Mahmoud Nabavian, the deputy chair of Iran’s national security council and a former member of Iran’s negotiating team, is facing the threat of prosecution and dismissal from parliament after appearing on state broadcaster Irib to reveal what he claimed were confidential letters from the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
Interview Cut Off and Removed
The interview was eventually cut off, but not before Nabavian stated he had seen secret correspondence in which the ayatollah allegedly said Iran’s negotiating team had overstepped its mandate during previous talks in Islamabad. An hour after the censored broadcast, the archive of the interview was removed, and a senior official at the broadcaster resigned.
Nabavian’s claims were dismissed by a spokesperson for the negotiating team as old and distorted. The state broadcaster said Nabavian’s statements were “evidence of a legal violation and worthy of legal prosecution.” Members of the camp of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator at the current talks in Switzerland, called for the leaker to be identified.
Centrists and Reformists Criticize Hardliners
Centrists and reformists have long argued that Irib acts as an agent for hardliners in the Paydari or Stability Front, of which Nabavian is a supporter. The episode reveals tensions at the top of government in near real time and shows that the newly appointed supreme leader has been taking a much more hands-on approach to the talks than previously known.
Khamenei has not been seen in public or issued an audio tape, operating instead through written statements. Some reports suggest the negotiating team once had to wait a fortnight before securing his guidance on how the talks should proceed, and that he would send detailed questions to the negotiators.
Khamenei’s Conditions for Negotiations
In a letter to Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, that Khamenei published on Thursday, he said he took a different view on the outcome of the talks to the president but had deferred to his judgment on certain conditions. Nabavian claimed the supreme leader had set 11 conditions for continuing the negotiations, including receiving compensation from the US, maintaining the right to uranium enrichment, lifting sanctions, releasing Iran’s frozen assets, and exercising full sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, including the immediate charging of fees.
According to Nabavian, Khamenei emphasized “Iran’s monopoly on the management of the Strait of Hormuz, collecting tolls from passing vessels, restrictions on enemy ships, and allocating the revenues from the tolls to the people, families of martyrs, and veterans.” The reopening of the waterway should only happen when the US agreed to pay compensation, he ordered. The US has agreed to set up a $350bn (£264bn) development fund but has said it will not contribute.
Nabavian Continues Argument on Telegram
Later on a Telegram channel, Nabavian continued the argument, saying he has not released secret documents and was only revealing the truth. He said that, based on the memorandum of understanding, “four issues had to be implemented before negotiations could begin: 1. End of the occupation in Lebanon and complete withdrawal 2. The release of our frozen money by America. Not borrowing from Qatar. 3. Lifting the siege 4. Temporary lifting of sanctions.”
He questioned whether these four preconditions had been met before foreign ministry officials went to Geneva for negotiations, and further asked: “Does that mean that people should not be aware of what the imam’s orders were and why the agents disobeyed them?”
