Today, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, who is in charge of the nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 since the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took the office in the June 14 presidential election, presented a new proposal from Iran during the 1st round of talks and left his deputy Abbas Araghchi in room to lead the Iranian negotiating team.

Iranian diplomats also began lobbying to the P5+1 few days before the talks when Morteza Sarmadi another deputy of the Iranian foreign minister visited Beijing on the eve of the nuclear talks.

Abbas Araqchi also had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabcov on the sidelines of the plenary meeting on Tuesday morning.

Russia and China, as two members of the P5+1 play a key role in balancing the group’s stance towards Iran.

During the talks, having been previously headed by hardliner Saeed Jalili, Iran and the P5+1 failed to reach a consensus even on what topics they should focus on.

Political observers in Tehran maintain that one of the most important obstacles in the former rounds of talks was that the two sides did not have a common objective and the talk sessions proceeded with unrelated, disorderly discussions.

Tehran and the P5+1 members have agreed to keep Iran’s new nuclear proposal which is titled as “An end to a unnecessary crisis, a beginning to a new horizons”  as confidential. Iran also kept its Baghdad proposal presented last year to the P5+1 confidential until the group rejected that months later in Almaty.

Iranian diplomat described the major steps Iran has assumed for reaching an agreement with the other side of the talks were said this morning through a Powerpoint presentation by Zarif.  The steps can be summarized  as being:

– Accepting Iran’s nuclear right for developing, investigating, producing and using nuclear energy;

– Employing truth-finding strategies;

– International cooperation for fulfillment of Iran’s rights;

– Halting all the sanctions imposed on Iran; and

– Cooperation in common interests and concerns.

Both sides of the talks are sending positive signals about the nature of today’s negotiations. But the most important change we are witnessing is the realistic viewpoint of the parties and expectations is balanced as we hear from the early statements of the officials.

 “We will try to reach preliminary results by tomorrow morning, but anyway we do not expect to reach a final solution by tomorrow,” said Abbas Araghchi while briefing Iranian media after the end of first plenary today morning.

He also expressed hope for next round of talks to take place less than one month later.

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Lebanese Foreign Minister, Adnan Mansour traveled to Tehran on Saturday by the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi and two sides discussed regional issues with a focus on Syrian crisis.

“The west talks about human right but send weapons to Syrian terrorists,” said Salehi in a joint press conference with Mansour.

“Iran will never let other impose their will on Syria, The Syrian should decide for their fate,” Salehi said.

Lebanese FM also criticized western efforts to send weapons to anti Syrian government fighters.

“The current Syrian government is the legitimate. Sending weapons for one side of the conflict will not solve the crisis,” he said.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also slammed the decision of sending weapons to the Syrian rebels on Sunday.

In a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister he said: “Enemies try to dominate the region and Syria is part of their scenario. We should be vigil and not get deluded by their plans. Violence would not solve the Syrian crisis and both sides should negotiate,” he said.

A spokesman for the foreign-backed Takfiri militants in Syria said the armed groups have been supplied with heavy weapons by ‘brotherly nations’.

Louay Muqdad, the media coordinator of the terrorist Free Syrian Army (FSA), told CNN on June 21 that the new weapons “will be a turning point” in the conflict and will “definitely change the rules of the war on the ground.”

“We have received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground.”

Hussein Amir Abdollahian, Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African affairs is another Iranian official that criticize the western stance regard Syria.

“Those who support providing weapons to Syrian rebels are responsible for the civilian’s lives. The U.S. and U.K. made several strategy mistakes in Syria,” he said on Sunday.

The secretary of Iran’s National Security Council also met with the Lebanese FM on Sunday.

In the meeting Saeed Jalili a candidate of Iran’s Presidential election said: “Sending weapons to Syrian terrorists by some countries is a threat to international security.”

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Hassan Rowhani becomes Iran’s new president after winning 50.7% of the votes.

Iran’s Minister of the Interior Mostafa Mohammad Najjar officially announced the final results of Iran’s presidential election (held yesterday Friday).

A 72.7% turn-out of voters shocked foreign observers who didn’t predict such a high participation.

Of the 36,704,156 votes tallied Rowhani won a total of 18,613,329.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei issued a statement congratulating the “Political Acheivement” of the Iranian nation and to the elected President.

In his statement Ayatollah Khamenei described people’s high turn-out as a respond to the western propaganda against Iran.

“The real winner is Iranian nation,” he said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who will remain Iran’s president for almost 2 months more issued a statement praising the Iranian nation for their strong participation in the elections. He also congratulated his successor Hassan Rowhani.

Rowhani’s Principalist rivals; Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaee and Ali Akbar Velayati also congratulated the President to be.

Tehran’s Mayor Ghalibaf won 6,077,292 votes. Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili won 4,168,946 and the former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaee secured 3,884,412 of the votes.

