Iran's chief nuclear negotiator receives hero's welcome in Tehran

Jubilant crowd greets Mohammad Javad Zarif amid hopes that nuclear pact will end years of international isolation

The Guardian, Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 3 April 2015

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is mobbed by well-wishers 

in Tehran. Photograph: EPA

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has returned to Tehran to a hero’s welcome as thousands of people desperate for an end to international sanctions greeted him at the airport after Thursday’s historic breakthrough in the Lausanne nuclear talks.

A crowd gathered at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on Friday morning as Zarif, the country’s chief nuclear negotiator, and his team arrived from Switzerland, where they agreed a framework deal that provides the basis for a more comprehensive nuclear agreement. Iranians hope the deal will end years of international isolation and economic hardship – and avert the threat of war.

Under the tentative agreement, restrictions will be placed on Iran’s enrichment of uranium so that it is unable to use the material in nuclear weapons. In return, the US and EU will terminate all nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran once the UN nuclear agency confirms that Iran has complied.

“Zarif, thank you,” people chanted while waving the Islamic republic’s green, white and red flag. Others took out their mobile phones to take pictures of a man who will become a national hero if a final agreement, due in June, is reached.

On Thursday night, jubilant Iranians took to the streets within hours of the news breaking in Lausanne. Drivers in Tehran honked their car horns even after midnight as men and women waved flags and showed victory signs from open windows. In an unprecedented move, Iran’s national TV also broadcast Obama’s Thursday speech on the agreement live.

“Everyone is happy,” an Iranian journalist based in Tehran told the Guardian. “You can see it in people’s faces. This agreement is lifting up their heart.” The deal was announced as Iranians were celebrating the last day of the the Nowruz new year holiday. On Saturday, when the exchange market opens, many experts predict that the country’s currency, the rial, will benefit from the breakthrough almost immediately.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who has much to gain from a comprehensive agreement, is due to address the nation on Friday. His chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, has already declared the result a victory for Iran.

The leader of Friday prayers, Ayatollah Imami Kashani, who often reflects the political mood among the conservative faction of the Islamic republic, said: “The Lausanne declaration was a success. We should congratulate Zarif. The world finally accepted that Iran should have a nuclear programme for peaceful and technological purposes.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is yet to announce his views of the breakthrough, has strongly supported Rouhani’s nuclear diplomacy in the past. As a result of Khamenei’s backing, hardliners refrained from attacking Zarif during the talks.

Hossein Shariatmadari, however, the hardline editor of the Kayhan state newspaper, was quick to denounce the framework agreement. “We gave them a saddled horse and they gave back some broken reins,” local media quoted him as saying.

A small group of Iranian MPs echoed Shariatmadari and said any agreement should be endorsed by the country’s parliament, the majlis. Seyed Hossein Naghavi, spokesman for the parliamentary committee on the national security and foreign policy, said: “We will not recognise an agreement that would not lead to a complete lifting of all sanctions.”

Ismail Kowsari, another MP from the committee, also said that Iran had not achieved its goal of all sanctions being lifted.

Overall, however, the framework agreement has garnered a great deal of support within Iran. “I feel very proud as an Iranian,” Kazem Sadjadpour, a university professor, said on state TV on Thursday night. “This is a turning point in Iran’s history of diplomacy. This is a night of mourning for [Israel’s prime minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and his warmongering allies in the US congress.”

Netanyahu condemned the agreement in a statement releasedon Friday morning: “A deal that is based on this framework will threaten Israel’s existence … The alternative is to stand firmly and increase pressure on Iran until a better deal is reached.

“This deal would legitimise Iran’s nuclear programme, bolster Iran’s economy and increase Iran’s aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond. It would increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war.”

On Thursday, a defiant Barack Obama described the deal as “the best option so far” to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “This has been a long time coming,” Obama said. “It is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives … If this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer.”

There was a clear sign of the battle to come in Washington over the agreement, which Republicans have vowed to overturn. Senator Mark Kirk, who is promoting fresh sanctions against Iran, declared that the former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain had “got a better deal from Adolf Hitler” at Munich.

Elsewhere there was support for the deal. Carl Bildt, the former foreign minister of Sweden, tweeted: “Doors should now be open to a deeper diplomatic dialogue with Iran also on other contentious issues. The region needs more open dialogue.”

Mark Fitzpatrick, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “I am surprised – very pleasantly so – that the #IranTalks reached an extensive framework for an agreement. A win-win outcome for the world.”

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, who is organising an event in Geneva in September to bring Iranian and foreign investors together to study business opportunities in post-sanctions Iran, also welcomed the news.

“Rouhani’s political legitimacy and the legitimacy of the deal will depend on a promise of economic growth and relief for the average Iranian,” he told the Guardian. “Oil prices will remain low, so growth will require increased foreign direct investment that can help create jobs and boost consumer spending.”

Batmanghelidj said the nuclear deal would allow a new phase of business development work to begin in earnest. “The most important thing for Iranian businesses is new and more transparent corporate communications that can support relationship building with multinational firms in a way that builds public trust,” he said.

Iran nuclear talks: negotiators arrive at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in

Lausanne after the talks finished. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

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