Iran International
An Iranian economist detained this week had suggested that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei helped empower the country's ultra-hardliners, in remarks that quickly drew Tehran's ire and underscored a widening clampdown on critical voices.
Mohammad Maljoo, a left-leaning scholar and prominent public intellectual, was summoned and detained alongside several other left-leaning authors and researchers a few days after a YouTube debate in which he discussed the roots of extremism in Iran.
In the program, hosted and published by moderate outlet Entekhab, Maljoo argued that “extremists in Iran gained a foothold in the political power center after the war with Iraq in the late 1980s and under the second leadership, when they were given institutional backing that empowered and activated them.”
The phrase “second leadership” was widely understood as a reference to Khamenei, who became Supreme Leader after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989.
Rights observers said his arrest fits a pattern of detentions targeting academics, journalists, and intellectuals in recent weeks, as authorities seek to contain public debate in the aftermath of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.
‘At the state’s core’
Before the program aired, participants had agreed to use the term extremist to describe hardliners who obstruct dialogue and disrupt normal political and social life.
Maljoo contended that these forces survive because of their relationship with the ruling elite.
“Without backing from the hard core of the government, extremists would not be heard,” he said, adding that Iran’s central power structure is “neither interested in, nor capable of excluding them.”
He described extremists as pressure groups acting on behalf of the power center while occasionally defying it. Their proximity to power, he said, “turns every outburst into an official directive.”
In return for enforcing ideological red lines—such as mandatory hijab, censorship, and control over key state appointments—they gain “wealth, status, and legitimacy.”
The interview aired as small hardline groups in Tehran were demanding the arrest of former president Hassan Rouhani, accusing him of “creating trouble for the government” after he called for renewed engagement with the West to ease economic pressures.
‘Foolish or traitor’
The other participant in the discussion, conservative political scientist Sadeq Haghighat of the Imam Khomeyni Research Center, largely concurred.
“Extremists are either foolish or traitors,” he said, adding that they seized control of the political arena soon after the 1979 revolution and later justified their dominance through ultraconservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who taught that rulers need no public legitimacy once they control the state.
Haghighat traced the roots of extremism to Iran’s enduring political culture. “Regime changes—from Qajar to Pahlavi to the Islamic Republic—did not change the behavior of extremists,” he said.
Maljoo, for his part, argued that the ruling establishment occasionally tries to restrain extremists when their demands threaten stability.
“At times, the power center encourages moderates and reformists to push back,” he said. “But extremists are never satisfied and constantly seek more.”
Mostafa Pourdehghan, secretary of parliament’s Industries and Mines Committee, said talks with Telegram have been under way and that officials had hoped to restore access this week before differences delayed the step.
“We have received information indicating repeated consultations with Telegram’s managers,” he told Rouydad24. “Some colleagues at the Communications Ministry have unofficially told us Telegram will be unblocked soon.”
He framed removing the filtering as a public demand and said resistance was coming from outside the legislature, what he described as "VPN mafia."
“The financial turnover of VPNs is about 50 trillion tomans (about $450 million), and beneficiaries hide behind sacred slogans such as national security to profit from continued filtering,” he said.
Pourdehghan added that a parliamentary “investigation and inspection into the backstory of these pressures” is being advanced with the communications minister.
The debate has intensified amid reports of negotiations over conditions for lifting the 2018 ban on Telegram, which remains widely used via VPNs.
State-linked outlets have said Tehran wants commitments including cooperation with the judiciary on data requests, limits on content deemed to incite ethnic tensions, and measures against material considered to threaten national security.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has rejected reports that the government reached a deal with the platform.
“If a platform does not accept internal regulations, it will not receive a license,” he told lawmakers, calling reports of an agreement false.
President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on easing internet restrictions, but officials have said any change must be approved by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace and tied to compliance with domestic rules.
"The United States strongly condemns the tragic death of Omid Sarlak, a young Iranian man whose body was found riddled with bullets in the city of Aligudarz shortly after he posted an anti-regime message online," the US State Department said on its Persian language account on X.
Sarlak was found dead in a car in the city of Aligoudarz in Western Iran after he shared a video of himself burning a picture of the 86-year-old theocrat with a speech of Iran's last shah playing in the background.
"The suspicious timing and circumstances surrounding the incident strongly suggest regime involvement," it added.
Authorities said his death was a suicide, but family members and rights activists have rejected the explanation.
"This is yet another example of the Iranian regime’s brutal repression of dissent and its ongoing campaign to silence those who dare to speak out against it," the State Department added. "The United States stands firmly with the Iranian people in their struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom."
Videos from Sarlak’s funeral on Monday showed crowds chanting “Death to Khamenei” in one of the largest public outpourings of anti-government anger in recent months.
His death came as senior Iranian clerics renewed calls for severe punishment of those who insult or threaten the Supreme Leader, with one prominent official saying such acts amount to “waging war against God” and warrant the death penalty.