Supreme Leader’s military advisor condemns “new plot” by Washington

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Iran has firmly pushed back a US effort for inspection of Iranian military sites under the cover of the July 2015 nuclear agreement.

Despite discussion of the issue in negotiations, the deal between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany) ruled out any such inspections, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly said that Iran is complying with the terms over its nuclear program — a finding twice endorsed by the Trump Administration since January.

However, the Administration has maintained some sanctions on Tehran, and is hoping to step up pressure on the Islamic Republic. Last Wednesday the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, met IAEA officials, and she declared two days later that the inspections were necessary because of “covert” nuclear efforts.

Iranian Foreign Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately responded that the American line is a “violation of the 2015 nuclear deal and independence of the IAEA”, and Iran’s military added its voice on Sunday through the Supreme Leader’s advisor Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi.

The former head of Iran’s armed forces said Haley was the US agent to hatch a “new plot and she is lying”: “Through this puppetry, Trump wants to divert the world’s attention from racist conflicts in America, but he will fail in this seditious effort as well.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi added:

We will pursue our course of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency within the framework of our past obligations and we will surely not surpass the Islamic Republic of Iran’s red lines.

We will not surrender to the excessive demands of certain governments.

He asserted that the IAEA, with its “independence”, is “unlikely to give in to the illogical and unrealistic demands that others may force on them”.

Ex-Foreign Minister and Dissident Yazdi Dies

Ebrahim Yazdi, a former Foreign Minister who later became a prominent dissident, has died in Izmir in western Turkey.

Yazdi, 85, was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

Yazdi became the Foreign Minister in the transitional government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Along with Bazargan and the rest of the Cabinet, he resigned in November 1979 over the occupation of the US Embassy and seizure of 52 of its personnel.

A founding member of the secular Freedom Movement of Iran, Yazdi continued as leader until the group was banned by the regime in 2002. In 2011, amid the mass protests following the disputed 2009 Presidential election, he was sentenced to eight years in prison on security charges.

Later released on bail for health reasons, Yazdi then kept a low profile.