TEHRAN: The top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday criticised the replacement of Ali Larijani as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, saying it was the wrong time for change.

“It seems that if this had not happened, it would have been better,” said Ali Akbar Velayati.

“In the very important and sensitive situation where the nuclear issue is at the moment it would be better if this (the resignation) did not happen or at least it was prevented,” he added.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted Larijani’s resignation after he had asked to resign on several previous occasions and appointed hardline deputy foreign minister Saeed Jalili in his place, the government spokesman said on Saturday.

The pair were believed to harbour differences over Iran’s handling of the nuclear crisis with the West, which has already seen two sets of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Tehran.

“It was no longer possible for Larijani to continue with Ahmadinejad,” the deputy speaker of parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar said, in the first official explanation of his sudden resignation.

“The two sides reached the conclusion that this had to be done,” he was quoted as saying by the Iranian press.

It is the job of the president to appoint the chief nuclear negotiator, whose official title is head of the Supreme National Security Council.

Larijani was believed to enjoy the confidence of Khamenei, Iran’s undisputed number one who has the final say on foreign policy matters. It is impossible to say whether Larijani’s resignation was approved by the leader.

Khamenei has repeatedly stated that Iran will not back down in the nuclear crisis, a position also strongly voiced on numerous occasions by Ahmadinejad.

Larijani was believed to support a more moderate line in the nuclear standoff — at least over the presentation of policy — although how far this went is still unclear.

There has already been criticism over Larijani’s departure, with some questions emerging over the level of the experience of the Ahmadinejad loyalist Jalili compared to his predecessor.

“The experience and positions held by Larijani are not comparable with the deputy foreign minister, who has little experience,” the influential head of parliament’s research centre, Ahmad Tavakoli, said on Saturday.

According to MP Ali Ahmadi, lawmakers are preparing a letter to be read out in parliament on Tuesday to thank Larijani “for his efforts in the course of the last two years in handling the nuclear issue.” However Velayati warned against speculating over the reasons for Larijani’s departure.

“Since Larijani has said nothing about this and president Ahmadinejad, who accepted his resignation, has said nothing either, all the reasons put forward to explain his departure are pure hypotheses,” he said.

“It is difficult to make a judgment but it was better if this did not happen,” he added.—AFP