Iran’s political leadership has “a chance to make tough decisions” during negotiations, a US official said Monday – as Islamist hardliners fume over the Washington-Tehran memorandum of understanding, with some calling for revenge “on American soil.”
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will head to Doha, Qatar on Tuesday for another round of talks about Iran, where both sides are expected to continue discussions over a final deal to end Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Over the next 60 days, Iran’s leaders have a chance to make tough decisions that will ultimately benefit the Iranian people and bring them prosperity,” a US official told The Post. “That’s what’s on the table.”
Witkoff and Kushner will meet with Qatari leaders facilitating peace talks with Iranian officials, as Trump suggested the importance of the summit hinged on Tehran’s willingness to engage with mediators.
“The following day, technical teams from both the US and Iran will meet separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan,” a diplomat with knowledge of the talks told The Post.
Trump on Monday said the Doha meeting “is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not.”
“We’re going to find out, but we’re winning militarily,” he added, claiming earlier Monday that Iran had requested the talks in the mediator country.
The fragile MOU, threatened over the past several days with an exchange of strikes between the US and Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, has led to internal strife in Tehran.
Iranian hardliners have clashed with Tehran’s negotiators over the US-Iran framework peace agreement and diplomacy, with some calling for continued war and jihad.
“The effort to avenge the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei’s death] must take place on American soil itself,” the supreme leader’s representative at the influential Iranian state newspaper Kayhan Hussein Shariatmadari wrote Monday.
Hand-selected by Khamenei as editor-in-chief for the conservative newspaper, Shariatmadari added that Iranian negotiators in any final deal should demand that President Trump be extradited to Tehran to face justice.
“The first step in fulfilling the Leader’s demands in the negotiations is to insist on handing Trump over to the Islamic Republic for trial in Iran’s judicial authorities,” he said.
Meanwhile, sixty members of Iran’s 88-member Council of Experts — the body that selects the country’s supreme leader — raged in a rare public rebuke on Saturday that anyone with “access” to Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a religious duty to avenge Khamenei’s death.
“It is obligatory on any responsible person who has access to them to bring these criminals to justice,” the signatories wrote in a letter, referring to Trump as the “criminal president of the United States.”
It also warned negotiators against discussing Iran’s nuclear program, saying they “should be excluded from the circle of talks” — which, in Washington’s eyes, are only happening to obtain nuclear concessions.
The signatories also blasted reopening the Strait of Hormuz as a “strategic mistake,” arguing negotiators should have waited until they could force the US to pressure Israel into withdrawing from Lebanon.
“The opening of the Strait of Hormuz is contrary to the obligations of the officials … and will make the enemy more bold in continuing to break the agreement and violate its obligations,” it said.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales defended the MOU, calling it “an excellent, performance-based MOU that advances the interests of the United States by ending the fighting, reopening the Strait of Hormuz to significantly lower energy prices, and forcing Iran to commit to abandon its nuclear ambitions.”
“What the president has achieved on the battlefield and at the negotiating table is nothing short of remarkable and will strengthen American security for many years to come,” she said.
The internal Iranian resentment continues a longstanding rift between hardliners and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — which are more focused on war, jihad and promoting the radical Islamist agenda — and Iran’s political leadership, which is more allegiant to the state, experts say.
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“The Iranian regime knows it has to answer to its people and that’s why they have agreed to meet our benchmarks in exchange for humanitarian relief,” a US official told The Post.
“The Iranian people deserve peace and security. Their economy is in freefall and they are facing massive food shortages and price hikes as a result of their government’s mismanagement,” the person added.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the simmering resentment over the MOU and continued US-Iran negotiations in a statement Monday, alleging that “some individuals and movements not only try to hinder constructive processes by throwing stones and creating obstacles.”
“They also do not hesitate to make unjust accusations, label and attribute titles such as ‘anti-state,’ ‘anti-religion’ and ‘traitors’ to the government and members of the negotiating team,” he said.
“All the government’s efforts are focused on securing national interests, preserving the country’s dignity and improving the living conditions of the people,” he added, defending diplomatic efforts.
In a dig at military-focused hardliners, Pezeshkian further argued that “critics should pay attention to the realities in various fields, especially in the public and social space of the country,” according to a readout from his office.
“Unfortunately, some positions and comments, especially from some individuals and personalities, are in such a way that they seem to be far from today’s realities of society and developments in the domestic and international environment, and cannot respond to the country’s current needs and demands,” he said.
Coming to Pezeshkian’s defense, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Alavi Boroujerdi issued a statement claiming that “managing the country in the current circumstances could not have been better.”
“The president’s responsibility in negotiations is courageous and commendable,” he said. “Diplomatic opportunities should not be missed.”
Iranian media on Monday claimed Tehran’s technical teams would focus their time pushing for payouts on the pledged $6 billion in unfrozen assets provided in the MOU in exchange for progress in negotiations.
