Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday expressed regret over the leak of him reportedly bemoaning the Revolutionary Guard Corps' dominance in foreign policy, noting that his tape was being used to fan a dispute within the country
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2021) Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday expressed regret over the leak of him reportedly bemoaning the Revolutionary Guard Corps' dominance in foreign policy, noting that his tape was being used to fan a dispute within the country.
On Sunday, media reported, citing a leaked audiotape from a March interview with Iranian economist Saeed Laylaz, that Zarif criticized the national military for undermining diplomacy. He mentioned that late Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, assassinated in a targeted US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020, used to direct Iranian foreign policy and tried to sabotage the 2015 nuclear deal.
"I deeply regret how the confidential exchange of views on the need for synergy between diplomacy and the battlefield to use the valuable experience of the past eight years by the future government is turning into an internal dispute," the minister wrote on his Instagram.
Additionally, the audiotape reportedly revealed Zarif's alleged claims that former US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled to him classified information about some 200 Israeli strikes on Iranian assets in Syria.
The Tasnim news agency reported that the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee has summoned the minister to discuss the leaked file. The talks are expected to take place within two weeks.
According to the IRIB broadcaster, Laylaz condemned the leak of the audio file in the media, noting that it was not meant to be in the interview.
