Last week I wrote about Amir Taheri’s report on Ayatollah Khamenei’s magnum opus, describing the method through which Khamenei plans to destroy Israel. Yesterday, Taheri came out with a new, and potentially even more damning report:
A series of revelations, some from leaked off-the-record briefings by Americans and Iranians, show that the two factions [Obama and Rouhani] were practically on the same die from the start.
In a fascinating interview last week, Iran’s former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi revealed that during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, through Omani mediation, Tehran put five preconditions for the start of secret talks with the US. “We were surprised when Obama accepted all of them,” Salehi recalls.
And that was before John Kerry, who had a long history of contacts with Tehran including meetings with former President Muhammad Khatami at Davos, had become Secretary of State.
Salehi recalls that when he briefed newly elected President Rouhani on the secret talks, the latter was “astonished” at Obama’s readiness to bend backwards to appease Tehran. For Tehran, Obama and Kerry made an ideal team.
During lengthy negotiations in Geneva, Lausanne and finally Vienna, the Iranian and US teams were often on the same side, fighting to persuade other members of the P5+1 to soften their positions vis-a-vis Iran.In an off-the-record briefing in Tehran which was nevertheless partly leaked, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi cited a number of occasions when Kerry fought hard to win others to Iran’s position.
One occasion was when the French and the British insisted that Iran formally undertake not to finance and arm the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah. “Naturally, we refused,” Araqchi said. “And it was [John] Kerry who persuaded others to drop the issue.”
. . . .
On another occasion, according to Araqchi, Kerry sided with Iran in rejecting a demand by the European Union foreign policy “tsarina” Federica Mogherini to commit Iran not to help Bashar Al-Assad kill more Syrians. Kerry remained “steadfast” that talks should only focus on the nuclear issue.
There’s even more here.
Taheri’s writing career has been controversial and his accuracy has at times been questioned. The allegations he makes here, however, are extremely serious and should be examined further. If true, they give the lie to so many of Obama’s talking points — that we must move ahead because our negotiating partners in the P5+1 want to; that the deal came about because of the election of the moderate Rouhani government; and especially, that no better deal would have been possible.
Update: H/T to Alan E. Greenberg on twitter, who reminded me of this story on Breitbart from March, which seems to corroborate Taheri’s account:
Amir Hossein Motaghi, who reportedly was employed at Iran’s state-run Iran Student Correspondents Association, told a London-based Iranian opposition channel that the U.S. was shilling for Iran in the ongoing negotiations over the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
“The US negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal,” Mottaghi told Irane Farda, according to UK’s The Telegraph.
