by A. Savyon, U. Kafash and E. Kharrazi
Rafsanjani exposes Khamenei as one who insists on the military nuclear option and challenges him to relinquish this option so as to let Iran take its rightful place in the international arena.
On
October 26, 2015, Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of Iran's Expediency Council and
the political rival of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, gave a
comprehensive interview to the website "Iranians' Nuclear Hope."[1] In the
interview, he says that, during the Iran-Iraq war, Iran
kept the nuclear option in case it felt threatened or required this
option, but chose not to act in this direction.
Rafsanjani also personally comes out against Khamenei's
directives regarding the JCPOA by calling on Rohani's government to meet Iran's
obligations under this agreement from July 14, 2015. This, in direct defiance
of Khamenei, who on October 21, 2015 ordered Rohani's government to delay meeting
these obligations until nine new conditions he has added to the JCPOA have been
met.[2] Rafsanjani stresses in the interview that the
majority of the Iranian people, some 80-90 percent, support the JPCOA as it was
presented in July, thus creating a potential for fermenting a civil uprising
against Khamenei.
Furthermore, Rafsanjani admits that both he and Khamenei were
personally in charge of the development of Iran's secret nuclear program: he
during his term as the Majlis speaker and later as president, and Khamenei during
his presidency and later during his service as Supreme Leader. In fact, Rafsanjani
reveals that, during his presidency, he sought to develop the Arak heavy water
facility, in the plutonium track, and invested resources in it, though at
another point in the interview he rebuts domestic criticism by explaining that
Iran's concessions regarding the Arak facility do not harm Iran's national
interest since the main use of the plutonium track is "for military
purposes." By these statements Rafsanjani confirms suspicions that Iran
tried to establish a military nuclear project.
By the very act of calling to meet Iran's commitments under
the JCPOA and thereby gain international legitimacy for Iran's peaceful nuclear
program, Rafsanjani exposes Khamenei as one who insists on the military nuclear
option and challenges him to relinquish this option so as to let Iran take its
rightful place in the international arena.
A comprehensive translation of excerpts from Rafsanjani's
interview will be published by MEMRI shortly.
*A.
Savyon is Director of MEMRI's Iran Media Project; U. Kafash and E. Kharrazi are
research fellows at MEMRI.
[1]
http://inhnews.ir, October 26, 2015.
[2]
See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis, Iranian
Supreme Leader Khamenei's Letter Of Guidelines To President Rohani On JCPOA Sets
Nine Conditions Nullifying Original Agreement Announced July 14, 2015, October 22, 2015.
A. Savyon, U. Kafash and E. Kharrazi
Source: http://www.memri.org
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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