Iran's Ex-President Says He Could Have Made A Nuclear Deal In 2021

On July 17, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had said Iran has the technical capability to build a nuclear bomb.

The Republican senator from Iowa told Iran International’s Arash Aalaei on Monday that "I believe his comments should be a wake-up call for President Biden's administration and for the rest of the Middle East.”

About the bicameral effort to create a united front against “Iranian aggression” in the Middle East, she said, “I have the DEFEND Act which will bring the Abraham Accords countries together, some of our other partners, friends and allies in the region, and provide a collaborative effort to provide a protective defense against Iran.”

The Deterring Enemy Forces and Enabling National Defenses (DEFEND) Act is a joint effort by Congress to develop a strategy for signatories of the Abraham Accords and other countries to combat Iranian destabilizing activities threatening peace and security in the Middle East. 

CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla and IDF Chief of Staff Lt General Aviv Kochavi discussed on Sunday, July 17, “the importance of an integrated air and missile defense system.”

“It's very worrisome that they have the technology and they can move forward so quickly. So, we need to be aware of this and we need to know and understand that Iran is never going to operate in our best interest," Ernst noted. 

Gharazi argued that the Guardian Council, a body tasked with vetting presidential and parliamentary candidates and ensuring that all legislations are consistent with the religious law (Shari'ah) and the country's Constitutional Law is so powerful that politicians have lost the courage to question its behavior.

Gharazi's comment as part of an interview with Didban Iran website comes a few days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reinstated Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 96, and two other clerics for another six years.

Although the Guardian Council's very existence has always contradicted the Iranian establishment's claim about being a democratic system, its decision to disqualify nearly all of pro-reform candidates since 2019 has made it subject to many criticisms from within the system.

The Guardian Council, which was established in 1980, has 12 members, including 6 clerics chosen by Khamenei, and 6 lawyers chosen by the Judiciary Chief and endorsed by the parliament. The 6 clerics do not need the blessing of the parliament. In fact, as the Judiciary chief is also directly appointed by Khamenei, all 12 members of the council are hardliners trusted by the Supreme Leader. The members' term of office is 6 years and every 3 years, half of them may change or be reinstated.

Ahmad Jannati has been the secretary of the Guardian Council since its establishment in 1980. Based on the new order by Khamenei, he can carry on doing his job until he turns 102 in 2028.

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Gharazi said about Jannati's reinstatement: "I hope he lives for 120 years. God knows how long one lives. Who am I to say anything about this?" There are many jokes about Jannati's long life, including one that says he was the witness in Adam and Eve's marriage.

Gharazi, who was Iran's Post, Telephone and Telegraph Minister in the 1980s, said in a damning comment that "Neither the Guardian Council, nor the other councils in the Iranian government have ever done any service to the revolution," adding that the Guardian Council has given big jobs to individuals who have not been able to help the people in any way.

Gharazi said: "When I wanted to become a candidate in the 2017 presidential election, somebody from the Guardian Council told me that I cannot be a candidate as I was over 75 years old at that time. I told him how come a 75-year-old person can be a member of the parliament but cannot run for President?"

The same question was raised in another way following Jannati's reinstatement. Iranian cleric Rashid Davoodi, a graduate of the Qom Seminary who holds a Ph.D. in political science according to his Twitter bio, wrote In a 16 July tweet referring to Jannati’s son, "In 2018 when Ali Jannati was less than 70 years old he was dismissed from his post as an adviser to the Office of the President based on a law that prohibits employing retirement age people. In 2022, his father Ahmad Jannati, 96, was reinstated as a member and the secretary of the Guardian Council for another six years!"

The Guardian Council disqualified all the reformist candidates and even conservative candidates who could be real contestants in the 2020 Majles election, an act that paved the way for sending 290 "revolutionary" hardliners to the parliament. Critics have also lashed out at council for barring reformist candidates from the 2021 presidential elections.

The representative of Tehran at the parliament, who was once a culture minister and a presidential candidate as well as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's chief of staff when he was president, made the remarks in an interview with Tasnim news, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard. 

He said his son was arrested in July 2019 and was sentenced to five years in prison in February 2020 on charges of acting against national security through cooperation with the MEK. He was jailed in Evin Prison in February 2021. 

