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Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif's Leaked Tape: Revolutionary Guards and Soleimani Sought to Control Iranian Diplomacy

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Iran Desk and Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall - In a leaked interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lamented the depth of the involvement of Gen. Qassem Soleimani - the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force commander who was assassinated by the U.S. in January 2020 - in Iran's foreign policy, and the MFA's subordination to the military imperatives of the IRGC. Zarif discloses that the Obama administration's secretary of state, John Kerry, informed him in June 2016, after the nuclear deal, of "at least 200 cases of Israeli attacks on IRGC targets in Syria. I as foreign minister was amazed since I did not know anything about this." The interview unambiguously illustrates Iran's regional order of priorities and the limited role of diplomacy in determining it. The Iranian Foreign Ministry is charged with whitewashing the effects of Iran's subversion, terror, and human rights violations and with moderating the West's response to Iran's malignant activity throughout the world and its nuclear activities. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Russia opposed the nuclear deal and attempted to sink it. The IRGC keeps pursuing nuclear activity under its own aegis, while the Foreign Ministry serves as a fig leaf to provide Iran with room for maneuver vis-a-vis the West. The Foreign Ministry's role is to create a mirage of political activity that affords time and facilitates the nuclear activity. Zarif's interview, leaked from within Iran, was most probably aimed at destroying his professional career and preventing him from running in the June 18 presidential elections.
2021-04-29 00:00:00
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