The recent trip of Iranian regime president Massoud Pezeshkian to New York for the UN General Assembly and his remarks during the visit have caused significant turmoil within the regime, sparking a heavy wave of political and media attacks against him, his entourage, and associates. In a piece published under the title “Mr. Pezeshkian, Beware of This Conspiracy!” on September 24, Hossein Shariatmadari, the de facto spokesperson of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Kayhan newspaper, warned Pezeshkian while attacking his entourage and also targeting Pezeshkian himself. He wrote: “During the trip to America, a group with a notorious and dubious past is plotting against Dr. Pezeshkian, inviting him to oppose Iran and Islam and to submit to humiliation in front of America.”
In the following issue of Kayhan (September 25), Shariatmadari criticized Pezeshkian’s statements made during his trip to New York under the headline “Ill-considered Remarks.” He raised various possibilities regarding the reason for these comments and pointed to Pezeshkian’s “inability to articulate his intentions.” He added: “This weakness can be attributed to Mr. Pezeshkian’s lack of knowledge about politics, its sciences, and its established principles.”
In the end, Shariatmadari attributed the main reason to “the presence of pro-Western advisors, some of them with dubious pasts and security convictions, around the president.” He called on Pezeshkian to remove “pro-Western individuals, those with tainted backgrounds, and those convicted of security offenses, as well as those involved in the 2009 unrest and supporters of the 2022 autumn protests, from sensitive positions.”
On September 25, Mashregh News website, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization, went beyond just calling for the dismissal of Pezeshkian’s associates. Under the title “Unveiling Three Layers of Intelligence Operations to Incite Unrest in Tehran!” it issued veiled threats to Pezeshkian, framing them within the context of enemy conspiracies. It then reminded him of the fate of Khomeini’s first president, writing: “The project to make Pezeshkian into another Bani-Sadr was initiated through a suspicious line in a Telegram channel after his electoral victory, and it has advanced through infiltrators connected to the cyber division of the [PMOI]. The plan is to create such an atmosphere against the government that Pezeshkian won’t even see the winter snow in the presidential office. The fate of Bani-Sadr is a lesson to be learned.”
The IRGC Intelligence website continued, noting that Pezeshkian has no way back: “It seems that a trap was set for the president in advance, and a psychological operation based on the likelihood of Pezeshkian’s verbal mistakes had been prepared, one which the president has easily fallen into, closing any escape route with repeated errors.”
The IRGC’s Javan newspaper, which had previously supported Pezeshkian, mocked and belittled him in an article on September 25 titled “A Weak Trip.” The paper taunted him with the phrase “he clearly lacks the specific skills needed for political speeches.” The IRGC organ then shifted the focus of its attack to Pezeshkian’s entourage and his foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, writing: “The JCPOA team in New York performed very weakly… Those who have been standing behind the Western-built wall of the ‘JCPOA’ for years, and are now saying ‘we will stay in New York for a few more days’ to imply there is news, must take responsibility for this obvious failure.”
The article concludes by reminding Pezeshkian and those who place their hopes on him: “The major principles of the country’s foreign policy are beyond the president’s authority.”
Despite the regime officials’ admission that Pezeshkian has no authority, particularly in foreign policy, and that foreign counterparts do not take his words seriously, the regime is in such a crisis that even Pezeshkian’s worthless and empty remarks disrupt the balance of the worried regime insiders. They warn him that he “might not see the winter snow in the presidential office!”