“Trump must know, Tehran is the one who sets the terms”

The internal political struggle in Iran continues and the hawkish and extremist elements in the country continue to press against reaching an agreement with the US and in favor of the continuation of the conflict – this was reported tonight (between Friday and Saturday) in the New York Times. The state television, which is controlled by conservative elements, emphasizes the internal disputes and presents the negotiations as a failure.

This week, Iranian President Massoud Pazkhian criticized the management of the state television and called on it to “avoid deepening the rifts in society.” In his words, Pazkhian referred to agreements within the Iranian leadership. “Even the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei agreed that we should sit at the negotiating table,” Pazkhian said. “And now we are broadcasting to the public that there is no need to negotiate.”

Meanwhile, a large rally of supporters of the extremist camp was held yesterday in Tehran, and the participants called for the continuation of the conflict. Member of Parliament Ibrahim Azizi, head of the Security and Foreign Relations Committee in the Parliament, spoke at the event. “Trump must know that Iran, as the winner on the battlefield, is the one who sets the terms,” ​​Azizi stated. The political commentator Mahdi Rahmati warned against the activities of these elements, noting that if the regime does not find a way to curb them, they could become a “dangerous factor for Iran’s stability”.

Even the new supreme leader, Mujtaba Khamenei, is not immune to attacks from the extremist camp. Member of Parliament and extremist cleric Hamid Razai published a post entitled “Who is worthy of the supreme leadership?”. In this post Razai alluded to the biblical story of Noah and wrote that “family ties are not necessarily evidence of the justification of the way”.

Two senior Iranian officials revealed details of behind-the-scenes clashes in the Supreme National Security Council. According to them, Ali Bakri Keni, deputy secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security and a member of the Nietzsche camp, sent a letter to the Supreme Leader in which he claimed that the negotiating team led by Kalibaf was too compromising towards the Americans during the talks with the American Vice President Vance in Islamabad. Bakri Kani asked the supreme leader to intervene and set clear limits to the negotiations, a move seen as an attempt to undermine the status of the negotiating team and Kalibaf, who is considered a close ally of Khamenei.

The same senior officials said that in April Kalibaf and Pazkhian sent a joint letter to Khamenei. In the letter, they warned that Iran’s economic situation is dire, the government is facing an acute budget crisis and there is a fear of mass protest outbreaks if no agreement is reached with the US. Bakri Kani was the only member of the Supreme National Security Council who refused to sign the letter. According to the report, he even passed its contents to members of parliament from the extremist camp, who helped make the dispute public.