"Shifting the blame", Mottaki: "The US in the region, is like an ugly person who can't get a baby to stop crying ..."

Laura Rosen uses (with permission) some of ABC' Lara Setrakian's tweets from Manama. Here

"... Mottaki rejected the notion that Iran rejected the TRR deal, and described Iran's counter-offer, she writes. He said Iran was willing to continue with P5+1 talks, in response to our question of whether talks were dead:

MOTTAKI: "What do they mean Iran has not responded? At first we accepted the generalities, what happened then? Immediately you wrote in your media that we will take 1200 kilos of fuel so that Iran distances itself from making a bomb. Pay attention to that language. Iran wanted to help you. When you propagate such propaganda then Iran's public opinion wonders, what is the objective? It is not about fuel, it is about Iran's needs to produce medicines because of this reactor, this is medicine we need for emergencies. So we don't have a possibility to rapidly obtain. You have brought that into political dispute. When you create such propaganda, how do you think we should react? First I think we could just totally abandon the whole thing, or we could propose something that's more moderate - a kind of middle way. Iran has proposed a middle way, a compromise solution. And you know it. We would do it in phases. 400 kg of 2.5% will be put in Kish Island, and the equivalent in 20% should be exchanged in Kish. Why did you suggest otherwise? Why are you deceiving public opinion? We want to make sure that you're not playing political games."

So - the western media portraying the deal as good for the West made it unacceptable to an Iranian domestic audience?

Asked if Mottaki was seemingly messaging its fuel swap counter-offer for consideration, or was it more settling accounts of who is to blame if the TRR deal sinks, Setrakian suggested perhaps both, but noted there was an element of blame shifting. "He was over the top brash and with a kind of muted anger, comparing the US in the region to an ugly person who can't get a baby to stop crying (it's apparently a Persian saying, and ends with: the problem is your ugly face)."

The U.S. government had several officials at the IISS Manama security dialogue -- assistant secretaries of state Jeff Feltman and Andrew Shapiro, Gen. Petraeus, etc. Worth noting that a year ago, Iran ended up canceling the sending of its delegation to the Manama dialogue altogether..."