New details of Zarif’s criticism of Zanganeh’s performance in the Turkmenistan affair

According to the economic correspondent of Fars news agency, after the announcement of the signing of the contract to import 10 million cubic meters of gas per day from Turkmenistan and the restoration of relations between the two countries by Javad Oji, the Minister of Oil, many discussions were raised about the gross mistake of the previous government in destroying the relations between Iran and Turkmenistan.

Gas trade with Turkmenistan can, in addition to the stability of the gas network in the north and northeast of the country, help to increase Iran’s share in the gas market of the region through re-exporting gas to other countries and supplying gas needed by industries in the cold months of the year; However, the previous government, with its stubbornness and failure to settle Iran’s debt to Turkmenistan, not only took this opportunity from Iran, but also cut off the entire economic relationship between the two countries.

* Zarif’s claim of harsh criticism of Zanganeh in the Turkmenistan incident and Zarif’s denial

At the beginning of this week and at the same time as the media activity of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Malik Shariati, the spokesperson of the Parliament’s Energy Commission, tweeted: Mr. Dr. Zarif! Now that you have broken your silence, in the days when the oil ministry of the 13th government managed to settle Turkmenistan’s debt and restore the gas contract without JCPOA, say publicly what you said in 99 in a meeting with my servant and a group of representatives in your office: “Zanganeh in the case of Turkmenistan Betrayed”, wasn’t it the right of the people to know?!

The revelation of the member of the parliament about Mohammad Javad Zarif’s sharp criticism of Zanganeh’s performance in the Turkmenistan incident was followed by the reaction of the former foreign minister after a few days. The government and regulatory institutions should be accountable for the performance of their fields in oil and energy, not foreign policy. The non-payment of Turkmenistan’s debt was a blow in foreign policy, but Engineer Zanganeh is not responsible for this loss; In that meeting, I told the members of parliament that you should change the law that does not grant the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the capacity to follow up on these matters in the field of foreign policy, instead of holding Zanganeh engineer responsible.

* Narration of another meeting attendee about Zarif’s strong criticism of Zanganeh

In this regard, to clarify the dimensions of the issue, we had a conversation with Ali Akbar Karimi, the representative of the Arak people in the Islamic Council, another attendee of the 1999 meeting between the representatives and the then Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Ali Akbar Karimi, a member of the Parliament’s Industries and Mines Commission, in an interview with the Economic Correspondent of Fars News Agency, referring to the performance of the Ministry of Oil of the previous government in the Turkmenistan incident and the content of the 1999 meeting with the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, said: In the 1999 meeting with the then Minister of I was abroad. In that meeting, Iran-Turkmenistan relations were discussed, and as far as I remember, Mr. Zarif raised numerous criticisms and complaints about Mr. Zanganeh’s performance and the destruction of Iran-Turkmenistan relations.

He added: In addition, I and a group of members of the 10th Parliament traveled to Turkmenistan with a delegation in July 2018. During this trip, I closely witnessed the views and positions of the Turkmen officials who had a strong complaint about Iran’s behavior, even the Iranian ambassador to Turkmenistan at that time strongly criticized the behavior of the Ministry of Oil towards Turkmenistan and said that the Ministry of Oil did not take any measures to solve the problem. Iran-Turkmenistan relations do not.

Karimi stated: We conveyed these issues to Mr. Zarif and he criticized that, unfortunately, the Ministry of Oil has not taken a step to solve the problem of the two countries and Mr. Zanganeh is not willing to interact with Turkmenistan. Therefore, Mr. Zarif’s strong complaint against Mr. Zanganeh is true.

* Iran fined 2 billion dollars, the result of the gas dispute with Turkmenistan

Also, yesterday, Malik Shariati, the spokesman of the Parliament’s Energy Commission, wrote on Twitter in response to Mohammad Javad Zarif’s denial of his statements in the 1999 session: Mr. Zarif’s forced withdrawal from his statement does not change the truth about Zanganeh, God willing, soon the dimensions and The detailed details of a documentary about this national betrayal will be brought to the notice of the noble people of Iran.

Of course, the disclosure of Zarif’s criticism of Zanganeh’s performance is not a strange issue, Abolfazl Abu Tarabi, the representative of the people of Najafabad in the parliament, also stated in an interview in July 1998: The differences between Zanganeh and Zarif are so much that they are over using the benefits of JCPOA and applying Eastern and Asian companies have faced many challenges in Iran’s oil and gas market, and Mr. Zarif also considers the weakness of the Ministry of Oil in this area as one of the ways to reach a stalemate in the JCPOA.

According to experts, the oil ministry of the previous government, in the mood of implementing the JCPOA and intoxicated by the dream of the presence of western companies, stopped the purchase of gas from Turkmenistan from 1995 without any valid reason and destroyed the relations between the two countries, which resulted in a fine of 2 billion dollars for the gas dispute. It was with Turkmenistan.

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