[On
Tuesday, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the highest ranking commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, joined the chorus.
“The Iranian nation and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps thank these dear
negotiators for their honest attempts and political jihad, and for their
resistance on the defined red lines,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted
him as saying.]
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A mural in Tehran depicting the Islamic
Republic's founder, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, right, the Basij
paramilitary force and Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei. Credit Vahid
Salemi/Associated Press
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TEHRAN
— Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian hard-liners have been free to
take to the streets and object to any form of compromise with the West, and
particularly the United States.
But
when a conspicuously small group of hard-liners did so on Tuesday morning in
front of the Parliament building, holding up placards and shouting slogans
against the nuclear framework agreed to last week in Lausanne, Switzerland,
Tehran’s Interior Ministry condemned the demonstration as illegal, because the
protesters had failed to obtain a permit. There were also very few reporters.
It
was perhaps the first time that conservatives — in this case mostly young
people genuinely disappointed over the compromises Iran has made to reach a nuclear agreement —
seemed disconnected from the power structure here.
Analysts
say the message from the top is clear: get with the program. Senior officials,
important clerics, lawmakers and Republican Guard commanders, who in the past
have reflexively opposed any accommodation with the West, now go out of their
way to laud Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his team of negotiators,
as well as the government of President Hassan Rouhani.
On
Tuesday, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the highest ranking commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, joined the chorus.
“The Iranian nation and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps thank these dear
negotiators for their honest attempts and political jihad, and for their
resistance on the defined red lines,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted
him as saying.
One
influential cleric even issued a statement to correct a quote attributed to him
that suggested he had been slightly critical of the nuclear framework.
“Unfortunately, these remarks are lies attributed to him,” the office of
Ayatollah Naser Marakem Shirazi hastily made clear.
Only
one man has remained silent until now: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme
leader, whose word is always the last. However, analysts say the broad support
among conservatives is almost certainly a reflection of his thinking.
Hamidreza
Taraghi, a political analyst close to Ayatollah Khamenei, said it should not be
surprising that Iran’s establishment has closed ranks behind
the negotiators and the talks.
“Wherever
Foreign Minister Zarif goes to explain about the negotiations, his arguments
are convincing and accepted,” he said. “Of course, we worry about some details,
but they will be hammered out and solved, we are sure.”
On
Tuesday, Mr. Zarif earned glowing praise after he paid a visit to Parliament to
describe the nuclear framework and answer lawmakers’ questions.
Outside,
were the 150 or so hard-line demonstrators. “We are the voice of the people,”
one of the protesters said. “We are worried over this deal.”
But
some people passing by had different ideas.
“Go
home,” someone yelled from a car window. “Drink the chalice of poison,” another
shouted, a reference to a remark by Iran’s late leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, describing his bitter feelings upon signing a cease-fire following
eight bloody years of war with Iraq.
“The
people can swear at us,” said Vahid Aziz, an engineering student who held up a
placard saying “We Are Worried.” They can swear, he said, because Iran is a
democracy. “We also have the right to say something.”
But
their opinion seems to be a minority one. In a poll conducted by the
pro-government IRNA news agency, 96 percent of people in Tehran were found to
support the nuclear deal. Opinion polls in Iran are notoriously unreliable, but
the news agency insisted that 83 percent of the respondents “expressed
happiness, hope and relief on hearing about the nuclear agreement achieved in
Lausanne, Switzerland.”
For
those who have long lived under the enforced opinions of minority groups, like
Nader Karimi Joni, a former member of the paramilitary Basij organization who
is now an activist and journalist, the progress in the nuclear talks is a
vindication.
“These
people protesting the deal are a small, doomed group of losers who do not
understand that the perceptions of the establishment have changed” he said.
“They can shout ‘Death to America’ all they want, but nobody in the government
or in the establishment is in the mood for these sorts of actions.”
Iran’s
interior minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, issued a warning that henceforth no
illegal gatherings would be allowed. “Those who are ‘worried’ or ‘not-worried,’
they all need a permit to protest so we can guarantee their security,” he told
the Arman newspaper.
But
one of the organizers of the gathering, a 26-year old student named Ali Mataji,
said protest was necessary, “because we have the right to ask questions.” He
added: “We will not stop, as there is a deviation of the national interests in
the nuclear issue.”
Outside
of the Parliament building, a passer-by started a discussion with Mr. Aziz, the
engineering student. “Why don’t you wait with your criticism until the deal is
more clear?” the man asked.
“We need
to bring awareness,” Mr. Aziz responded, waving his placard. The man shook his
head, telling the protester, “Your actions are weakening the talks.”