The MP added that the MEK had tried to use his son’s "weak point" to get classified information but his son did not have any. 

He gave vague explanations about his son's "weakness" and only said, "His weakness is both physical and mental" and has made him unable to provide for his livelihood. “My son is very emotional, naive and weak-willed," and the MEK found ways to trap him and exploit his weakness, he said. 

According to reports, Mehdi Mir-Salim had not gone back to prison for more than 200 days following a furlough but security forces did not arrest him. He was also granted amnesty for half of his prison term. 

On July 16, Iran's Foreign Ministry sanctioned a dozens of US officials and lawmakers over their alleged support for the MEK.

According to IRNA on Monday, the ceremony on Valiasr Street -- one of Tehran's main thoroughfares and commercial centers said to be the longest street in the Middle East, was organized on the occasion of Eid al-Ghadir, a Shiite commemorative holiday, claiming that it was the biggest gathering in the city ever. 

Similar ceremonies were also held in many cities across the country while the growing number of Covid-19 patients has prompted the Health Ministry to announce new restrictions. 

The spokesman for Iran’s Covid-19 taskforce, Abbas Shirozhan, said Monday that the number of fatalities due to covid-19 has increased 40 percent within the past week. Iran’s daily infection numbers have 5,000 cases daily, and deaths are growing in double-digit numbers.

According to epidemiologists, two new subvariant of Omicron, namely BA4 and BA5 -- which started in the African continent -- may soon prevail over the country.

The number of overall deaths in Iran since Covid-19 emerged in February 2020 has been 300,000 higher than in previous years, suggesting pandemic deaths may be more than officially reported.

Iran has reported around 141,000 deaths from Covid, the Middle East’s highest official level, leaving 160,000 more deaths unexplained.

Mohammad Marandi, who was a member of Tehran’s team in the Vienna nuclear talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal known as JCPOA, was quoted by Rouydad24 website in Iran as having told Sputnik, that reports by Western media about the demand to remove the Revolutionary Guard from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) is not true.

“This issue was never a pre-condition…What has been on the table is the [US] track record in partial implementation of the JCPOA and its ultimate violation. Iran deems this unacceptable and Washington’s unwillingness to remove sanctions,” Marandi was quoted as saying.

The Sputnik website is not accessible in most countries after the invasion of Ukraine and Iran International cannot verify Rouydad24’s exact quotations, but a website in Iran would hardly dare to be inaccurate in reflecting the words of an important official.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Kowsari, an IRGC officer and an influential member of parliament said Monday that, “It would not be acceptable at all that the Guards…remain under sanctions.” He also demanded “guarantees” that “all sanctions be removed” and rejected any notion of a selective approach in the matter.

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Kowsari went on to accuse the US of using the issue of IRGC’s terror designation to refuse providing “permanent” guarantees to Iran. “At least there should be guarantees for the two remaining years of the Biden administration,” he said.

After the Vienna talks stalled in March, reports emerged that Tehran was demanding the delisting of the IRGC and Washington’s position was that the issue was not related to nuclear sanctions, which it had agreed to suspend or remove.

Lately, the issue of guarantees is again being raised by Iran, which if applied to assurances for full economic and financial access by entities sanctioned for terrorism or human rights violations, basically means the removal of all sanctions.

US administration officials and President Joe Biden himself have said that a final offer has been made to Iran months ago and it is up to them to decide. At the same time, during his trip to the Middle East last week Biden pledged bot with Israel and Saudi Arabia not to allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state.

Marandi went on to argue that the United States is in not “in a strong position to act against Iran,” and the best option for them is to come to an agreement to unlock Iran’s oil flow, which they need.

The US-born Iranian official who plays a role in reflecting Iran’s positions in English language with international media, also spoke about reports about the creation of an air-defense alliance between Israel and Arab states concerned about Iranian missile and drone threats. He reportedly told Sputnik that even if such a system is set up it cannot pose a challenge for Iran.

“There is no regional country that can be considered Iran’s rival. Our only rival is America. Israel and Saudi Arabia are small and weak. Iran is the most militarily advanced country in West Asia,” Marandi claimed.