PHOTO: President Rouhani on Tuesday night — Nuclear deal brought “a good climate for the country and its economy”


Facing domestic pressure — including from Iran’s Supreme Leader — President Rouhani defended the nuclear deal with the US and other powers, in a nationally-televised interview on Tuesday night.

Rouhani gave some ground to the Supreme Leader’s claim, in a speech on Monday, that negotiating with the US is “lethal poison”. He accepted Khamenei’s ban on any other diplomatic cooperation with Washington, including over regional crises such as the fight against the Islamic State and the Syrian civil war:

Had the US implemented the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] in good faith, we may have trusted the opposite side and agreed to enter into negotiations with them on another issue, which would have served the interests of the region, the US, Iran and others; however, they did not score well on their test.

The US failed to properly carry out its obligations and missed out on the opportunity for cooperation in other areas.

The President cited specific disappointment over implementation of the nuclear agreement since January, including the “sluggish” return of major foreign banks to the Iranian economy.

However, Rouhani stood by the deal, essential to his plan for Iran’s economic recovery. He pointed to the 40% recovery in Iran’s oil sales, to almost 2 million barrels per day: “[The agreement] has been implemented very well in some areas, like oil exports….The increase in [our] oil production and exports in such a short period of time after the JCPOA surprised the world.”

Khamenei’s speech on Monday raised the prospect that Iran may step away from the JCPOA, signed in July 2015 after more than a decade of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program.

It also fueled speculation that the Supreme Leader may be endorsing a campaign against Rouhani’s re-election in May 2017. Khamenei has been pressing the President for months, criticizing Rouhani’s declaration that the JCPOA would be quickly followed by a “JCPOA 2” for trade and investment after years of US-led sanctions. Instead, the Supreme Leader has been holding up a “Resistance Economy” of self-sufficiency to avoid reliance on implementation of the deal.

The JCPOA has been beset by disputes over the speed and scope of the removal of US-led sanctions. While the plan — contrary to the Supreme Leader’s proclamation that all sanctions would be lifted on “Day 1” — always envisaged that the process would take months, Khamenei has been reinforced by the maintenance and extension of some American financial restrictions.

The situation has been further complicated by the wariness of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which has extensive holdings in the economy and key sectors such as energy, over the re-entry of foreign investors.