Five days after President Ahmadinejad announced that the nuclear case is “closed” and ‎harshly attacked “rogue” elements that want to negotiate with the West, a high profile ‎member of the National Security Council and former top nuclear negotiator, Hassan ‎Rowhani, warned of dangers facing the country and said that the solving of important ‎national crises cannot be monopolized by a certain group. ‎

Noting that “the tolerance level of certain officials in our country is very low,” Rowhani ‎added, “We office terms end soon. The country is no one’s property. The notion that ‎someone owns the country and its people is our biggest problem and incurable disease. ‎We cannot let just one group or several people to monopolize an important national issue. ‎We have to use the advice and help of others.” ‎

A member of the powerful Expediency Council, Rowhani posed the question, “In what ‎position we are compared to previous years?” and responded, “Our situation is not a ‎desirable one. The enemy has prepared itself and creates controversy every day. It is ‎using the United Nations and the Security Council as a nest to impose pressure on us. ‎The effects of these pressures are discernible on our economic and political relations. ‎Our situation becomes more difficult every day. Some may say that that is not important ‎‎– but it is important for our people, because our people pay the price and the economic ‎effects are very tangible for them.” ‎

Rowhani’s remarks were received as a direct response to an Ahmadinejad speech a few ‎days earlier in which the President said, “From our point of view, the nuclear case is ‎closed, meaning that we are not willing to speak to big powers in a politicized setting ‎about the rights of Iran. The Iranian nation does not negotiate over its rights. The ‎screaming of big powers shows that the game is over and a big victory has been ‎achieved.” ‎

In another part of his speech, Ahmadinejad said, “Some rogue people decide single-‎handedly that they want to negotiate, and the enemy, stuck in a dead-end, receives them ‎with open arms and uses them to find a way out of the dead-end.” ‎

Ahmadinejad’s remarks were directed at Hassan Rowhani’s trip last month to meet EU ‎chief Javier Solana in Germany. Later, for reasons that were not officially announced, ‎the meeting was cancelled. After several phone conversations with Solana, Rowhani said ‎that the meeting had been postponed to a later date. ‎

Despite the President’s repeated remarks that the country is not in danger, several high-‎profile officials have already warned about the country’s dangerous position. ‎