Parliamentarian Daryoush Ghanbari:

The era of secret diplomacy has long ended in the world and the…government has no right to negotiate with the U.S. secretly…Has Iran not a Ministry of Foreign Affairs since Mr. Samareh Hashemi is dispatched to negotiate with regard to Iran/U.S. relations? The fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad ignores his own Foreign Minister has become a riddle to us… Now that the government is the master of dismissing cabinet ministers, how come Mottaki is not dismissed?
Secretiveness of the affairs only feed into our concerns that – God forbid – the negotiations are contrary to national interests of Iran…If the negotiations truly follow the national interests of Iran, how come they are done secretly?
U.S. negotiations without involvement of the parliament is innovation of this government. Lately, also the Iraqis have disclosed secret negotiations between Iran and the U.S. conducted in Iraq…
How come those very individuals who conquered foreign embassies one after the other in support of the people of Gaza do not protest against negotiations of Ahmadinejad’s advisor and former U.S. defense secretary who is the staunchest supporter of Israel?
Such contradictions are incomprehensible. Had the negotiations taken place during the last government, people dressed in death shrouds would have been loose in the streets, but it is perfectly allowed to this government to do such things…”

National Security Committee member Mohammad-Mehdi Shahriari adds: “The Foreign Ministry should answer why Mr. Samareh Hashemi has held conversations with William Perry.”

Senior presidential adviser Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi denies any involvement in secret negotiations with the United States:

“No official or unofficial negotiations between me and the Americans has taken place and no one has received any instructions to engage in negotiations…Most meetings take place by some non-governmental research institutes with presence of various individuals from different countries, but without those individuals having been instructed to negotiate…
This year, some meetings under the title of “Considering Relations of Iran and the West” took place and some Iranians have also been involved. In those meetings participants from Russia, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, America and some others were present and each person presented his suggestions and analysis…Such meetings provide an opportunity for the Iranian participants to explain the principles of [Iran’s] foreign policy and answer the usual misinformation, but also ask political questions with regard to injustice, invasions, production and proliferation of nuclear weapons and the like…The U.S. participants did not participate as government officials, but as university professors, experts, heads of research institutes and the like…Let it be said that the authorities have every once in a while announced that should justice, and the U.S. lack of recognition of the rights of the Iranian nation and mutual respect from the side of the Americans is brought up for discussion, there may be a common ground for negotiations…