Fmr. Iranian Amb. to France: Our Political Leaders Shouldn't Use Same Rhetoric as Khomeini, Khamenei

Former Iranian Ambassador to France Sadegh Kharrazi said in a December 14, 2019 interview on Ofogh TV (Iran) that the JCPOA would be in a different state than it is today had Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden been President of the United States instead of Donald Trump. He criticized Iranian presidents who have used inflammatory rhetoric while in office, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his declarations that Iran will wipe Israel off the map, for having caused the U.N. Security Council to invoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter against Iran, and he argued that Iran’s presidents cannot use the same rhetoric used by Imam Khomeini or Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who he said are religious, spiritual, and revolutionary leaders rather than political leaders. In addition, Kharrazi said that Supreme Leader Khamenei had authorized every step of the JCPOA negotiations and that Iran could not have gotten a better deal than the JCPOA given the political circumstances at the time.