While reports indicate the imminent signing of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, the political atmosphere within the Islamic Republic, particularly among pro-regime factions, has become highly tense, and opposition to the published text of the agreement is mounting.
Hardliner Backlash in Parliament
On Saturday, June 13, Mahmoud Nabavian, Vice Chairman of Parliament’s National Security Commission and a figure close to the Paydari (Steadfastness) Front, read aloud from a text he claimed was the final Iran-U.S. agreement during a live broadcast on Daneshjoo News Agency. Criticizing its clauses severely, he claimed that under this text:
There is no room for Iran to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz.The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) must retreat from this waterway.The “red lines” set by Mojtaba Khamenei regarding the Strait of Hormuz were ignored.The withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East is not clearly defined.Adding to the criticism, Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for Parliament’s National Security Commission, wrote in response to the agreement: “Excessive generosity at the negotiating table altered the enemy’s calculations, leading them to believe that Iran is weak.”
Calls to Halt the “Line of Surrender”
Mohsen Mansouri, Executive Vice President under Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, addressed a message to Parliament Speaker and senior IRGC commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Mansouri wrote that the “Western-oriented faction” needed a “justified and trusted figure of the regime” at the head of the negotiating team to impose this agreement on the country. He urged Ghalibaf not to allow this “line of surrender and compromise” to succeed.
Meanwhile, a group of hardline forces published a poster for a meeting scheduled for Sunday, June 14, featuring 16 members of parliament, including Hamid Rasaei, Amir-Hossein Sabeti, and Mehdi Kouchakzadeh, to review the negotiation process.
Morteza Mahmoudi, an MP, shared the poster, writing: “We do not want to remain silent and let another JCPOA (nuclear deal) be imposed on the Imam and his Ummah.”
Other pro-regime activists have launched a campaign titled “We Will Not Accept.”
Counter-Arguments and Calls for Unity
Conversely, another faction of regime supporters has labeled this opposition as “divisive” and “discord-sowing.” Javan Newspaper, which is close to the IRGC, published an op-ed stating that certain rally speakers are “sowing the seeds of division” by ignoring the Supreme Leader’s decree to maintain unity.
President Masoud Pezeshkian had also previously warned against internal division, stating that some of these disputes “should not be raised right now, by any means possible.”
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