Hard-line Iranian lawmaker claims top leader of U.S. negotiators violated guidelines

A hard-line Iranian lawmaker who has opposed negotiations with the United States claimed that the U.S. negotiating team violated the Supreme Leader's guidelines.

Mahmoud Nababian, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Parliament, appeared on Iranian state television on the 21st (local time) and said that he had seen a secret letter from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, and that the negotiating team was abusing its power.

He noted that Ayatollah Khamenei had set 11 conditions, including receiving compensation from the United States, retaining the authority to enrich uranium, lifting sanctions, lifting frozen Iranian assets, and exercising full sovereignty with immediate imposition of fees for the Strait of Hormuz.

He added that Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened only if the United States agrees to pay compensation. Regarding the first war-end talks with the United States held in Islamabad, Pakistan on April 12, Ayatollah Khamenei claimed in a letter to the negotiating team that he had instructed that the talks should be halted because what was agreed upon was completely different from the original direction and conditions of the talks.

However, the negotiating team ignored Ayatollah Khamenei's instructions and pushed ahead with negotiations by conceding conditions to the United States.

He criticized that these conditions were not fulfilled, saying that before negotiations began in Switzerland, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, the lifting of frozen funds from Iran, the lifting of the maritime blockade, and the temporary lifting of sanctions should have been carried out first.

He also asked, “Does this mean that the public should not know what the Imam (Supreme Leader)’s order was and why the working-level staff disobeyed that order?”

As U.S.-Iran negotiations began in Switzerland on this day and he continued to make such strong claims, the host interrupted the interview by saying, "Thank you for your words. Please continue watching."

The British daily Guardian reported that "within an hour of being interrupted due to censorship, the interview was removed from the archives and a senior broadcaster official resigned," and that Nababian could be indicted or lose his seat as a member of parliament.

The report continued, "Members of the camp of negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Switzerland demanded that the identity of the leaker be discovered, and a spokesperson for the negotiators dismissed the claim as 'an old and distorted claim.'"

What he claimed in the interview is the same as the position of anti-American hardliners in Iran.

It appears to be true that there are differences of opinion within Iran regarding negotiations with the United States.

Even Ayatollah Khamenei, the pinnacle of Iran's ruling system, recently stated in a letter to the Iranian President that he had different views on the outcome of the negotiations, but had left it to the President's judgment under certain conditions, so the rapidly changing situation divided the Iranian leadership.

Therefore, there is a possibility that the secret letter that Rep. Nababian 'revealed' is either a part of Ayatollah Khamenei's many letters that omitted the context, or is not the latest version.

In particular, in the Iranian parliament, which is led by hardliners, the voices of 'ultra-hardliners' who refuse to negotiate with the United States stand out, and the Western media interprets this as Iran's internal corruption and internal power struggle.

The Guardian commented, “This incident (interview) not only reveals the conflict within the highest levels of the government in real time, but also proves that the top leader has been much more directly involved in negotiations than previously known.”

Regarding the role of the newly appointed Ayatollah Khamenei during the war, there are conflicting interpretations, ranging from the analysis that he lost real power to the military to the analysis that he deeply influences major national policy decisions.