Pushed to the Margins, Iran’s Hardliners Peddle Rumor

On the evening of July 13, as Iran’s nuclear negotiations in Vienna sped toward a final reckoning with the arrival of US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian state television led with some jaw-dropping news: Iranian negotiators had asked for the suspension of negotiations so they could observe the holy nights of Ramadan.

That the Iranian team would break off negotiations, intended to arrest the country’s economic freefall, at their most delicate juncture seemed astonishing. It was also untrue. But the report overshadowed the real news – that a deal was close and the two countries were engaged in talks at the highest level in decades – for several hours.

For the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, such hardline mischief making is nothing new. Opponents to a nuclear deal have sought to sabotage the government for months through a relentless campaign of speculation and rumor mongering, stoking public confusion through an attempt to portray the negotiating team as devout Muslims who put religion first and national interest second.

In May 2012 when negotiations between Iran and the so called P5+1 countries were taking place in Istanbul, Mashhad Friday sermon leader, Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, said talks had stalled because of a scheduling clash with evening prayers. He claimed that each side’s negotiation team had been meant to enter a conference hall at the same time, but that the Iranian team, led by then lead negotiator Saeed Jalili, refused to enter and instead gathered in a corner to heed the call to prayer. “The nuclear powers had to wait for our boys [to finish] so that they could enter at the same time.”

This time around, the Iranian negotiators in Vienna denied state television's report, and a diplomat told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that his team would would be working diligently through the holy nights to find a solution to the nuclear crisis.

If Ramadan wasn’t cause enough to break off the talks, the hardline Society of Islamic Students asked the Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to suspend negotiations for one day, to bring world attention to the Israeli siege of Gaza. Given that Israel and Hamas have engaged in shoot-outs over Gaza at various points for the past two years, and that the July 20 deadline for a nuclear accord is looming, this seems a peculiar request.

What is clear is that with the arrival of John Kerry, the talks have entered an unprecedented phase of seriousness, and that Zarif is sharply focused on keeping the media climate calm. After his first meeting with Kerry he said both sides must work to bride differences rather than clinging to "red lines."

The notion of diplomatic lines in the sand, however, has been mainly raised by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whose public speech several days ago invoking confidential details leaked from the talks, seemed a warning to Iranian negotiators.

On July 13 Mehdi Mohammadi, a member of the nuclear team under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote in an op-ed piece in a hardline newspaper that the Supreme Leader “wanted to correct the negotiating process by revealing the red lines. Now Vienna is the site of fighting over calculations.”

Khamenei’s statements, wrote Mohammadi, showed “strong self-confidence.” The side which “draws red lines—publicly and at the highest level—views itself in a position of strength. It is not worried that the negotiations might fail and will not allow its enemies to decide the future of its country.”

But Zarif’s team seems determined to avoid such public rhetoric, regardless of its tactics at the negotiating table. “Next Sunday we can make history,” Zarif wrote in his latest Tweet, with the same measured tone he has used to great effective in other media appearances.

 “Trust is a two-way street and to reach an agreement the concerns of both sides must be addressed. I do not play the blame game. This is not my style. What I engage in is an honest effort to reach an agreement.”

Inside Iran, however, the hardline array of opponents who seek to undermine an agreement remain hard at work. On July 14 the hardline Committee to Protect Iranian Interests reported that it would hold a conference called “Red Lines,” a platform where critics of the Rouhani government can make their case to the public.  A reported 30 Iranian MPs will participate in the conference, most of whom supported Saeed Jalili, the chief nuclear negotiator under Ahmadinejad.

While notably the criticism has reached nothing like a crescendo, it stills continues to sting when it can. Two members of parliament told Tasnim News Agency that if the West does not accept the Iran’s enrichment demands Tehran would terminate the talks. They said the underground Fordo nuclear facility near Qom is a “red line” for Iran.

This remarks underscores how distanced hardliners today are from the actual substance of the talks, and it is perhaps this marginalisation that is proving so irksome. If being pushed to the side is cause for mischief, we can expect more rumour and meddling in the weeks ahead.