition of the role it has played in conflicts spanning the Middle East and beyond.<\/p>\n

Zarif described his invitation as a great honor, thereby contradicting any notion that the Guards and the Foreign Ministry were deeply at odds. Although the purpose of that visit was ostensibly to defend the newly-sanctions IRGC divisions and activities, his speech soon focused attention on Soleimani<\/a> and foreign interventions by the Quds Force. Zarif boasted about holding weekly meetings with Soleimani to discuss a joint foreign strategy, and he professed that neither man saw any significant differences between their views.<\/p>\n

If Zarif\u2019s more recent interview walked back that latter claim, it did not walk it back very far. Instead, it offered listeners a deeper recognition of the overlap between Tehran\u2019s diplomatic and paramilitary infrastructure. Zarif<\/a> explicitly acknowledged that the diplomats he oversaw, including ambassadors to Iraq and Syria, were drawn from within the ranks of the IRGC. Such a career path raises serious questions about a diplomat\u2019s commitment to his position\u2019s presumed goals of conflict avoidance and resolution. It also comports with an emerging picture of how the Iranian regime misuses its embassies and diplomatic personnel to advance malign activities in the surrounding region and throughout the world.<\/p>\n

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Iran FM Javad Zarif, and Chieftain terrorist Qassem Soleimani, two side of the same coin<\/div><\/div>
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