Parts of the Geneva Agreement Were not Coordinated with Khamenei

Rooz Online

The Nuclear Supervisory Panel Unknown to Some Officials

Even though some political personalities in Iran have confirmed the creation of a new council to supervise the work of the country’s nuclear negotiations team, Majlis lawmakers revealed new details of the panel and characterized the appointments to the body to have been made by the “top officials of the system.”

When the creation of the supervisory panel was announced, some political personalities denied its existence but Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi, a member of the parliament’s national security committee told IRNA news agency that there had been no such panel in the past even though some individuals probably monitored its activities. “The new team must monitor the proper implementation of the intentions of the system (i.e., the regime) and minutely implement the plan given to it. Some Majlis representatives had in the past requested that PMs be selected as observers for the nuclear team, but the president did not agree with this. Regarding the Arak reactor our understanding is that what was done (in Geneva) had not been coordinated with senior officials of the system and this had been a red line which should have been observed. Of course we do not know the conditions the negotiations team was under at the time, and there are also other accusations (against it),” he said.

Agha-Mohammadi said the names of the members of the team would be announced in due time.

Last Wednesday, parliamentarian Mohammad Ismail Kowsari who had also been a member of the Revolutionary Guards in the past, revealed the creation of this new monitoring panel and said that two additional individuals would be added to the team. His reason: “In the first phase, the talks did not progress in our interests as they should and could have.” He said this council “would be determining the minutest details to the negotiations team.”

Kowsari’s remarks were significant because prior to them president Hassan Rouhani had said that he had entered the talks with full authority, meaning he had the full support of Iran’s supreme leader. Rouhani and foreign minister Zarif have repeatedly said that ayatollah Khamenei had been informed of the details of the nuclear talks.

After some reactions by hardline principlists, Kowsari added more details by saying that the decision to create this new panel had been taken by the “senior authorities of the system,” (i.e., the regime). According to him, the heads of the three branches of government and two Majlis representatives are members of the panel.

But despite these details, some hardline principlists have questioned the existence of such a body. Hours prior to the publication of Kowsari’s remarks, Mansoor Haghighatpoor, the number two man at the Majlis committee on national security council had said that the issue had not been discussed at the committee. Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi also had responded to reporters’ question by saying he did not know about the creation of such a panel to supervise the nuclear talks. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a former Majlis speaker, also said that while Majlis representatives could provide recommendations, there had been no plan to create such a body.”

Even Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, the current deputy speaker of the Majlis, denied the existence of such a panel and said, “There is no special group in the Majlis to supervise the nuclear talks, and its existence is questionable.”

Since Rouhani came to office, he shifted the nuclear talks from Iran’s national security council to the foreign ministry. During former presidents Khatami and Ahmadinejad, nuclear talks with the major powers were conducted and directed by the secretary of the national security council. This transfer of course does not mean that the national security council is excluded from reviewing and monitoring the talks, or other issues of domestic and international significance that have a bearing on the country’s security.

It should be noted that after Iran and the 6 major powers, generally knows as the P5+1, signed an interim agreement in Geneva on November 24, 2013, hardline principlists in the Majlis launched their criticism of the administration for its agreement and called for greater transparency. Mohammad Nabavian, a principlist, had said, “The purpose of the talks in Geneva had been to come up with a plan that would ultimately indicate that Iran’s nuclear program was exclusively peaceful in nature. Whereas in the agreement we have made a commitment not to make any enrichment progress in Natanz and not to add even a single additional centrifuge to the existing cascade of 9,000 working centrifuges of a total of between 17,000 and 18,000 centrifuges in the plant. We have also made a commitment not to make any progress on the Arak reactor. But the issue that is most upsetting to us is the issue of monitoring. Three types of monitoring exist; unscheduled without prior notification, unscheduled with prior notification and the third type that was being planned through which cameras would be installed with live transmission. I asked Araghchi what was it that we had gained through the agreement to which he responded that there would be no new sanctions against us. For the next six months, we are allowed to sell our oil at amounts that they have determined and from the 100 billion USD that has been blocked, we would be given access to 8 billion USD through installments in the next six months. This means they will be watching our lives through the cameras and at best will return the money they have taken from us by force through installments.”

Prior to these remarks, 9 Dey Weekly publication belonging to principlist Hamid Rasai had written, “If until yesterday we had been giving our blood so we could proudly say ‘nuclear energy is our natural right,’ from now on we must say, ‘nuclear energy is our natural right if the Americans agree.’ Apparently the most important reason that our negotiations team in Geneva gave away this important point was for the purpose of having the sanctions against us lifted. But have we managed to get rid of the sanctions by doing this? Unfortunately we must say that the lifting of the sanctions is only a mirage because according to the agreement no sanctions will be lifted, but only suspended.”

Principlists also contend that when the US added new companies to the existing black listed companies under sanction, it had violated the Geneva accord.

The Majlis two weeks ago had also proposed a bill that would require Rouhani’s administration to expand its nuclear program to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity, should the Geneva agreement be violated by the other parties or if the “West does not observe the rights of the Iranian nation.”

by Arash Bahmani