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A new statement issued by the Iranian regime’s so-called “Reformist Front,” advocating suspension of uranium enrichment, direct negotiations with the United States, and a so-called “national reconciliation plan” to lift sanctions, has reignited tensions and open hostilities among the ruling factions. The harsh reactions of state-run media and Friday prayer leaders appointed by regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei underline not only the sensitivity of the nuclear issue and relations with the U.S., but also the regime’s deep crisis of legitimacy and political deadlock.
Clerical Attacks Against the Statement
The official news agency Rasa labeled the statement as “completing America’s unfinished work,” using ideological and security-driven language to portray it as “a reminder of the positions of counter-revolutionary groups prior to armed uprisings.”
Ahmad Alamolhoda, Khamenei’s representative and Friday prayer leader in Mashhad, dismissed the initiative as “a list dictated by America.” He warned that accepting International Atomic Energy Agency oversight and direct talks with Washington would mean “abandoning the regime’s principles of anti-imperialism.”
In the same vein, cleric Allah Nour Karimi Tabar, the Friday prayer leader of Ilam, invoked the example of Libya, declaring: “This statement is exactly the path Libya took; abandoning weapons and negotiating with America ultimately led to Gaddafi’s fate.”
Power Struggles Intensify in #Tehran as Khamenei Faces Fracturing Factionshttps://t.co/l2CYP2iEzd
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 24, 2025
Security Framing and Manufactured Polarization
The regime’s propaganda outlets quickly joined in. Tasnim News Agency dismissed the reformist proposal as a “virus of Western worship,” insisting that suspending the nuclear program and negotiating directly would “open the country’s doors to foreign powers.” Such rhetoric reflects the regime’s long-standing strategy of securitizing discourse and fabricating the false dichotomy of “resistance versus surrender” to preserve Khamenei’s faltering dictatorship amid the nuclear standoff and a society on the verge of explosive uprisings.
At the same time, Shabir Firoozian, deputy minister of the regime’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, told Didban Iran that reformists are “Western-struck elements” and stressed that “the regime must change its paradigm and abandon renewed negotiations.” This stance openly reveals that the regime sees no path forward other than further repression, signaling the countdown toward its downfall.
#Tehran’s Leaders Split Over War, Talks, and Moralehttps://t.co/6pr5MEasXc pic.twitter.com/5BT3EsXe6H
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 21, 2025
Signs of Structural Deadlock
This factional clash is not merely about the nuclear file. It reflects a deeper structural crisis: the regime’s inability to redefine its survival paradigm. Trapped between intensifying repression to maintain the status quo or facing inevitable overthrow, the ruling factions are increasingly divided and weakened.
Both “hardliners” and “reformists” are integral parts of the same apparatus of dictatorship. Their public quarrels do not represent real alternatives but only highlight the regime’s fragility. The latest dispute shows that the regime’s internal contradictions have reached a point where the very existence of its ruling paradigm is under question—signaling an irreversible march toward collapse.
These quarrels are signs of a weakening regime that is gradually losing hold on its own elements and pillars of power. And as the regime loses its grip on power, its most feared nemesis, which is the rage of the Iranian people, will catch up with it and overthrow it once and for all.