By IPS Correspondents
TEHRAN, Oct 29 2007 (IPS)

Criticism has been steadily building up against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s apparent move to harden Iran’s position on its nuclear standoff with the West by removing moderate chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, and replacing him with his handpicked loyalist Saeed Jalili.

Ali Larijani Credit: ISNA

“It was necessary for the President to act with more tolerance and thought,” said the statement as quoted by the Fars news agency. According to Fars, 22 of the signatories were reformists and were joined by one conservative.

On Oct. 24, after Ahmadinejad’s role in Larijani’s resignation became apparent, 167 MPs or two-thirds of parliament signed a statement, read out on the floor of the house, expressing appreciation for Larijani’s efforts in handling the nuclear issue, the Aftab news agency reported. There was resentment over the fact that the move completely bypassed parliament.

Criticism had also surfaced in the media and among officials about the timing of the change. And foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, Ali Akbar Velayati, went on record to say that Larijani should not have quit.

“It was definitely better if this had not happened in the important and sensitive situation when the nuclear issue is on the table,” Velayati, was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency ISNA.

“While Elham insists that the main reason for Larijan’s resignation was private problems, there are reports that his stance in certain issues and lack of total coordination with the President as head of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has been the real reason for his resignation,” ‘Nowsazi’, a pro-Ahmadinejad news portal revealed.

“It seems that Jalili’s new mission as chief nuclear negotiator can undo many of the seemingly hard knots of the (nuclear) issue,” the portal added and suggested that the decision had been made because Larijani had been ‘’inefficient in talks with Javier Solana”.

Jalili, a close friend and associate of Ahmadinejad, had served as deputy foreign minister of European and American affairs since Ahmadinejad took office in August 2005. Before that he had been director-general of Khamenei’s office from 2001 to 2005. In Iranian political circles he is said to be a close friend and associate of Ahmadinejad and as unyielding and aggressive.

Three rounds of talks between Larijani and Solana as well as meetings with the director-general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei led to the signing of an agreement, on Aug. 21, between Iran and the agency which put six issues, including centrifuges P1 and P2 and sources of contamination, on the agenda of talks.

There may be significance in the fact that Larijani’s resignation was announced a week after a visit to Tehran by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a summit conference of Caspian littoral states.

Following the visit, Larijani told reporters, on Oct. 17, that a new proposal had been made by the Russian President during his meeting with Khamenei to get out of the existing nuclear impasse and that it was being considered.

But a day later Ahmadinejad denied that Putin had made any such proposal and, on Oct. 19, at Friday prayers, the President hinted at ‘‘certain people who negotiate with fear and apprehension’’ or ‘‘conduct secret nuclear negotiations.’’

Presumably the first statement referred to Larijani and the second to former chief nuclear negotiator Hasan Rohani whose scheduled meeting with Solana had been abruptly cancelled three weeks earlier. Both men are representatives of Khamenei in the SNSC, the highest body dealing with national security issues.

“Government officials stress that foreign policy is not going to be affected by Larijani’s resignation but it is quite obvious that with someone as close and as trusted by Ahmadinejad as Jalili, foreign policy will significantly be radicalised,” an analyst in Tehran requesting anonymity told IPS.

“Larijani and Ahmadinejad do not differ on the strategic aspects of the nuclear issue but follow different tactics. Larijani is more realistic and pragmatic and favours negotiations, but Ahmadinejad and his associates want a tougher and more aggressive stance against the West,” he said.

“On several occasions Ahmadinejad has tried to sabotage the course of action taken by the negotiating team. On one occasion he sent his top advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi to meet with Chirac (former French president) on the nuclear issue as his ‘special envoy’ rather than entrusting the task to the negotiating team and thus undermining its authority,” he added.

“On another occasion when there was talk that Larijani had reached some sort of an agreement with Europeans that involved temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, Ahmadinejad got louder than ever and in several public addresses shouted Iran was not going to stop enrichment even for a day,” the analyst said.

Larijani, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards and later head of the state-run broadcasting organisation (IRIB), is popular with the traditional conservatives. As head of the IRIB he had an important role in leading criticism of the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami.

“It is no secret now that Putin’s proposal or the message that he carried for Iranians triggered some sort of strong dispute between the President and Larijani, already at war for a long time, and made it impossible for them to carry on collaborating, as vice-speaker of parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar has admitted. The true nature of the proposal is, however, a highly guarded secret yet,” a reformist journalist in Tehran told IPS.

“It is not without significance that former foreign minister Akbar Velayati who is Khamenei’s top advisor in foreign policy has immediately reacted to Larijani’s replacement. Having lost their last bastion, traditional conservatives have become rightfully even more apprehensive of the younger and more radical neo-conservatives taking full control of things, especially foreign policy,” he said.

“The main question, however, is whose side the Supreme Leader, who has kept absolutely quiet so far, will now take. He favoured Larijani and, just as constantly, showed support for Ahmadinejad. If he doesn’t check Ahmadinejad’s greed for total control, he will put himself in danger of estranging his traditional conservative following,” the reformist journalist added.

Excerpt: