Iran would be destroyed if the Islamic Republic is overthrown, former president Mohammad Khatami said, arguing that reform was the only viable path for change and warning against radical movements.
“If this system, with all its shortcomings and flaws, collapses, Iran’s fate would be far more bitter than it is now,” Khatami said at a meeting with journalists, artists and university professors, according to semi-official ISNA news agency.
"Separatism, foreign intervention, infiltrations, and the like would destroy Iran, and the only path to fundamental reform is one that is less costly and more beneficial than any other solution," the former reformist president added.
Khatami said public anger should not be confused with support for radical action.
“If we look beyond fleeting emotions and the anger stemming from the current situation, I believe the majority would choose reform,” he said.
Khatami’s remarks come as many Iranians appear to have moved on from the long-standing reformist–hardliner divide, with public discourse increasingly sceptical of gradual reform from within the system.
A survey conducted in 2024 and published in August 2025 by the Netherlands-based institute GAMAAN found that the majority of Iranians would vote for either a regime change or a structural transition away from the Islamic Republic, highlighting growing demands for political change across Iran.
Opposition rose to about 81% during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the survey said.
During the widespread protests which began in September 2022, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, demonstrators repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
The protests were quashed with deadly force, with at least 550 people killed by state security forces and thousands arrested according to rights groups.
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.
