DUBAI: Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been reprimanded for his essay published in US journal Foreign Affairs, suggesting Tehran should now “use its upper hand” to make a ceasefire deal.
Zarif was issued a reprimand following the publication of an article “that has been determined to be contrary to national security,” Fars News Agency reported.
Iran warned that “during this imposed war, figures and those with a platform must not express opinions or publish material contrary to national interests, national integrity, and social cohesion, nor outside the bounds of their authority,” Fars reported, with the prosecutor’s office specifically addressing political figures and people with a public platform.
Analysts believe that the recent statements made against national interests were intended to polarize public sentiment and prepare the ground for elements and supporters of enemies, it added.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, criticized Zarif’s article, saying it overlooked Tehran’s continued aggression against its regional neighbors.
Zarif, who helped reach the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, wrote that Tehran “should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions — a deal Washington wouldn’t take before but might accept now.”
He suggested Iran could enrich uranium below 3.67 percent, the level set by the 2015 nuclear deal US President Donald Trump pulled America out of in 2018.
The former diplomat also proposed that Russia and China be included in any deal for a single uranium enrichment site for all the region, where Iran “would transfer all its enriched material and equipment to that space.”
Washington and Tehran could also “explore dispatching diplomats to serve in their respective interest sections, restoring consular services and removing travel restrictions on each other’s citizens,” Zarif said.
The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, when President Jimmy Carter severed ties over the hostage crisis.
