Iran International
In a cabinet meeting this week, President Masoud Pezeshkian voiced his opposition to restrictions placed on the public appearances of former President Mohammad Khatami, the unofficial leader of the Reform Front.
“The situation in the country was supposed to improve, we were not meant to witness such unjustified restrictions anymore,” Pezeshkian said during the Sunday evening meeting.
The comments follow a recent incident where Khatami was barred from attending a public event, as well as the indictment of prominent Reformist economist Mohsen Renani.
According to the moderate news outlet Asr-e Iran, Pezeshkian also directed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and Justice Minister Amin-Hossein Rahimi to urgently address the issue and provide a report on measures to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Restrictions imposed on Khatami and Renani
During the inauguration of a charity cancer center in Tehran last Thursday, Fatemeh Hashemi, daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, revealed that Khatami had not been “granted permission” to attend the ceremony.
It remains unclear which security agency or authority ordered Khatami’s exclusion, but it is widely believed to have come from intelligence agencies.
Reformists and the media argued in the past few days that Pezeshkian should have challenged the higher powers responsible for the ban.
In the case of economist Renani, the state’s Revolutionary Court recently ordered the blocking of his personal website and Telegram channel due to articles he published several years ago and indicted him for some of his writings considered “propaganda against the system.”
President facing backlash over restrictions
Pezeshkian has faced significant criticism from Iranian media, politicians, and the public for the incident involving Khatami and Renani’s indictment.
Critics, many of whom believe Pezeshkian was not directly responsible for the restrictions, have pointed out the inconsistency between his calls for “unity” among political forces and the actions taken against prominent figures by other centers of power under his watch.
In an open letter released Sunday, prominent university professors called on Pezeshkian to uphold freedom of expression and basic rights, urging him to address the restrictions and accusations against Renani for his scholarly work.
Reform Front’s response
Javad Emam, spokesperson for the Reform Front, criticized the exclusion of reformist figures and their supporters from the government, despite calls for unity and national reconciliation.
The Reform Front officially backed Pezeshkian’s bid for the presidency, with Khatami separately endorsing Pezeshkian in a video message to Iranians.
“To achieve unity, one cannot ignore supporters and exclude them from events, political participation, and decision-making,” Emam told a local news website on Friday.
The spokesperson said that Pezeshkian chose 16 of the 19 ministers in his cabinet from among hardliners and ultra-hardliners, despite his promise to engage all political factions.
Pointing out that half of Iranians chose not to vote in the presidential elections, he added that the public's exclusion from the decision-making process is also a serious issue and the wishes of those who did not vote should not be ignored.
“People must decide for themselves and shape their destiny. No one must decide for the nation and then burden them with the consequences,” he said, adding, “Has any representative of that fifty percent [who abstained] been given the opportunity to voice their concerns? What steps have been taken so far to make them feel included and satisfied?”
Criticism from prominent reformist commentator
Outspoken Reformist commentator Sadegh Zibakalam also criticized Pezeshkian’s failure to deliver on his promises of unity in light of his concessions to hardliners and the recent events.
When asked by a reporter last week how much Pezeshkian had achieved in creating unity, Zibakalam sarcastically replied, “100 percent!”
When asked for examples, he listed what he thought Pezeshkian had not done: he had not visited the grave of Mahsa Jina Amini, whose death in the custody of the so-called morality police sparked the 2022-2023 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. He also said Pezeshkian failed to meet with prominent dissidents and political prisoners.
At last week's National Unity Conference in Tehran, where Pezeshkian also spoke, Zibakalam argued that the President could not reconcile the deep political and ideological differences with ultra-hardliners.
He pointed to the significant influence of former nuclear negotiator and hardliner Saeed Jalili, lawmaker Hamid Rasaei, and their supporters in Pezeshkian's administration, reinforcing his view that Pezeshkian is advocating a "sham" unity.
What did Mehdi Fazaeli say about Khamenei's speech?
Fazaeli, regarded as an official authorized to interpret Khamenei's views, told Hamshahri newspaper in Tehran, “It has often happened that a group of people misunderstand a statement [by Khamenei] or pretend they have misunderstood it, taking the liberty to make unjustified interpretations and judgments.”
He said that Khamenei's remark, widely seen as a barrier to potential talks with Trump, was not meant to rule out negotiations if the two sides' positions align.
Fazaeli further argued that Khamenei's message was a directive for Iranian officials to prioritize and uphold national interests above all else.
He claimed that there are instances in governance, where a country's interests align with those of a foreign nation. However, he also appeared to emphasize that such decisions are driven solely by national interests, even if they coincide with the other country’s desires. The motivation behind these decisions, he said, is rooted in domestic priorities, not external influence.
Tehran's media widely covered Fazaeli's explanations, which aimed to soften perceptions of Khamenei’s intransigence regarding potential talks with the new Trump administration—a prospect many in Iran are hopeful for.
President Masoud Pezeshkian and some senior officials in his administration advocate for negotiations with Washington to lift US sanctions and stabilize Iran's rapidly deteriorating economy. In what some interpreted as a gesture of goodwill by Tehran, the government offered to send help to the US to contain the ongoing fires in California on Saturday.
Moderate conservative Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker and Khamenei’s adviser, has suggested that Iran may be open to serious negotiations with the Trump administration on the nuclear issue.
Larijani who has assumed a more prominent public role as Khamenei’s adviser in the past few months has suggested that Iran could guarantee not to build a nuclear bomb if the US meets Iran's conditions, emphasizing that Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal did not halt Tehran’s nuclear advancements.
