Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran has profoundly changed his views:

– on August 13, 2018, he declared that the effect of the US sanctions on the country was attributable to internal and not external causes, that is to say to the economic management of the Rohani administration.

– On August 15, he admitted to having made a mistake by authorizing Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to negotiate the 5 + 1 nuclear deal (JCPoA) with the United States.

In March 2013, that is to say, in the last months of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the Supreme Leader had authorized the team of future president Rohani to conduct informal contacts in Oman with emissaries of President Obama, Jake Sullivan and William Burns. We then wrote:

"From these talks, at least two decisions emerged. First, that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would ensure the exclusion of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie - the former chief of intelligence of the Revolutionary Guards who became chief of staff and parent-in-law of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - from the Presidential race. In this way, Iran would tone itself down in international forums. Second, the United States would also look to tone down its anti-Iranian allies and unblock the 5 + 1 nuclear negotiations to end the sanctions. " [1]

We were then strongly criticized in Iran, accused of attributing to the Supreme Leader acts for which he was not responsible.

As we had anticipated, President Sheikh Hassan Rohani’s team did not attempt to defend Iranian interests in the negotiations, agreeing, for example, to close down all of its university nuclear physics programs, thus becoming an under-educated state again. We then revealed the payment of bribes by Austria, during the negotiations that followed quietly on the construction of a pipeline to Europe. The aftermath of these events has been the enrichment of part of the ruling class on the backs of the Iranian people.

The Supreme Leader, who was extremely ill, may not have measured the extent of the disaster when it occurred. He is now trying to put things right.

[1] "What you do not know about the US-Iran-Iran agreements", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, April 6, 2015.