As debate over a ceasefire and renewed talks with the United States intensifies, the absence of a clear supreme arbiter in Tehran appears to be giving Iran’s hardliners more room to shape the narrative and to hinder any eventual agreement.

The Islamic Republic’s negotiators in talks with the US are “different faces of the same machine,” that suppresses the Iranian people, exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi said at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday.

The Islamic Republic is escalating its campaign against the diaspora, moving beyond domestic seizures to explore the confiscation of assets held by Iranians in foreign countries and possible revocation of their citizenship.

Iran’s new “Internet Pro” rollout may tighten state control in the short term, but experts who spoke to Iran International question whether the Islamic Republic can sustain a class-based internet in one of the Middle East’s most connected societies.

Iran’s economy is likely to buckle faster than the United States or the global economy under the combined pressure of war, sanctions, a US blockade and Tehran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, experts said at Iran International’s townhall in Washington DC.

Iran executed a man early on Wednesday after convicting him of spying for Israel, with the judiciary identifying him as Mehdi Farid and saying he had worked at a “sensitive organization” and maintained online contact with Mossad officers.

The idea of an “Iranian Gorbachev” has surfaced before in the Islamic Republic, but this time the conditions may be different.

Pink missiles, pink drones and pink firearms. Women with uncovered hair—braids, ponytails, short bobs—stood beside weapons, waved flags and smiled for cameras in scenes broadcast across Iranian media. Tehran appears willing to try almost anything to preserve power.