Iran's Javad Zarif 'very sorry' for internal conflict caused by leaked comments

Iran’s top diplomat expressed regret on Wednesday over a leaked recording of him making frank comments about the limits of his power in the Islamic Republic, with the country’s president describing the incident as a means to derail ongoing talks with world powers over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal.

In a post on his Instagram account, Javad Zarif offered his first public comments about the recording, which caused a political firestorm across Iran ahead of the country’s June 18 presidential election.

While Mr Zarif has said he does not want to run in the election, some have suggested him as a potential candidate to stand against hardliners in the vote.

Mr Zarif’s post included video of him at a memorial in Baghdad for General Qassem Suleimani, a top commander in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. His leaked remarks included cutting references to the limits of his power and Suleimani’s decisions overriding his priorities at the Foreign Ministry.

“I am very sorry how a secret, theoretical discussion about the necessity of increasing co-operation between diplomacy and the field (the Guard) – in order for the next officials to use the valuable experiences of the last eight years –- became an internal conflict,” Mr Zarif wrote.

But he stopped short of apologising for his remarks directly. He said honest and compassionate remarks about what he perceived as wrong were being interpreted as personal criticism.

“I did not censor myself, because this is a betrayal of the people,” Mr Zarif wrote.

At a weekly Cabinet meeting, term-limited President Hassan Rouhani lashed out over the release of the recording. He said the interview was part of a wider project of interviews with government officials for posterity as he ends his eight years in office.

The Intelligence Ministry “must to do its best to find out how this tape was stolen, and publish a report,” Mr Rouhani said. “There will be no mercy for those who made a mistake on this.”

He also directly linked the timing of the leak to the Vienna talks about the nuclear deal.

“It was published just when Vienna was on the road to success, to create conflicts in the country,” Mr Rouhani said.

Portions of the leaked interview first aired earlier this week on Iran International, a London-based, Farsi-language satellite news channel once majority owned by a Saudi national. Tehran has criticised Iran International in the past over its coverage.