Golnaz Esfandiari writes for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Is Iran’s conservative camp muscling in on Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with six world powers?
Yes, if you listen to some hard-line lawmakers and media who are reporting that two conservatives have been added to a mysterious panel said to monitor the work of Tehran’s negotiating team.
Not really, if you go by the word of those participating in the negotiations and media close to the government. In fact, they question the existence of any such panel at all.
One thing appears clear amid the murk: there are stark internal differences in Iran when it comes to the country’s approach in talks with the 5+1 Powers (the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany).
Officially, the country’s president and former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rouhani, has been granted the authority to shape Iran’s negotiating position. And with the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president’s team led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has worked out an interim deal in which some international sanctions would be relaxed in exchange for more Iranian transparency and concessions when it comes to its controversial nuclear program.
But hard-liners have been critical of the agreement reached in Geneva in November, describing it as a “defeat”, accusing the negotiating team of making too many concessions, and claiming that Rouhani and Zarif have left them in the dark.
Reports that conservatives have been added to an enigmatic panel that monitors the talks was widely interpreted as a sign that the hard-liners were seeking a bigger role in the negotiations.
The revelation came when senior lawmaker Esmail Kowsari, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, announced the appointments of the unidentified conservatives on January 1. “The team supervising nuclear negotiations will be strengthened for the next round of talks,” Kowsari was quoted as saying by Iranian news agencies. He said the team was created because the previous round of negotiations did not go fully in Iran’s favor.
While Kowsari did not say who was on the monitoring panel, the hard-line Fars news agency and the semi-official Mehr news agency said it included senior officials and the heads of the three government branches — the executive, the judiciary, and the parliament.
Kowsari said that, from now on, positions in the negotiations would be defined by the council and the nuclear team would have to implement them.
Another member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee and a critic of the Geneva deal, Ahmad Bakshayesh Ardestani, claimed that the monitoring panel was formed at the request of Supreme Leader Khamenei. He said the “secrecy” of the nuclear team was among the main reasons for the creation of the body.
However, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, a senior member of the negotiating team, said on January 3 that he was unaware of the existence of any monitoring panel and any appointees that may have been added to it. “I have no information in this regard,” Araqchi said when asked by Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, whether a monitoring panel had been created to supervise the work of the nuclear negotiating team.
Just days later, on January 6, Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Hassan Qashqavi was quoted by the daily Shargh as saying that there was no formal plan by the parliament to supervise the nuclear team.