Iran’s Zarif Sorry Recording Has Caused ‘Domestic Infighting’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he is sorry that the leak of a recording in which he said the country’s diplomacy is mostly influenced by the military has created “domestic infighting” in the country as it is renegotiating a nuclear deal with the United States and world powers.

Zarif doubled down on the main message of the recording, that the military has an outsize influence on the country’s diplomatic efforts, and said there is “the need for a smart adjustment of the relationship between” diplomacy and the military.

Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani ordered an investigation to determine who leaked the recording. “We believe this theft of documents is a conspiracy against the government, the system, the integrity of effective domestic institutions, and also against our national interests,” a Rouhani spokesman told the French news agency AFP.

The New York Times reported Sunday on the three-hour recording, said to be part of an oral history project documenting the work of the current Iranian government administration.