Iran’s election frontrunner berated on nuclear policy in debate

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator and hardline presidential hopeful, Saeed Jalili, was the focus of stinging attacks by rival candidates in a live television debate for what they said was his failure in nuclear talks with six major powers.

The heated debate was a rare glimpse of the deep differences at the highest echelons of Iran’s political hierarchy about how to proceed with the nuclear programme. The Islamic regime considers the nuclear issue an “inalienable right” which should not be discussed in public.

Ali-Akbar Velayati, a conservative former foreign minister, levelled the harshest criticism of Mr Jalili’s handling of the nuclear dossier.

“We have not moved one step forward, while the pressure on people is increasing every day [because of sanctions],” Mr Velayati told Mr Jalili. “Diplomacy is not a class of philosophy,” he said, accusing Iran’s nuclear negotiator of “reading statements” and missing opportunities when sitting at the negotiating table with the six powers.

Mr Jalili defended his record and insisted his policy of “resistance” against western countries was more successful than that of more moderate negotiators, adding that they not only failed to deter foreign threats but encouraged the US to include Iran in the “axis of evil”.

Iranian analysts and western diplomats do not credit Mr Jalili with holding any real authority in the country’s talks with the US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, instead seeing him as a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say in all state affairs.

Mr Jalili’s close relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei has given rise to speculation that he is the top leader’s favourite candidate for president in the June 14 poll, although Mr Velayati is also a senior adviser to the supreme leader on foreign affairs.

“They wanted to exchange a jewel for candy,” Mr Jalili said of the last round of talks in Almaty in April when the six powers offered suspension of uranium enrichment at 20 per cent concentration in exchange for some modest relief for sanctions.

Mr Velayati blamed Mr Jalili for rejecting the offer and insisting on the removal of bigger restrictions – a reference to oil sanctions – and clearly showing that “you did not want to move things forward”.

“This diplomacy is not nuclear diplomacy,” Mr Velayati said.

The debate is likely to increase the votes of regime loyalists for Mr Jalili, while ordinary people – who struggle with high inflation and unemployment partly caused by sanctions – could cast more ballots for Mr Velayati.

Mohsen Rezaei, a former top commander of the Revolutionary Guards and a presidential candidate, also challenged Mr Jalili’s election slogan of “resistance” which he said has aggravated Iran’s economic woes.

“Do you mean that we have to resist and keep people hungry?” he asked.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013.