Less than 24 hours after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s return to Tehran from New York, where he addressed the UN General Assembly meeting Sept. 22 for the fourth time, he was strictly reprimanded by Hojat al-Islam Ali Saidi and advised to refrain from developing any further relations with the United States outside the framework of the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Saidi is not just any hojat al-Islam, a Shiite clerical rank just below that of ayatollah, but the supreme leader’s representative to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In an interview with the IRGC-linked Fars News Agency on Sept. 24, Saidi said, “Under the cover of the JCPOA, the country’s government was pursuing the straightening out of relations with the United States. The Americans’ intention with the negotiations was also beyond solving the nuclear issue, but the supreme leader prevented the Americans from gaining more points.”
