Shamkhani’s role in the Iranian nuclear file is something that may have left a bitter taste with President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.
He has handled nuclear talks for the last two years, and while he has had disagreements with former President Hassan Rouhani, he also had issues with Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian, Vatanka told CNN.
With Raisi, there was a feeling that Shamkhani was “taking all the glory when it came to Iranian foreign policy achievements, most notably the détente with Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” he said, adding that local media has over the past two years portrayed Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian as symbolic figureheads who may be out of loop, showing Shamkhani as the real decision maker.
Elements within the Iranian regime may have felt the need to “bring him down a peg because he is getting too big for the interest of other groups,” he said.