Iran's Zarif denies bid for presidency
In a meeting with a powerful parliamentary commission on the recently leaked audiotape of himself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would not run for president.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke at parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee meeting regarding the leaked audio that has made headlines in the country for weeks.
Abolfazl Amouei, spokesman for the commission, told Iranian media that 12 individuals participated in the meeting from the National Security and Foreign Policy commission as well as other parliamentary bodies. He said the focus of the meeting was Zarif’s audio, which he said had “created a divide in public opinion,” separating the battlefield and diplomacy.
In the audio, which Zarif recorded for the sake of posterity with economist Saeed Laylaz so that future administrations could study various aspects of the ministerial jobs, the foreign minister complained that his role was not the dominant one in the region. Zarif said that former Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the Trump administration, was making his own decisions and not heeding the advice of the administration. The Quds Force, which operates under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, answers to the supreme leader, who is the commander in chief.
Zarif reportedly said at the meeting that only a small section of the recording was meant to be released to the public and that no section of the recording was supposed to be published without the interviewee's consent.