Shortly after the announcement of Rowhani’s win, his supporters in Tehran and some other Iranian cities celebrated the victory in the streets.

 Former two-term President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who backed Rowhani in the elections issued a statement on Saturday calling Iran’s elections, the most democratic elections in the world.

“Iranians demonstrated their ignorance to foreign and domestic propaganda. Our enemies should confess that Iran has the most democratic election in the world and they can’t cast doubts on results,” the statement read.

He also appreciated the “Elections authorities” for the perfect conduct of the elections.

“The Tsunami of the Iranian nation beat the White House,” said Mohammad Reza Naghdi the commander of the Basij force (People’s Militia). “The High turn-out in the Iranian election proves the trust of the people to the Islamic establishment.”

On Friday, millions of Iranian voters headed for polling stations to cast their ballots and choose the country’s 11th president as well as their representatives in the city and village councils.

Nearly 50.5 million Iranians, including more than 1.6 million first-time voters, were eligible to vote in the June 14 elections.

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According to the latest official results announced by Iran’s Interior Ministry with 23,014,873 ballots counted so far, the moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani is leading with 11,754,013 votes which is 51.07% of the counted votes followed by Tehran’s Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with 3,494,938 which is 15.19% of the counted votes.

If a candidate wins over 50 percent of the vote in the first round, he will replace the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Otherwise a run-off will be held in a week’s time to determine a final winner in the race.

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Saeed Jalili: “Everybody must respect whoever the people elect…I ask all the people and supporters of candidates to help create the political epic.”

Mohsen Rezaei: “I have come here to say people are our main concern, that’s why I came to cast my vote. I will thank the Iranian nation for whatever decision they make today… My way is the continuation of the way of my martyred brothers.”

Hassan Rowhani: if the people create a great epic today on july 14, july 15 will be the victory day for the Iranian nation and not a particular candidate… the owner of this country is the nation. The country is theirs and their right… We are witnessing a higher turnout in this election.

Mohammad Gharazi: Today is the day of Resurrection for the revolution and the election. The enemy has sheathed its sword… what organizes the election are the votes of the people. I will accept whatever the Interior Ministry, the Guardian Council, and the nation say. I have told the guardian council in a letter that I will not have representatives because I fully trust their staff.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf:”Certainly only one of the candidates will be elected and people’s choice will be the best their votes will be respected… I want to make fundamental and basic changes in the area of progress and justice.”

Ali Akbar Velayati: “What is most important is the people’s turnout and electing the best candidate… people should rush to the polls… Whoever people vote for will be respected by all of us.”

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Many of the country’s top officials have already cast their votes with the Leader of the Islamic Republic being the first. He urged the nation to go to the polls early. In response to remarks by a American National Security Council official, the leader stated that the Iranian nation would not be influenced by such remarks and that they would act according to their own beliefs and needs.

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“In this meeting we are to clarify the procedures of the election [for the candidates] and to hear comments of the candidates,” said Kadkhodaei in a presser just before the meeting.

While the representative of Gholam Ali Hadad Adel was absent at today’s meeting. A few hours after the meeting Gholam Ali Hadad Adel issued a statement announcing his quit from the election race in favor of the “Prinipalist Candidates”. He didn’t mention name of any of the candidates.

The spokesman of the Guardian Council also denied the reports on the possibility of reconsidering qualifications of the reformist candidate Hasan Rowhani.

 Iranian Fars News Agency reported earlier today that the Guardian Council will reconsider Rowhani’s qualifications in an urgent meeting today.

“We may give notices to the candidates about some aspects of their campaigning but we not review the qualifications,” Kadkhodaei said.

At the beginning of the meeting, the represantatives of the candidates delivered a short statement about explaining their candidates’ stance on procedures of the election.

“I appreciate the Guardian Council,” said Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the representative of Rowhani, “It can avoid any misunderstanding if we the representatives of the candidates be present during sealing of ballot boxes,” he said.

The campaing manager of another reformist candidate, Mohammad Reza Aref also said they will be committed to the law in every step of the election.

“Our slogan is commitment to the law so we accept the role of the Guardian Council in vetting the qualifications and counting of the ballots,” he said.

Shahin Mohammad-Sadeghi a representative of Ali Akbar Velayati also said his candidate is committed to the law and will abide any decision by the Guardian Council.

Ali Bagheri the representative of Saeed Jalili also underlined the “important role of the Guardian Council in the last elections” and said: “This initiative by the Guardian Council to have closely interaction with the candidates shows the council has a serious approach [to have a fair election].”

Talking to the journalists, Bagheri denied the possibility of Jalili quitting on behalf of any other Principalist candidates.

“Saeed Jalili will not quit from the race. His popularity is boosting after the TV debates,” he said.

The representatives of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mohammad Gharazi and Mohsen Rezaei endorsed the role of the Guardian Council and wished a fair election with a high turn-out.

Iranians will cast their votes on behalf of one the 8 presidential candidates on June 14. 

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