Iran Snap Analysis: The New Battle Within Tehran Over the Nuclear Talks

An Iranian correspondent writes for EA:

President's Ahmadinejad camp has finally reacted to the Istanbul talks by publishing a long exposé, in the Iran newspaper and by the network of websites which are fed by the presidential staff:

*Istanbul is the combination of efforts of the "Everyone but Ahmadinejad camp". Hassan Rowhani is said to have travelled, without his clerical robes, to Vienna in late March/early April to confer with Western figures regarding the Istanbul talks. (Rowhani has not denied the Vienna visit but has claimed that it was not nuclear-related.) Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi's surprise visit to Saudi Arabia is billed as yet another line of communication to the West regarding the nuclear issue. [Former nuclear negotiator] Hossein Mousavian's long op-ed in the Boston Globe is said to have been the actual policy outline Jalili took with himself to Istanbul.

*Iran's first objective is the lifting of oil and banking sanctions.

*[Secretary of Expediency Council] Mohsen Rezaei, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani are seen as other pawns of this manoeuvre.

*Russia, Turkey and China are attacked as governments who want to play Iran and US around for their own benefit.

*All of the above are defined as "enemies" of the current Ahmadinejad government and the Islamic Republic.

Reading between the lines is quite simple: the Ahmadinejad camp feels shunted out of the evolving nuclear deal, while it senses that the two sides are closer than before to an agreement.

So, ironically, the pro-Ahmadinejad forces are on the offensive for reasons similar to the ones which scuppered the late 2009 talks, which were promoted by the President but undermined by his rivals. I expect Ahmadinejad's men to keep up the noise and the fight.