Saeed Jalili: I Am Against A Relaxation of Tensions

Rooz Online

Saeed Jalili is the man who submitted his registration for the candidacy of the next presidential election in Iran planned to be held on June 14 on the last day of registration. He is now slowly coming out of his seclusion and clarifying his views. The Guardian Council’s approval of Jalili’s credentials brought forth criticism from Iranian pro-administration conservative hardliners known as the principlists.

Immediately after the GC’s approval announcement, Jalili travelled to the country’s religious capital, Ghom and met with leading Shiite clerics. Absent on the visit was a meeting with the ultra-conservative cleric ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who in the past had been president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s mentor.

Yazdi is recognized as the spiritual father of the conservative hardliners who have grouped under the umbrella of Steadfast Front who had announced much earlier that he would support either Jalili or Lankarani for the next presidency. It eventually settled on Lankarani. When Jalili entered the presidential race, the Steadfast Front and Yazdi strived to dissuade him and withdraw in Lankarani’s favor.

While in Ghom, Jalili publicly said, “The president had to be obedient to the supreme leader, something that must be demonstrated in practice. I have been asked what would happen if my views differed from those of the velayat faghih (rule of clerics as represented by the supreme leader), and the answer is very clear: in the Islamic republic, the velayat faghih has the final say in all matters.” He concluded, “Velayat faghih has shown after 34 years that it can establish a system that is progressive in all fields.”

Jalili of course is known as Iran’s chief negotiator in the P5+1 talks with the international community over the country’s nuclear program. In his recent remarks, he narrated an anecdote from his meeting with Javier Solana, the former EU foreign policy chief. “I told him they were wasting their time contemplating bombing Natanz and Isfahan (places where Iran’s controversial enrichment facilities are located). The center of this view (i.e., the nuclear program) is Ghom. You must attack Ghom if you want to attach this idea/program.”

Jalili criticized the position of previous Iranian administrations on their approach of the nuclear issue and called the current tensions with the West a “misgiving,” adding, “Were we the one’s who created this tension? I disagree with [the notion of] removing the tension. The key for us is to remove the threat not the tension. We must instill the resistance discourse in society and the government. The more we spread this, the more progress we will make. If a group believes that resistance is not in the interest of the country and that we must compromise on the issue, then we must convince it otherwise with available evidence.”

These remarks constitute the little that Jalili has publicly said about issues facing Iran. Generally, he has refrained from holding any conference or talking to the media since his presidential registration.

The principlists began criticizing GC’s approval of Jalili’s candidacy as soon as the body announced its decision. Alef website belonging influential and conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli wrote that Jalili lacked any “executive or political experience” and asks the GC for the reasons for his approval. “How is it that individuals with long political and executive records are rejected but Jalili is approved?”

Another MP, Ali Motahari also had critical words and said that the approval of Jalili indicated that the GC changed its policy. “Approving Jalili’s credentials was not right. Can someone become president by simply four meetings and talks with Ms. Ashton?” he asked.

But Jalili is ayatollah Khamenei’s representative in Iran’s supreme national security council and some conclude that he is the leader’s choice for the next presidency.

Jalili was born in 1965 and holds a PhD from Iran’s Imam Sadegh University, where he also taught a course on “The Prophet’s Diplomacy.” Some have viewed the title of his doctoral thesis to be “The Prophet’s Foreign Policy” which has an introduction from Hamid Molana who is Ahmadinejad’s advisor and a contributor to Kayhan newspaper. The introduction praises Jalili.

Jalili comes from the Basij background and has lost a leg in the Iran-Iraq war. He began his government service by going to the foreign ministry in 1989 and then assumed the position of director of the inspector’s office. When Mohammad Khatami became president, Jalili was elevated to become the deputy director of the American Affairs bureau and in 2001 was transferred to the supreme leader’s office where he worked as the director of current affairs.

After Ahmadinejad became president, Jalili was appointed as the deputy minister for European and American affairs at the foreign ministry. He was a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiations team with Ali Larijani and in 2007 was appointed as the chief negotiator and head of the mission.

During the talks between the P5+1 and Iran in Istanbul, Jalili introduced himself as the representative of ayatollah Khamenei – and not the government – at the talks. Hassan Ghafoorifard had said that Jalili had held a long session with Khamenei prior to the Istanbul meeting and implemented the leader’s plan at the talks.

He is a proponent of “resistance economy” by which he believes that “if people have faith economic growth and blessings will follow. Without understanding the Islamic revolution, it is not possible to understand resistance economy.”