Survey: What kind of politician is Zarif?

He has been honored as Iran’s Man of the Year twice. Nuclear negotiations are his key priority. He routinely  enrages Iran’s hardliners, and has become one of their favourite targets for abuse — but the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prays for him. President Rouhani has compared him to the most revered commanders of the Iran-Iraq war. He is known by several nicknames, including the “Iranian Kissinger.” He is Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.  

As nuclear negotiations came to a close in Vienna, all eyes were on Zarif. In IranWire’s latest survey, we asked our Persian audience: With nuclear talks between Iran and the group of P5+1 countries drawing to a close, considering the role that Foreign Minister Zarif in negotiations, what kind of  politician do you think he is? 

Survey participants were asked to choose from the following options: 

1. Zarif represents a faction in Iran that believes that its interests and the interests of the regime lie in peaceful relations with other countries.

55.3 percent chose this option.

Zarif’s diplomacy has focused on peace; survey results indicate that he has been successful in projecting this image.

This image becomes even more as important is when it is compared to the bellicose image of Iran under Ahmadinejad.

2. Zarif is no different from other officials in the Islamic Republic. Like them, his main aim is the survival of the regime by any means.

34.7 percent agreed with this statement.

Options one and two both imply a belief that Zarif is loyal to the regime. So, taking into consideration the number of people who chose either option one or option two, 90 percent of those polled believe that Zarif is loyal to the Islamic Republic.

3. Zarif is under the influence of the West and has Western leanings when it comes to politics. He is on a mission to bring the downfall of the Islamic Republic.

1.1 percent of those polled agreed with the above statement.

However, many Iranian hardliners who oppose President Rouhani subscribe to this view.

4. None of the Above.

8.9 percent chose this option. 

Survey participants were asked to explain why they chose this option. Some of the most interesting comments follow.

  “Don’t you think you could have offered other options as  well? For example, that he loves his people and is doing his national duty, and of course his job, and what he is an expert in? Your two choices are that he is with the West or with the Islamic Republic. The [Persian] expression that ‘an unbelieverbelieves that everybody believes in his religion’ was made for sites like yours.”

  "A few years ago the regime needed someone like Jalili [the chief nuclear negotiator under President Ahmadinejad] to go there, waste time and use the opportunity to build a bomb. But when worthless papers filled His Excellency’s pockets and he could no longer...extend his realm and fight all the world, he looked for somebody who could smile — to be honest Jalili could not smile — and who had been         educated on the other side of the water and had grown up there. Now how come everything has suddenly changed? If you think this has been a result of Rouhani’s diplomacy, I have to say that you are a simpleton."

Views about Zarif are bound to keep changing, as will speculations about the consequences of a nuclear agreement. Whatever happens in terms of public opinion, it is clear that debate over Zarif’s role as nuclear negotiator will continue, and media attention will not shift away from him any time soon.