Special to WorldTribune.com
The “handshake with the enemy” has created a storm of controversy in Iran’s parliament.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shook hands with U.S. President Barack Obama on Sept. 28 at United Nations headquarters in New York, the first time in 30 years such high-ranking officials from the two long-time enemies shook hands.
Upon learning of the handshake back in Teheran, members of parliament immediately lashed out at Zarif.
“With whose permission have they met Obama?” MP Bahram Biranvand said in a report by Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency. “Last time they talked to Obama on the phone and this time, with whose permission?” he added, in a reference to a call Obama placed from the Oval Office to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie jumped on the Zarif-bashing bandwagon: “Some spies are paid but there is another kind of spying that we have to watch out for. He prepares the ground for the enemy.
“These people would say: ‘Why not allow a friendly handshake with the enemy? What’s wrong with shaking hands with Obama? What’s wrong with sitting with them, chatting away and drinking with them?’
“It was an accident”
Iran’s parliament also drew up a statement condemning the handshake and reiterating that America remains the enemy of Iran. Parliament member Mojtaba Rahmandoust told Fars News Agency that “the lawmakers are signing a statement to voice protest at the foreign minister’s shaking hands with the U.S. president. Zarif’s act doesn’t mean Iran’s (sic) hand-shaking with the U.S.”
Teheran’s foreign ministry said the handshake occurred as Zarif was leaving the UN and “incidentally ran into the U.S. delegation headed by President Obama.”
The conservative wing in parliamentarians, however, said Zarif’s actions were an outrage and that the foreign minister should have refused to shake hands “with the head of an arrogant, aggressive state.”
On Sept. 27, Zarif said Obama administration officials attempted to raise other issues “but we have always emphasized that our bilateral negotiations are limited to the nuclear issue based on the framework specified by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution. We didn’t enter negotiations on Syria or other regional issues in our talks with (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry.”
Handshake with Obama generates uproar back in Iran added by World Tribune on
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