The debate over negotiations with the United States flared up again within Iran’s regime, and a day after regime president Masoud Pezeshkian made remarks in Ahvaz, on January 25, the Friday prayer pulpits of the regime erupted in controversy.
On Thursday, January 24, Pezeshkian said at a meeting in Ahvaz: “I believe we should talk to the world with the language of peace, the language of greetings, not by picking fights with everyone.” He then brought up the “greatness” of China to mask the regime’s humiliation, adding: “China, with all its greatness, faces numerous threats from the U.S., yet it still cooperates with them because it seeks to maximize its benefits in the world it lives in.”
The following day, after this negotiation-leaning comment by the regime’s president, the representatives of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei coordinated a fierce backlash during Friday prayers in many cities, sharply criticizing him.
Ahmad Alamolhoda, in Mashhad, said: “There are still some people in our country who look to the gates of Europe and America and tune the melody of negotiations.” Then, in a paternal yet commanding tone with sarcasm, he directed his words at Pezeshkian, adding: “Our dear officials should recognize this divine blessing, rely on the divine resources in our country, work, and rescue people from these disarrays and imbalances instead of looking to the enemy’s hand.”
In Tehran, Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts, sought to devalue Pezeshkian’s remarks, saying: “The world should know, and the Americans too, that the system’s stance on America is the stance of the Imam [reference to regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini] and the Supreme Leader. The Imam said America is the Great Satan—pay attention, America is the Great Satan—and the Supreme Leader has repeatedly emphasized this as well.”
Khatami then turned to internal proponents of negotiations, saying: “To those advocating negotiations today, openly defying the views of the Imam and the Supreme Leader, we ask: Has America, the Satan, gotten smaller? Or has it become an even greater Satan? For instance, look at the crimes of the Zionist regime. Let me tell you explicitly, America seeks negotiations to counter the revolution—this is for those writing that the Friday prayer leader said if America talks about negotiation, it’s to oppose the system.”
Allah Nour Karimi Tabar, the Friday prayer leader of Ilam, without directly naming the regime president, addressed “certain individuals,” saying: “Trump is the same deal-breaker who tore up the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal]. Those seeking negotiations should take a lesson from this.”
What stings Pezeshkian the most, however, are the remarks of Esmaeil Khatib, his cabinet’s intelligence minister, who in a meeting with commanders of Khamenei’s military forces, sharply criticized the regime’s negotiation advocates, emphasizing their “fear and anxiety.” On January 22, Entekhab newspaper quoted him as saying, “If these trumpets of negotiation, fascination, fear, and anxiety dominate us, we will be the losers. The enemy does not want face-to-face negotiations for mutual interaction or what today’s world calls a win-win game. They want it for an American-style negotiation. America says you should have no nuclear capabilities, limit your missiles, stay out of the region, and make peace with the Zionist regime, which will lead to nothing but humiliation, disgrace, and defeat.”
Meanwhile, Javad Zarif, who was sent to Davos as Pezeshkian’s strategic deputy to pave the way for negotiations through his speeches and interviews, now faces threats of arrest upon his return to Iran. In this regard, the secretary of Tehran’s Council for Promotion of Virtue stated: “Anti-coup forces must arrest Zarif immediately upon his return to the country and subject him to interrogation” (Chand Sanieh Telegram channel, January 23).
Less than ten days ago, the factional infighting escalated following the broadcast of Pezeshkian’s interview with NBC News on January 16, in which he expressed readiness for negotiations with the United States and denied any regime actions to assassinate Trump.
The day after these remarks were aired, Hossein Shariatmadari, Khamenei’s representative in the Kayhan newspaper, published an editorial on Thursday, January 17, titled “Mr. Pezeshkian! You Do Not Own Iran!” In it, he wrote: “Your statements are, first of all, outside your jurisdiction; second, they are in complete conflict with national interests; and third, they send a message of humiliation to the sworn enemy.”