{"id":348425,"date":"2026-09-29T20:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=348425"},"modified":"2026-09-29T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:11:05","slug":"tehrans-infighting-tests-mojtaba-khameneis-authority-as-hardliners-turn-on-his-negotiators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iranian-regime-infighting\/tehrans-infighting-tests-mojtaba-khameneis-authority-as-hardliners-turn-on-his-negotiators\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran\u2019s Infighting Tests Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s Authority as Hardliners Turn on His Negotiators"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iranian
Iranian regime’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf (left) stares at MP Hamid Rasaee (right) delivers a heated protest during a session of Majlis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a system built around the fiction of a single, unquestioned political center, the quarrel over Abbas Araghchi\u2019s New York contact with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff has become unusually revealing. State television acknowledged the encounter. More importantly, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Mojtaba Khamenei, said the <\/span>leader had given<\/span><\/a> the government room to negotiate: \u201cIf the Leader has deemed it expedient and given the government a free hand in the negotiations, that is a very significant act of prudence.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the men and outlets that most loudly invoke obedience to the Leader promptly turned on Araghchi. Tasnim accused him of acting without authorization. MPs Amir-Hossein Sabeti, Ebrahim Rezaei, Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani and Ali Khazarian demanded explanations or parliamentary action; Sabeti formally registered<\/a> an impeachment motion. The hardline <\/span>Nobonyad<\/span><\/i> attacked<\/span> the New York diplomacy as weakness, while other factional media questioned why Tehran had handed Washington the political benefit of a meeting. This was no longer one newspaper grumbling at a minister; it had become a coordinated assault from MPs, insiders and factional mouthpieces.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is what makes the episode consequential. If Araghchi acted within a decision approved at the top\u2014as Safavi and other insiders maintain\u2014then the campaign against him is also a challenge to that decision. \u201cThe Leader\u2019s wishes\u201d begin to look less like an uncontested command than a language every faction borrows when convenient. The very people who present themselves as guardians of Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s authority<\/a> are showing how readily they can disregard it when factional interests intervene.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Power Dynamics in Iran and #MojtabaKhamenei<\/a>\u2019s Inner Circlehttps:\/\/t.co\/eTfcnFH14Z<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n