Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has taken issue with recent claims by conservative presidential candidates about the nuclear deal and what was termed the “weak” diplomacy of the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani, who is seeking re-election.

In a video interview with Entekhab news site May 9, Zarif, who played an important role in the international talks that resulted in a nuclear deal in July 2015, said, “Unfortunately, many of the statements we are hearing have no relationship to reality, especially regarding foreign policy. For instance, they say that the oil revenue can’t be transferred to Iran." He said that despite statements from the government, the Oil Ministry, the Central Bank and the Foreign Ministry to the contrary, the candidates indicate that "these revenues aren’t transferred to the country.”

He said the conservative candidates have mistakenly said that Iran is forced to receive low-grade commodities instead of oil revenue. “I’m surprised, because these are the realities that happened four or five years ago," Zarif said. "It was four, five years ago that we had to import luxury goods instead of our oil revenue. … But during that time no one talked about this and I heard less criticism.”

During President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 2005-2013 administration, the president enjoyed conservative support. Iran was put under heavy banking and other sanctions, but the conservatives didn’t criticize the Ahmadinejad government's diplomacy, even though Iran couldn’t receive its oil revenue and resorted to importing goods instead.