What did Khamenei say about the US in his speech?
Khamenei delivered the speech to a group of visitors from Qom, commemorating the anniversary of Islamist revolutionaries' protests against the Shah in January 1978.
The protests took place shortly after US President Jimmy Carter's visit to Iran, during which he described the country as "an island of stability."
The unrest in Qom was sparked by a newspaper article seen as insulting Ruhollah Khomeini, who would later become the Islamic Republic's first Supreme Leader. The crackdown on the protesters set off a wave of demonstrations nationwide, culminating in the Islamic Revolution of February 1979.
In his speech, Khamenei cited the Qom protests as evidence that Carter and his administration misunderstood the revolutionaries' strength and “miscalculated” the situation in Iran at the time.
Khamenei asserted that the US, which he repeatedly referred to as "the enemy," has consistently misjudged Iran, leading to decisions like imposing sanctions to cripple the Iranian economy. However, he claimed these efforts have failed, and the US is now seeking to compensate for its setbacks.
“Yes, the sanctions caused harm to the country. It’s not as though they didn’t. They did harm us,” Khamenei said, adding, “God willing, the Iranian nation will one day hold them accountable for these losses.”
In his lengthy speech, Khamenei refrained from directly addressing talks with the US or European parties to the nuclear deal. Instead, he urged officials of the Islamic Republic to resist US demands and prioritize what he described as the preferences of the Iranian people—though in reality, these preferences often mirror the decisions of the Islamic leadership and, ultimately, his own directives—on issues such as the hijab, the economy, and foreign policy.
Iranian officials would be threatening “the country’s democracy and its republicanism” if they complied with the US demands in these respects, he said.
“Why? Because people voted for us, they brought us to power, to work in their interests -- not America’s,” he added.
Khamenei seemed to draw a parallel between the situation in January 1978 and the present, suggesting that the US would be mistaken in believing the Islamic Republic is now in a weakened position and could be coerced into an agreement it does not want to make.
What authority does Fazaeli have to speak for Khamenei?
Fazaeli, deputy chief of the Office for the Preservation and Publication of the Works of the Leader of the Revolution, holds a senior position within Khamenei’s office.
In recent months, he has often spoken on the record to "clarify" or offer "context" for Khamenei’s statements on controversial issues.
In at least one instance, ultra-hardliners accused Fazaeli of lying after he indirectly confirmed in a tweet that Khamenei had endorsed the Pezeshkian government’s decision to amend a specific law.
They also argue that Fazaeli lacks the authority to act as Khamenei’s spokesman. Other officials within Khamenei’s office have neither confirmed nor denied Fazaeli’s statements.
"People will not trust us if we lure them into traps and fabricate legal cases against them," Pezeshkian said. "We can only understand the people's concerns when they trust us," the centrist Entekhab news website quoted him as saying.
In another speech on Thursday, during a visit to Iran's southeastern shores near the Sea of Oman, Pezeshkian said, "In other countries, people are exploring ways to reach Mars, while we are still struggling to build a simple road. We need to set our sights on greater ambitions."
Tehran Province completely shut down its schools and government offices on Saturday due to a natural gas shortage, with similar closures reported in two-thirds of the country. Since September, Iran’s currency has lost 33% of its value following serious setbacks in Lebanon and Syria.
Addressing the challenges in Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran's poorest provinces in the southeast, Pezeshkian stated, "Here, we need to address the health and education needs of 1.5 million people. We require so many classrooms."
He expressed regret that many of the province’s public health issues remain unchanged, noting that they existed even 46 years ago when he served his compulsory military duty there.
Pezeshkian said that he avoids meetings and gatherings to refrain from making promises that cannot be fulfilled. "I cannot promise something I cannot do," he said. This comes while his government is planning to move Iran's capital to this province.
The reformist website Rouydad24, in a report published the same day, drew a comparison between the ambitions of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who over a decade ago spoke of "managing the world," and a recent statement by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. He highlighted how, within a decade, declining oil revenues due to sanctions and international tensions have left Iran struggling to meet its energy needs and even to manage basic services like urban waste collection.
Ghalibaf seemed to overlook the fact that he served as the Mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017, a period when Iran's oil revenues were based on prices exceeding $100 per barrel, yet he failed to address the capital's persistent problems.
Officials are not oblivious to the problems, as Iranian media frequently report on public grievances about pollution, poverty, and resource shortages. Many officials openly acknowledge these crises, often sounding more like opposition figures than leaders who have been at the helm of the country for decades.
Tehran’s major challenges, including water shortages and pollution, have led the Pezeshkian administration to propose relocating the capital to the shores of the Sea of Oman. During his visit to the region on Thursday, Pezeshkian noted the complete lack of infrastructure in the area.
Iranian ecologist Hossein Akhani, writing on the Khabar Online website, criticized the government’s plan to relocate the capital, arguing that Iran has failed to build even a single livable small town in the past half-century. He questioned, "Who is going to build a capital for you? You have alienated all the experts and academics. A prominent economist who campaigned tirelessly to encourage people to vote for you is now barred from expressing his views."
Akhani also warned that the proposed location for the new capital faces severe environmental challenges, including freshwater shortages, rising temperatures, and declining rainfall. He emphasized that the area's fragile ecological state makes development unfeasible. Observing broader issues, Akhani noted, "None of Iran's existing cities meet the conditions required to serve as the country’s capital. They lack standard transportation systems, proper garbage collection and recycling facilities, and efficient energy management systems." He concluded emphatically, "The capital is not going anywhere."
