These are fateful times for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Inside his country, the economic crisis is rapidly deteriorating, a drought is drying up the land, the groundswell of popular protests against his government has become unrelenting, and his radical opponents are stepping up efforts to topple the government and unseat him.
Outside Iran, meanwhile, it is becoming ever more apparent that the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement is dead. It died the moment the U.S. decided to withdraw from it and reimpose sanctions on Iran and on anyone who does business with the Iranians.
Rouhani's official visit to Switzerland and Austria this week, two countries where the international community engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran prior to striking the deal, is actually a farewell tour – a farewell to the nuclear agreement and a farewell to "moderate" Rouhani, the one Europe embraced so warmly.
European intelligence sources believe that the Iranian plot to bomb a meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in France last Saturday was meant to put the final nail in Rouhani's coffin, particularly among the Revolutionary Guards elite.
I went to Vienna, where the nuclear agreement was reached three years ago, to pay my final respects. It was obvious from the start that Rouhani's Austrian hosts – Greens party leader President Alexander Van der Bellen and the young, conservative chancellor, Sebastian Kurz – would regurgitate the old European line in support of preserving the nuclear deal. What I wasn't expecting, however, was that the Austrians would be true to their word and publicly criticize Iran's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitude and declarations. I was pleasantly surprised, I must say.
Several hours before Rouhani's arrival in Vienna on Tuesday evening, it seemed the entire visit might be in question. The Austrian Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador and demanded that he revoke the legal immunity of an Iranian diplomat suspected of involvement in the plot to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in France.
The diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, was detained Sunday on a European arrest warrant near the German city of Aschaffenburg after a couple with Iranian roots was stopped in Belgium and authorities reported finding powerful explosives in their car. According to the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Assadi serves as a counselor at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna.
When the Iranian ambassador refused to strip Assadi of his immunity, the Austrians announced that they would revoke the immunity unilaterally, facilitating the diplomat's extradition to Belgium, where authorities are investigating the case.
Under any other circumstances, Rouhani would have canceled his visit in response to such a move. But Rouhani's current position is so dire that he went ahead and arrived in Vienna as planned. In a feeble effort to prevent the visit from turning into a catastrophe, the Austrian authorities made sure to keep the media away from the Iranian president, barring any of us reporters from posing questions directly to Rouhani.
Avoiding contact
Highly unusual helicopter movement in the Vienna skies signaled that the problematic guest and his entourage were about to arrive at the presidential palace. The broad security arrangements that preceded the visit indicated that the hosts were nervous. Rouhani brought along a large delegation of reporters, loyal to the Iranian regime, whose job it was to create the impression that the world, namely Europe, was supporting Rouhani against U.S. President Donald Trump's "irresponsible behavior."
They made sure to avoid contact with us, the foreign reporters, but took every opportunity to have their pictures taken in the ornate halls of the Hofburg, the former principal imperial palace, together with the Austrian honor guard soldiers there to welcome the Iranian president to the palace. Rouhani, dressed in a black gown and a white turban, emerged from his vehicle and flashed smiles in every direction. Security guards from the Iranian Embassy formed a defensive wall around him, making sure that no one, including me, approached him.
The Austrian president laid the groundwork for the public debate he would soon wage with his Iranian counterpart. The debate – a disagreement over Israel - was to become the focus of the visit. Van der Bellen may have voiced displeasure at the American decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement, but he also noted that during his conversation with Rouhani, controversial topics came up, mainly Israel's "indisputable" right to exist.
This wiped the smile right off Rouhani's face and replaced it with a perturbed expression. The Iranian president began his remarks with the traditional niceties and expressions of gratitude but quickly flew into a harsh attack on the U.S. and accusations that the Americans are making decisions for other countries and harming their interests.
He said further that Israel, "together with the U.S., has the most negative role in the Middle East, particularly in Syrian and in Iraq."
But this was just the preface for the real confrontation, which took place at Kurz's bureau. The chancellor, who makes no effort to downplay his fondness for Israel and even spoke with Israel's prime minister before his meeting with Rouhani, stood next to the Iranian president and did something that no European leader has dared to do before: He reprimanded him for Iran's anti-Israel position and for their denial of the Holocaust.
I was sitting a few meters from Rouhani and I could actually see the blood draining from his face. "Because of our history, Austria has a special responsibility to combat anti-Semitism and support Israel," Kurz said with a solemn expression.
It is "absolutely unacceptable to question Israel's right to exist or to call for the Jewish state's destruction," he said, adding that Vienna is "unconditionally" committed to Israel's security.
Rouhani's response was an unabashed tongue lashing against Israel. "Iran has managed to deal a serious blow to Middle East terrorism, despite Israel's and the U.S.'s support for ISIS," Rouhani said. "Israel is very disappointed with the fact that Syria's future has been restored to the Syrian people. There are countries that are sensitive toward Jews, but we have no problem with Jews. We saved them during the Babylonian era, and they owe us a debt of gratitude."
"We maintain good relations with Jews all over the world," he continued. "The problem is the Zionists – the occupation gang that shells and bombs innocent people in Gaza and supports ISIS by providing medical care to their wounded in Syria. Israel plays a very negative role in the Middle East, while our goal is to achieve peace in the region."
We, the reporters, were not given an opportunity to speak.
The leadership will change
At the conclusion of his visit, Rouhani appeared before the Austrian chamber of commerce in an effort to convince local entrepreneurs to continue investing in his country in defiance of U.S. sanction threats. "This time of American pressure on the Iranian people will pass," Rouhani said. "What history will remember is the way nations respond. The current American administration will not last forever, but the Iranian and Austrian nations will."
The Austrian hosts had trouble finding business figures willing to waste their time on this lost cause. The crowd at the chamber of commerce was comprised mainly of Iranian expats.
As foreign ministers representing world powers were expected to arrive in Vienna Monday to meet Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, a senior official in Vienna told me that "even the foreign ministers, who are coming to examine possible ways of circumventing the American sanctions, know very well that the nuclear agreement is dead."
"The question now," the source told me, "is whether Rouhani will realize that he has no choice but to begin negotiating a new deal before someone else takes his place, or Iran will be headed for disaster."
