Iranian Vice-President for Strategic Affairs Javad Zarif has found himself at the center of a political storm at home in Iran. Zarif is well known in the West as a face associated with the Iran deal. Under the previous Iranian president, he was not seen much and appeared on the outs with the regime.
Now he is back in power but it appears he has some detractors. Iranian state media has been defending him and portraying him as a victim. This illustrates how allies of Iran’s president control the media narrative at Iran’s state IRNA media. It also show how deeply Iran’s internal political disputes may rage beneath the surface.
IRNA reported this week that “Rasoul Montajab-Nia stages an impassioned defense of Vice President for Strategic Affairs Javad Zarif.” The report characterizes him as a reformist in Iran. He “has staged a fierce defense of Vice President for Strategic Affairs Javad Zarif against a barrage of criticism and scorn that has been met with relative silence from public officials,” the report says.
“I am strongly skeptical and suspicious of the intentions and goals of these individuals and groups… in whatever positions and clothes they may be,” Montajab-Nia said. “I don’t consider their behavior to have been carried out with good intentions or to be simply mistaken and misguided.” He said that enemies of Zarif are undermining one of Iran’s key figures. He wants to see prosecutions of those who incite against Zarif.
Zarif has stirred up trouble at home apparently due to a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos and also due to an interview on CNN.
Foreign connections
He is portrayed as lenient and also having too many foreign connections. One critic is Sa’eed Jalili, who ran for president. “A number of lawmakers, also mainly affiliated with Jalili, have been critical of Zarif’s appointment as vice-president, citing a law that prohibits individuals who hold foreign citizenship or whose immediate family members hold such citizenship from holding sensitive posts.
Zarif’s children acquired US citizenship when they were born while he was a student in the United States decades ago. Under US law, birth in the United States alone qualifies an individual for US citizenship. Zarif and his family have long since returned to Iran,” the report notes.
Amir-Hossein Sabeti has also slammed Zarif. “On Monday, a lawmaker said 60 members of parliament had written a letter of complaint against Zarif to Attorney General Mohammad Movahhedi-Azad,” IRNA noted.
Meanwhile, Zarif also spoke at a recent conference at the Institute for Iran-Eurasia Studies in Tehran. Zarif described the US as a “nuisance or a chain that must be removed.” He reportedly said Iran did need to build “friendly relations” with the US.
Zarif’s trip to Davos is in the spotlight. Earlier this week, IRNA noted “it has been merely three days since Vice President Javad Zarif returned to Tehran from an official trip to Davos, Switzerland — a rare appearance by the veep in quite some time. But he has had to deal with so much already.”
IRNA noted also that “in an editorial in Kayhan daily, Hossein Shariatmadari, a deeply conservative voice, called Zarif the real ‘architect of America’s sanctions’ on Iran.” The Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy also slammed Zarif.