In a post in his Telegram channel, Parviz Esmaeili, the deputy for communications and information at President Hassan Rouhani’s office, gave an interesting account of a gift given by Zarif to Kerry on January 16, 2015, in the course of nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers.
“Media reports quoted the US Federal Register as saying that Iranian FM Zarif had given the miniature works of Iranian miniaturist Master Mahmoud Farshchian to US Secretary of State John Kerry as a gift on January 16, 2015. The story behind the gift is interesting,” he noted, as reported by Mizan, and translated by IFP.
“In one of the phases of nuclear talks with the Group 5+1, Americans kept raising claims about the time required for developing nuclear bombs through Natanz centrifuges. Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, in turn, denied their claims by emphasizing the peaceful nature of Iran’s technical activities as well as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)’s accurate calculations.”
“Americans stubbornly insisted on their claims and said that the AEOI’s calculations are wrong. Within a number of sessions with other members also in attendance, Iran’s negotiating team put them under pressure to argue why Iran’s calculations are wrong; We wanted them to at least prove their own calculation method, but they couldn’t do that. They finally said that their calculations are secret, and they can’t disclose them!”
“Later on, the issue was once again raised in a challenging meeting with John Kerry in Paris. Without any prior coordination, Dr. Zarif asked his colleagues to bring into the room one of the masterpieces of Master Farshchian – which were supposed to be given to French officials as a gift.”
“They took it to the room. Zarif gave it to the US Secretary of State and said, ‘These miniatures are 1mx1m paintings. But if you go to Master Farshchian’s atelier in New Jersey, US, he will give you a magnifier to see all the details of the main painting and become even more surprised. Remember! When Iranians are so much accurate and precise in their work and pay so much attention to the details, do not ever claim, without convincing argument, that their calculations are wrong,” Esmaeili noted.
