Top Iranian Nuke Negotiator Ordered to Stop Screaming at Kerry
Top Iranian Nuke Negotiator Ordered to Stop Screaming at Kerry
BY: Adam Kredo February 19, 2015 5:00 am Via The Washington Free Beacon
(I saw an article similar to this a good while back. Seems Zarif’s abusive behavior has been going on for quite a while. – LS)
Iran’s foreign minister and lead negotiator in nuclear talks with the United States has been ordered by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader to stop shouting and yelling at Secretary of State John Kerry during negotiating sessions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told his country’s state controlled media in a recent interview that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has instructed him to stop yelling at Kerry and other top U.S. officials during the talks.
Reports about Zarif’s temper first emerged in the Iranian press last November, when the United States and Iran agreed to extend talks through June of this year.
Zarif is said to “frequently shout at Western diplomats” with such force that bodyguards have been forced to enter the negotiation room.
During one incident described by Iranian officials to the press, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, a chief western negotiator, admitted that Zarif had been shouting, and she had gotten used to it.
Abbas Araqchi, an Iranian diplomat who is also a member of the negotiating team, is reported to have said in an interview that during past negotiations in Geneva, Zarif “shouted” at Kerry and spoke to him in a manner “unprecedented” in the history of U.S. diplomacy.
Zarif appeared to cop to this behavior during a recent interview with the state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), according to an independent translation of the report provided to the Washington Free Beacon.
Following reports that Zarif shouts at Kerry, Zarif was summoned to a meeting with Khamenei. He referred to this meeting during recent remarks made to a high school class, according to the IRNA.
“‘Why you are yelling in negotiations? Smile and speak,’” he recalled the Supreme Leader saying. “‘Do not quarrel on the negotiation table, reason with them,’” Khamenei continued, citing a verse from the Quran that states “Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, for he has indeed transgressed all bounds.… But speak to him mildly; perchance he may take warning or fear [Allah].”
Zarif added that he begins each day by praying over six verses of the Quran before entering the nuclear discussions. He went on to say that U.S. sanctions no longer have an impact on Tehran.
“Doing business and trade with Iran had a huge reputational cost” for foreigners, but now the situation has changed, according to Zarif. “More sanctions on Iran makes U.S. isolated among its own friends.”
The State Department declined to comment on reports about the Iranian Foreign Minister’s conversations with the Iranian Supreme Leader.
Meanwhile, Khamenei, in a speech this week, said that Iran would impose its own sanctions on the West.
“If [there] is to be any sanction imposed, the Iranian nation too can impose sanction [on them] and it will do so,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Fars News Agency.
“Iran has also made it clear again and again that the U.S. should leave the Middle East and the Muslim world,” said Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iranian dissident who is an associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Both Zarif and Khamenei see themselves on a holy mission. They may have different assessments of what is the best way to reach their goal, which is to defeat the pharaoh of the time, but they have no doubt who is the pharaoh of the time: The West, the U.S., and Israel.”
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WarSclerotic 
February 19, 2015 at 10:27 PM
Very sad indeed that this has been tolerated by the head of Diplomacy for the most supposedly powerful nation in the world.And to top it off,the ruler of Iran has to be the one to order that the shouting and outright disrespect towards Kerry and Ashton be stopped.The first time this raghead engaged in said conduct would have been the time to get him off the negotiations.Or simply no further negotiations would have proceeded.This shows trmendous weakness on the part of the U.S. delegation.Shame on Mr Kerry for having permitted this.
February 19, 2015 at 11:41 PM
I think it also shows the contempt the Iranians have for the USA and the negotiations in general.
June 4, 2015 at 1:44 AM
As you stated Carlos, not just weakness, but “tremendous weakness”
February 20, 2015 at 4:19 AM
Please, let’s not pretend that Zarif ever does anything that Khamenei doesn’t want him to.
Late last year the Iranians were bragging in their own media that their diplomats were yelling at Kerry loud enough to make bodyguards run into the room and confusing him by alternating “good cop” “bad cop” roles.
Now recent reports in Iranian media is that Khamenei has told them to calm down. We should not assume any of their conduct in the negotiating rooms has changed, instead we should hypothesis why they have changed their tune in their public reports.
My feeling is that they are trying to “prepare” the public for when they accept Hussein’s deal (surrender). On the other hand, if the March deadline is missed it really makes no difference.
Bad deal or no deal, Netanyahu and the Israelis have run out of time. They have to make a decision now.
February 20, 2015 at 4:24 AM
And one other thing, let’s not pretend that the negotiators in the 13th year of these talks are actually doing anything substantial in the thousands of hours of meetings.
Maybe they discuss the weather, maybe they discuss sports, maybe Zarif spends 6 straight hours insulting Kerry while he sits there and takes it like the wimp he is.
But they sure as hell aren’t talking about nukes all those hours because it just ain’t that damn complicated!
June 4, 2015 at 1:58 AM
LOL You’re so right Mark, maybe Allah allows Belly Dancers as entertainment for the Infidels, like Taqiyya (Lying) to the Infidels Allah doesn’t consider it a sin when done for the good of Islam.