Rouhani takes fire from hard-liners for defending nuclear deal
President Hassan Rouhani's latest speech in defense of the Iran nuclear deal prompted a barrage of attacks from hard-liners, who have long demanded he apologize for the "humiliating" accord.
Iran's hard-liners have spared no opportunity to attack President Hassan Rouhani and his team of nuclear negotiators ever since Tehran clinched the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with major world powers back in 2015.
To those relentless critics, the US administration's pullout from the pact last year brought a moment of triumph. They accused Rouhani of refusing to listen to their advice and avert the humiliating loss. With little of the JCPOA's economic relief delivered, the hard-liners insist that it is high time Rouhani apologized over what they view as damage inflicted upon the Islamic Republic. Unsurprisingly, Rouhani's refusal to do so in his latest speech Aug. 6 reignited the rage.
According to the ultraconservative newspaper Javan, Rouhani should have recited an elegy in lamentation of the deal rather than praising it. The Iranian president was addressing a ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. The event, Javan argued, was expected to mark the "demise" of the nuclear deal, but Rouhani used it to "pose as a hero."
In the speech, Rouhani defended the phone call with his then-American counterpart Barack Obama in 2013 as the right decision that accelerated the success of the nuclear negotiations. Javan, however, interpreted the comment as intended to normalize possible talks with American officials in Rouhani's upcoming visit to New York for the UN General Assembly summit in September.
