Ahmad Khatami, Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader and a representative of the Supreme Leader, criticized the Reform Front’s recent manifesto, saying its proposal for suspending uranium enrichment mirrored US demands.
“Suspending enrichment is the American prescription in this statement,” Khatami told worshippers at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, according to state media.
He added: “Nuclear energy is the energy of the future, and people have repeatedly said nuclear energy is the nation’s inalienable right.”
Khatami also rejected the manifesto’s suggestion of direct talks with Washington, saying: “How can we negotiate with America, which martyred General Soleimani, attacked our country, violated all international agreements, and struck our nuclear centers?”
Iran’s Reform Front has urged sweeping political and foreign policy changes, including a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, release of political prisoners, and direct negotiations with Washington in return for sanctions relief. The reformist push has drawn fierce backlash from conservatives.
“The Iranian people will never surrender to America — hayhat minna al-dhilla,” he said, invoking a famous phrase from Shi’ite Islam Imam Hussein’s sermon on the day of Ashura, which means ‘far be it from us to accept humiliation.’ The expression, rooted in Hussein’s rejection of submission to Ibn Ziyad in 680 AD, has come to symbolize choosing death with dignity over life in disgrace.
Citing remarks by Ali Khamenei last year, Khatami said: “The Leader has already said negotiations with America are neither rational nor honorable. This statement recommends dishonor, and the Iranian nation will not accept such a humiliating recipe.”
Khatami further denounced the reformist document as divisive, calling it a “black letter that translates Netanyahu’s words into Persian.”
He argued that Iranians had voted 47 times since the 1979 revolution and dismissed claims of repression of dissent, insisting that media and social networks were active and free.
A recent survey conducted by a Netherlands-based institute found that the majority of Iranians would vote for either a regime change or a structural transition away from the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad-Hassan Ghadiri Abyaneh, Iran’s former envoy to Australia, said: “The assassination of members of the Assembly of Experts is part of Israel’s plan, and the individual favored by the enemies to head the system is Hassan Rouhani.”
The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member clerical body empowered to appoint Iran’s Supreme Leader. Its members, elected for eight-year terms, are chosen from candidates vetted by the Guardian Council, whose members are themselves appointed directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader.
Abyaneh added, “They want to put someone like Rouhani at the top of the system in order to fragment Iran, and the fragmentation of Iran is among Rouhani’s goals.”
He also accused reformist politician Behzad Nabavi of advising President Masoud Pezeshkian to disrupt the economy deliberately to create leverage for negotiations with the United States.
He did not present any evidence for his claims.
His comments come as Rouhani and Iran’s Reform Front have urged sweeping political and foreign policy changes, including a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, release of political prisoners, and direct negotiations with Washington in return for sanctions relief.
Rouhani said earlier in the month, “There is no way to save the country except for all of us to become servants of the people — to recognize that sovereignty belongs to the people.”
The reformist push has drawn fierce backlash from conservatives, with some likening it to a 2003 reformist manifesto that ended in arrests and bans.
Tasnim, an outlet linked to Iran’s Guards, warned that reformists’ calls for sweeping policy changes resembled a “Gorbachev moment,” arguing such concessions to foreign narratives risk weakening national interests and repeating mistakes that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse.
European powers have warned that unless Tehran resumes nuclear talks by the end of August, they are prepared to trigger the UN’s sanctions “snapback” mechanism, which could restore Security Council penalties.
