Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made an impassioned speech on June 18 on state television that is expected to significantly strengthen the position of the reformist front in the upcoming snap presidential elections.

The election is due on June 28 to select a president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19.

Six candidates have been approved by the Guardian Council, with heavyweights including Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Saeed Jalili from the so-called fundamentalist faction, and Masoud Pezeshkian from the reformist group.

Pezeshkian, the sole reformist nominee, said on the first day of his approval that Zarif would be his foreign minister.

As the architect of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that secured a lifting of international sanctions, his name could potentially boost Pezeshkian’s votes.

His stirring speech in Pezeshkian’s roundtable programme on state television has reinforced that perception.

During the programme, he called most of the hardliners’ approaches into question, including their exceptional focus on the country’s military power at the cost of other essential areas.

While carefully staying within the lines of the Islamic Republic, he stated that Iran cannot achieve significant power solely through military development due to financial constraints.

Consequently, he added, the country may need to choose between “balancing”, which is aligning with other global powers for support, or “bandwagoning”, which is aligning with the United States."

He, however, made sure not to mess with the Islamic Republic’s core idea of “resistance”, which is translated as standing up to Israel, including through militia activity.

“Resistance is our power and we will not lose it,” he said.

 

Defending the nuclear deal

 

Zarif further defended the deal he clinched in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), enumerating its benefits during the period it was fully in action.

JCPOA unravelled when US ex-president Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed tough sanctions, but talks for its restoration began when Joe Biden came to power in Washington.

Negotiating parties could not reach an agreement until Raisi took office as president, and the talks have been stalled ever since.

Zarif lashed out at hardliners, accusing them of obstructing a deal on the JCPOA’s revival during the term of the former president Hassan Rouhani.

“We could have restored the JCPOA many times, and people would not have suffered this calamity in the past three years,” he said, in rare critical remarks about Raisi, now promoted as a national hero.  

Zarif also displayed tables and charts, showing how sanctions have negatively affected the records of inflation, economic growth and oil sales within that period.

Hardliners have also been boasting about improving oil sales despite sanctions, but Zarif said it was only thanks to Biden’s policy to take it easy on Iran, adding they would not be able to keep that course if Trump comes to power again.

Zarif finally referenced verses from Quran, advocating for the wisdom of engaging in negotiations with adversaries even if they break their promises repeatedly.

The speech has drawn the ire of fundamentalists on social media, while reformists have applauded the brave remarks.

The former foreign minister is not the only one to have put his weight behind Pezeshkian.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the young telecommunications minister of Hassan Rouhani, also released a video in support of the only representative of the political faction.

He warned of the difficult times potentially ahead of Iran in case Trump comes back, urging the public to participate in the polls to protect the country.

Jahromi, too, criticised the Raisi government without naming him, calling on people not to allow that political group to gain power again through boycotting the elections.