Larijani’s Evasive Interview Shows Iran’s Policies Remain Unchanged

Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani was in New York on Wednesday to attend a U.N.-sponsored conference of parliamentary speakers from around the world. He also found time to give a revealing interview to CNN – one that pours cold water on prospects of Iran abiding by the July nuclear deal and rolling back its decades of hostility toward the “Great Satan.”

Asked if the parliament over which he presides would endorse the deal, Larijani was noncommittal. “We have to wait and see what happens,” he said.  Asked about Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s own position, he replied merely, “I do not have a clear judgment whether it will be approved or not,” and, “I cannot tell you for sure right now.”

Pressed over the stance of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the deal, Larijani merely recited a litany of alleged American wrongdoings against his country. Even simple questions – whether the Islamic Republic remains bent on Israel’s destruction, for example – went unanswered (he did, however, meet the next day with members of a fringe ultra-Orthodox Jewish group opposed to Israel’s existence).

On the fate of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post journalist held captive for over a year, Larijani responded, “You should ask the Iranian judiciary.” It is a curious reaction – the judiciary, after all, is headed by his younger brother Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani.

Larijani’s replies cast a shadow over the prospects of Tehran meeting its obligations in the nuclear deal, and over Tehran-Washington relations writ large. Khamenei may have authorized the agreement, but remains unwilling to take public responsibility for it. For its part, parliament is divided, while the IRGC is openly opposed.

His interview underlines the fact that Tehran is not ready to give up its anti-American and anti-Israeli postures or to explain its imprisonment of an innocent American journalist on bogus espionage charges. More than anything, it underscores that deal or no deal, hopes of an Iranian-American détente remain more aspirational than attainable.

Ali Alfoneh is a senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Find him on Twitter: @Alfoneh