Iran International
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has sharply escalated his posture toward President Masoud Pezeshkian, openly floating the prospect of impeachments and implicitly questioning the government’s survival.
Speaking on Sunday, Ghalibaf warned that if the executive fails to address rising prices of basic goods, parliament would have a “duty” to take action.
But moderate voices in Tehran argue the episode is less about procedure than positioning.
“These remarks indicate a fundamental shift in relations between the presidency and parliament,” wrote the news website Rouydad24, arguing that Ghalibaf is recalibrating his role from co-manager of the system’s crises to its chief overseer.
By adopting an openly critical stance, the outlet said, Ghalibaf is seeking to distance himself from shared responsibility for deteriorating economic conditions while presenting parliament as an independent check on executive failure.
“If reshuffling occurs, parliament will claim victory; if not, impeachment becomes the ‘last unavoidable option,’” it wrote—placing political costs squarely on the government.
Moderate politician Hossein Nourani-Nejad said impeachment threats are being used to reshape the executive politically.
“The government is centrist, not reformist,” he said. “But the right is trying to gradually turn it into a conservative government.”
Parliament has already impeached and removed Economy Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati, with pressure building on ministers overseeing agriculture, roads and urban development, industry and trade, sports and welfare.
Parliamentary attacks have focused disproportionately on reformist or centrist ministers aligned with the government’s discourse.
Some lawmakers have gone further, openly calling for Pezeshkian’s resignation and even floating his impeachment on grounds of what they describe as “political incompetence.”
Most of those voices belong to the ultra-hardline Paydari Party and are closely aligned with Saeed Jalili, Pezeshkian’s rival in last year’s presidential election.
“That the head of another branch of power would threaten the president and government by invoking impeachment demands from a specific parliamentary minority is novel,” Esmail Gerami-Moghaddam of the Etemad-e Melli Party told Etemad.
By sharpening confrontation now, critics argue, Ghalibaf is seeking to shed collective responsibility for economic distress while signalling readiness for a future political contest—one in which blame, distance and “oversight” may matter as much as policy.
The backdrop is Ghalibaf’s own defeat to Pezeshkian in the last year’s presidential race—and widespread belief in Tehran that the coming years could bring major political shifts, creating incentives for senior figures to reposition early.
Deputy Speaker Ali Nikzad acknowledged the stakes, noting that if more than half the cabinet were removed or resigned, the government would lose its quorum.
He added, however, that “the position of the system”—a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—is that the cabinet should complete its term.
The session was held to share information between the government and lawmakers on how to address public grievances, Abbas Goudarzi, spokesperson for parliament’s presiding board, told reporters after the meeting.
He said a five-member joint committee had been formed between the government and parliament, with briefings delivered by the heads of the Planning and Budget Organization and the Central Bank of Iran.
Ineffective policies
Goudarzi cited oil sales, the return of export earnings and unresolved foreign-currency obligations as key factors shaping current economic conditions, saying their combined impact had produced the present situation.
He pointed to the allocation of about $10 billion in subsidized foreign currency for essential goods as an example of ineffective policy design, adding that roughly $8 billion was directed to livestock feed while consumers continued to pay market prices for basic items.
“There is no logic in allocating this volume of currency if it does not reach its target,” Goudarzi said, adding that existing mechanisms had failed to translate support into lower costs for households.
Iran introduced its preferential foreign-exchange system in April 2018 under then president Hassan Rouhani, fixing the dollar at 42,000 rials in an effort to cushion households from price shocks and ensure imports of essential goods and medicines using oil revenues.
As the gap between the official and market rates widened – and the rial slid to record lows above 1.32 million per dollar this week – the policy became increasingly costly.
The administration of Ebrahim Raisi dismantled the system as part of what it branded “economic surgery,” arguing that it fueled arbitrage, corruption among importers, and failed to benefit consumers.
Several months later, the government reinstated subsidized currency at 285,000 rials to the dollar, roughly half the market rate at the time. The scheme initially covered 25 categories of goods, though the list has since been pared back.
In recent months, preferential currency has been removed from imports of staples including rice, vegetable oil, red meat, animal feed, and some medicines.
