{"id":335426,"date":"2025-08-10T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=335426"},"modified":"2025-08-10T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:40:10","slug":"irans-leaders-bristle-at-signs-of-strategic-retreat-in-region-and-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/irans-leaders-bristle-at-signs-of-strategic-retreat-in-region-and-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Leaders Bristle at Signs of Strategic Retreat in Region and at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_335427\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-335427\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-335427 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi.jpg\" alt=\"Right: Ahmad Alamolhoda, Left: Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi\" width=\"1000\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi-768x436.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi-739x420.jpg 739w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi-150x85.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/RightAhmad-Alamolhoda-LeftGhorbanali-Dorri-Najafabadi-696x395.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-335427\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Right: Ahmad Alamolhoda, Supreme Leader\u2019s Rep. in Razavi Khorasan Province; Left: Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, Supreme Leader\u2019s Rep. in Markazi Province<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"164\" data-end=\"730\">Senior Iranian clerics and regime officials are rejecting renewed talk of negotiations with the West, not only as a matter of ideology but out of alarm that any step seen as a concession will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iranian-regime-infighting\/iranian-regimes-fractured-state-revealed-amid-fear-of-imminent-overthrow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">further weaken their military<\/a> and proxy forces at home and abroad. They warn that moves to disarm Tehran\u2019s regional militias, curb its influence, or signal compromise to world powers will deepen the crisis of morale already gripping the regime\u2019s base\u2014at a moment when simmering public anger makes the threat of a nationwide uprising more real than at any point in decades.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"753\" data-end=\"1140\">On August 8, Ahmad Alamolhoda, Friday Prayer Leader in Mashhad and a close ally of the regime&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, <a href=\"https:\/\/rahbordemoaser.ir\/fa\/news\/285940\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dismissed calls for diplomacy<\/a> outright. \u201cThey bombed us in the middle of the negotiation table,\u201d he said, invoking the 12-day-war. \u201cHandshakes and smiles don\u2019t help. This enemy seeks nothing less than our destruction and the disintegration of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1142\" data-end=\"1369\">Alamolhoda\u2019s remarks underscored a recurring theme in the regime\u2019s postwar rhetoric: the idea that compromise leads to weakness, and that the real danger lies in erosion of resolve both at home and among allied forces abroad.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iranian?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iranian<\/a> Intelligence Chief Admits to Deep Infiltration Crisis Amid Internal Power Struggles<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0kMUt4bUJM\">https:\/\/t.co\/0kMUt4bUJM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1947330185230954967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1371\" data-end=\"2076\">That fear was even more explicit in the comments of Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, Friday Prayer Leader in Arak, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZjSGOyYeVeA?t=116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">who warned that Syria<\/a> was \u201clost\u201d to Iran\u2019s influence and accused Washington of orchestrating efforts to dismantle Tehran\u2019s forward defenses. He cited reports that Lebanon\u2019s government, under U.S. pressure, intends to disarm Hezbollah\u2014\u201ctheir lifeline,\u201d as he put it\u2014and that Iraq faces similar demands to neutralize the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a militia network modeled on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. \u201cThe U.S. has delivered its sinister plan to the Iraqi government,\u201d Dorri-Najafabadi said, claiming even the Iraqi parliament\u2019s planned recognition of the PMF was being undermined.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2078\" data-end=\"2389\">Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei\u2019s senior adviser, echoed the alarm in a call with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabnak.ir\/fa\/news\/1321624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Both warned<\/a> that the disarmament of Hezbollah and the PMF would set the stage for further rollbacks of Iranian influence. \u201cWe will never allow such schemes to succeed,\u201d al-Maliki vowed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"73\" data-end=\"363\">The unease is not limited to the regional front. Inside Iran, senior officials are scrambling to counter the public perception\u2014rooted in heavy battlefield losses\u2014that the regime\u2019s forces suffered a strategic defeat in the 12-day war, fearing that such acknowledgment would further sap morale among their ranks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Khamenei?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Khamenei<\/a> Spins Narratives to Boost Low Morale Amid <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iran<\/a>\u2019s Mounting Crises<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zEOHf5dAQf\">https:\/\/t.co\/zEOHf5dAQf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1882417249023123841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2642\" data-end=\"3121\">On August 8, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told officials in North Khorasan province that \u201cthe enemy\u201d must not be allowed to plant the idea that Iran lost. \u201cWe won,\u201d he insisted, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mehrnews.com\/news\/6551841\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arguing that Israel<\/a> was ultimately forced to seek a cease-fire despite its superior firepower. He framed the war as a moment that elevated the \u201cdignity and standing of the Islamic Republic,\u201d repeating language that has become standard among top military commanders.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3123\" data-end=\"3686\">Ejei\u2019s remarks fit into what appears to be a coordinated messaging campaign from the highest levels of power\u2014one aimed at fortifying the official narrative of victory while legitimizing a tighter domestic security climate. His warning about \u201cinfiltration\u201d and \u201cspies\u201d was paired with calls for swifter prosecutions, and even a pledge to pursue Afghan nationals in Iran accused of working with Britain. Such measures serve a dual purpose: rallying public opinion against foreign enemies and discrediting internal dissent as an extension of those enemies\u2019 plots.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3688\" data-end=\"4219\">Viewed together, these statements reveal a leadership preoccupied with the erosion of assets that underpin its survival strategy. The militias in Lebanon and Iraq are not merely foreign policy tools; in Tehran\u2019s calculus, they are strategic buffers and bargaining chips, built over decades at great cost. The fear is that once those buffers are dismantled, the regime will be left to face its adversaries\u2014and its own restless population\u2014without the shield it has long relied upon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three-minute read Senior Iranian clerics and regime officials are rejecting renewed talk of negotiations with the West, not only as a matter of ideology but out of alarm that any [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":335427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,19],"tags":[287,5479],"class_list":{"0":"post-335426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-terrorism-a-fundamentalism","9":"tag-iran-terrorism","10":"tag-iran-policy"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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