Iran International
Three prominent Iranian figures closely tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have publicly expressed regret over past decisions they said damaged Iran’s political trajectory and foreign relations.
Whether a sign of coordinated messaging or mere coincidence, the remarks—published across Iranian media on Sunday, October 12—suggest the establishment’s growing unease.
The trio were Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a former chief inspector of Khamenei’s office; Ali Shamkhani, a former security chief and current senior military adviser to Khamenei; and Massih Mohajeri, managing editor of Jomhouri Eslami, a newspaper founded by Khamenei in 1979 and still funded by his office.
The original sin
In a rare interview with the economic daily Donya-ye Eghtesad, Nateq Nouri reflected on the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, calling what became known as the Hostage Crisis “a big mistake.”
“That was the starting point of many of our troubles,” he said. “Don’t other embassies have intelligence sections? We seized the US embassy, and the Americans responded by seizing ours and freezing our assets. What followed was a chain of problems, actions and reactions that continue to this day.”
He added that more recent attacks on the embassies of UK and Saudi Arabia (2011, 2016) further damaged Iran’s foreign relations: “Those actions led to pressures and challenges in foreign policy that have brought us to this point.”
Nateq Nouri was widely believed to be Khamenei’s preferred candidate in the 1997 presidential election, which he lost to reformist Mohammad Khatami.
In 2009, he resigned his post in the leader’s office after Khamenei refused to intervene when then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused him and his family of financial corruption on state television.
Isolation: Avoidable
Another longtime Khamenei aide, Ali Shamkhani, acknowledged Iran’s shortcomings in air defense, blaming sanctions.
“We developed our missile industry, but we failed to invest in air defense,” he said. “Due to sanctions, no foreign country cooperates with us in the area of armament.”
Asked why Tehran never sought to purchase weapons abroad, Shamkhani replied, “The fact is, we are isolated. But we could have been less isolated.”
Shamkhani also admitted it was a mistake to underestimate U.S. support for Israel and overestimate Russia’s backing in wartime.
“Iran should have had nuclear bombs,” he concluded with a sigh. “I should have facilitated that when I was defense minister under president Khatami.”
The Final Sin?
Also on Sunday, the establishment daily Jomhouri Eslami ran an editorial lamenting that Hamas carried out its incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023.
“Despite many opinions and views, Operation Al-Aqsa was a mistake,” the editorial—likely authored by editor Massih Mohajeri—read.
The remark stands in stark contrast to Khamenei’s earlier praise for the attack, when he said he “kisses the hands” of those behind it.
The operation “was a storm with no winner,” the editorial argued, causing losses for Iran, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Qatar, and Gaza itself.
The rare chorus of regret from within Khamenei’s circle may suggest unease over the costs of the Islamic Republic’s decades-long policies. Whether such public reflections will lead to any meaningful recalibration remains the million-dollar question.
