In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

A top Iranian official and close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says his country should never have signed the international nuclear deal that has now been renounced by President Donald Trump.

In an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News, the official, Ali Shamkhani, who rarely speaks to the Western press, said that there were people in Iran who felt that signing the 2015 nuclear pact, known as the JCPOA, was a mistake.

Asked by Holt if he was one of those people, Shamkhani said, “Yes. … I’m just following the viewpoints of my nation, the people of Iran.”

Shamkhani is the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and since 2013, has also been the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, making him Iran’s top national security official. A former anti-Shah militant and Revolutionary Guard who once commanded Iran’s naval forces, he previously served as minister of defense and mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Iran’s presidency in 2001. Read more

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In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.

In a rare interview, Ali Shamkhani — a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader — said signing the 2015 pact was a mistake.