ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In his first speech before a parliament dominated by hardliners, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was heckled while defending the foreign and economic policy stances of President Hassan Rouhani’s government. Zarif centered his speech on the United States' application of sanction pressure on Iran from all angles, including the United Nations Security Council and bodies fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism. Their aim, he said, is to create international consensus to isolate Tehran. Some parliamentarians stood up and shouted “liar” as he spoke; "we don’t want to hear lies,” others screamed. To fend off the attacks, Zarif turned to his proximity to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – who he said has called him "honest" – and his relationship with recently slain General Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “We use all our resources to help people’s livelihood, and we use all our abilities to aid the national power of Iran. Whatever you want to say, say it, but Martyr Soleimani and I were meeting every week, we coordinated every week...anything that we did was in coordination with each other,” Zarif shouted from the lectern as raucous parliamentarians heckled. “Those who knew Martyr Soleimani…those who are affiliated with Sayyid Nasrallah, those who are affiliated with the Resistance of Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, they are the ones who know, not you.” “The Islamic Republic is an emerging power and it is for this reason that America, as the representative of the previous world order, has waged an all-out war against it,” Zarif claimed. “What is important now is to stay together, the foreign policy is not an arena to settle factional differences and that is why the foreign policy in the constitution is in the field of the Supreme Leader’s responsibilities." Parliamentarians accused the foreign minister of an inconsistent political demeanour, and both Zarif and Rouhani of being out of touch with everyday realities. “Mr Zarif, you said you negotiated to relieve the pressure on people’s livelihood, but are you aware that the value of dollar has reached 21,000 tomans? This is the result of your negotiation. Are you and Mr President not aware of the housing prices? This is the result of your actions,” parliamentarian Ali Reza Salimi said, addressing Zarif. “Mr Zarif, how is that when you negotiate with the [UN Security Council] 5+1 you smile, but you come to the parliament angry?” Salimi asked. Since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal – otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and subsequently re-imposed ever-expanding economic sanctions, the value of Iran's rial currency has dropped by more than 60 percent. The country's unemployment rate has also dramatically increased. Iran's oil exports have plummented from around 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in April 2018 to less than 300,000 bpd in recent months, and US economic pressure, coupled with rampant domestic corruption, have placed heavy economic pressure on the average citizen. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a hardliner, said after the meeting that the public's primary concerns are rooted in “economic difficulties”. “I hope that the ministry of foreign affairs is able to do its job properly in the field of economy, the main element for strengthening the national clout.” "One of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an active economic diplomacy,” said Zabihollah Azami, another MP, but "undermining the ministry of foreign affairs and in particular the senior diplomats in the current situation, is contrary to the national security and the interests of the country."
