As Iran’s Foreign Minister embarked on a diplomatic tour on Sunday to save the nuclear deal, his Government faced mounting pressure from hardliners at home who say the West should never have been trusted.
Ayatollah Ali Jannati, the ultra-conservative head of the Assembly of Experts whose responsibilities include choosing the next supreme leader, said the Government had already failed to guarantee the country’s interests. President Hassan Rouhani, the key architect of the 2015 agreement, should “present his apologies to the Iranian people for the damage caused in the cadre of the nuclear deal,” Jannati said.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Beijing on Sunday for the first stop of his tour of the remaining members of the nuclear deal. He is due in Moscow and Brussels in the coming days. Mirroring the line taken by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Jannati said there was little chance the Europeans would provide the assurances needed for Iran to stay in the deal.