Khamenei’s MoU stance stirs debate as Iran and US meet in Switzerland
Supreme leader has expressed reservations about interim deal with US, but most top decision-makers back it. Tehran, Iran – Senior negotiators from Iran and the
Supreme leader has expressed reservations about interim deal with US, but most top decision-makers back it. Tehran, Iran – Senior negotiators from Iran and the United States are in Switzerland to advance the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) to end the war launched by the US and Israel in late February. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi led the Iranian delegation in Sunday’s high-level talks mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, with Vice President JD Vance heading the US team. But back in Tehran, opponents of the deal continued to argue about Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s reluctant stance on the MoU. “I, as a matter of principle, held a different view,” said a short written statement attributed to Khamenei on Thursday, in what has been his only public reaction to this week’s MoU with the US. But, he added, he approved it after President Masoud Pezeshkian accepted responsibility. On Sunday, the director general of the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), the main news channel of state television, resigned after the station broadcast a live interview with Mahmoud Nabavian, a hardline cleric, legislator and member of Iran’s negotiating team during an earlier round of talks in Pakistan in April. To rally backing for his opposition to the MoU, Nabavian read lines from what he claimed was correspondence between Khamenei and unnamed top officials in the Supreme Security Council in March and April.
Nabavian claimed the supreme leader was opposed to the ceasefire that started on April 8 since he wanted immediate enforcement of a tolling system for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and demanded “exclusive management” of the strategic waterway for Iran. Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard from publicly since becoming supreme leader in March, allegedly also wanted war reparations, the release of frozen assets and an absolute rejection of concessions over Iran’s nuclear programme. The interview with Nabavian ran for 11 minutes before being abruptly ended by the host. It could not be found in IRINN’s online archive on Sunday. Pezeshkian has called the text of the MoU a “historic document” that “reflects the voice of a nation that has not traded its dignity and independence for any threat or pressure”. The Supreme Security Council released a statement saying it will safeguard “the rights of the Iranian nation and the resistance front”, while honouring the memory of leaders killed in the war. Khamenei’s father and former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the joint US-Israeli air attacks on February 28. Lebanon factor Multiple political figures, including Tehran’s hardline Mayor Alireza Zakani, as well as state-linked media have attested in recent days that almost all members of the Supreme Security Council, including military commanders, voted in favour of the MoU. Saeed Jalili, the ultra-hardline former chief negotiator and failed presidential candidate, is the only person said to have voted against the deal, which has offered some respite to global markets affected by the Strait of Hormuz disruption.
The BriefWire