Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Instagram on Sunday to apologize to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader. Earlier in the day, Khamenei appeared to criticize Zarif during a televised speech for embarrassing comments that leaked to the press in late March. While not specifically naming Zarif, Khamenei referred to a “big mistake that must not be made by an official of the Islamic Republic.” In the tape that leaked to media outlets, Zarif could be heard saying that the Revolutionary Guards had more political power than he does; criticizing late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani; and complaining that he had been unaware that Israel had launched at least 200 attacks on Iranian interests in Syria until he had been told by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The tape, Zarif wrote on Instagram, was “stolen and published for misuse by enemies of the country and its people,” and he apologized that it “caused you, supreme leader, to feel regret.”