Budget pressure builds
The Tuesday morning session, Goudarzi said, was held behind closed doors, with an open afternoon meeting scheduled with the president.
The government will submit the draft budget to Iran’s parliament on Tuesday for the first time based on the new rial, following the removal of four zeros from the national currency.
The new year's budget bill is being submitted to parliament amid signs it has been drafted as one of the most contractionary budgets in recent years.
Goudarzi described the Tuesday meeting as an attempt to coordinate the executive and legislative branches to manage economic and currency challenges.
He outlined a compressed review timetable, saying the draft budget will be examined by the combined budget committee within three days before being sent to the plenary, whether approved or rejected.
If endorsed, it will then move to specialist committees for further study under strict deadlines before returning to the combined committee and, ultimately, the full chamber.
Goudarzi noted that under parliamentary rules the government was required to submit the budget on December 23, but did so a day later because no open session was held to formally trigger the review process.
The outlet said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s unusually blunt warning in parliament this week – that lawmakers could move to impeach cabinet ministers if prices continue to rise – went beyond routine oversight and marked a strategic shift away from the rhetoric of “consensus” that initially defined relations between the legislature and the administration.
According to Rouydad24, Ghalibaf is seeking to distance himself from the government’s economic record as inflation, a plunging rial and rising living costs fuel public anger, recasting himself as an independent watchdog rather than a political partner.
The analysis said the warning reflected a broader recalibration in Tehran, where parliamentary backing for the government has given way to open boundary-setting, including criticism of economic ministers and senior appointments.
Ghalibaf’s move comes as parliament has already demonstrated its willingness to act, having impeached Economy Minister Abdolnasser Hemmati earlier this year over rising prices, showing that the threat against the Pezeshkian government is not merely symbolic.
Kazem Delkhosh, the deputy for legislative affairs in the president’s parliamentary office, said on Monday that Pezeshkian and members of his economic team will attend a joint session of parliament on Tuesday to discuss broader economic issues and rising living-cost pressures.
Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Israel and its allies had pursued a dual strategy during the conflict: direct military confrontation alongside efforts to destabilize Iran from within.
“The enemy’s defeat in the 12-day war was precisely here,” Naini said. “They tried to drag the war inside the country, but that project failed.”
Naini was speaking at a meeting to organize commemorations for December 30, a state-marked anniversary tied to mass rallies that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election and the suppression of the Green Movement protests – one of the largest episodes of unrest in Iran’s recent history.
The Green Movement is often cited alongside the 2019 Bloody November protests and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations as the most significant challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding.
Naini said Iran’s adversaries had assumed that air strikes would be followed by protests, riots or internal collapse, repeating what he described as a long-standing “illusion of chaos” rooted in past episodes of unrest.
“They sat in their war rooms with a wrong calculation, waiting for disorder, riots and the breakdown of the country from within,” he said.
Instead, Naini said the attacks were followed by large public reactions that included anti-Israel rallies and funerals for those killed, which he portrayed as demonstrations of national unity.
He said Israel underestimated what he described as a “fortress-like” popular cohesion and that attempts at what Iranian officials often call soft war or cognitive war aimed at weakening society from within were completely unsuccessful.
“The enemy shifted from military war to cognitive war, using pessimism, division and exaggerating social dissatisfaction to weaken the unity that was formed,” Naini said.
The remarks come as regional tensions remain high and as Israel weighs next steps.
NBC News reported over the weekend that Israeli officials are preparing to brief US President Donald Trump on options for possible new military strikes on Iran, citing concerns that Tehran is rebuilding facilities linked to ballistic missile production and repairing air defenses damaged in earlier attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to raise the issue during an upcoming meeting with Trump, including options for US support or participation in any future action, according to the report.
Trump has repeatedly said US strikes in June destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities and has warned Tehran against trying to rebuild them. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its military and nuclear programs are defensive.
Naini said Iran continues to monitor what he described as hostile plans closely, adding that the lesson Iranian officials draw from both past unrest and the recent war is that internal cohesion remains decisive in confronting external threats.
