Iran International
Assertions by US President Donald Trump that Iran’s leadership is divided, and Tehran’s increasingly coordinated effort to deny it, have thrust the issue of unity to the center of the standoff between the two countries.
Trump has repeatedly cast Iran’s leadership as fractured and disorganized. In one post, he wrote: “Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!” describing “infighting” between “‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all.”
In a separate interview, he said: “They’re all messed up. They have no idea who their leader is… we took out, really, three levels of leaders.”
As speculation spread, President Masoud Masoud Pezeshkian sought to set the tone in a social media post declaring: “In Iran there are no ‘hardliners’ or ‘moderates.’ We are all Iranians and revolutionaries.”
The message was reposted verbatim by senior officials across the political and military establishment, including judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref, senior advisers, and the Supreme National Security Council, underscoring the coordinated nature of the response.
Mohseni-Ejei went further in a separate post, directly attacking Trump and calling the labels “hardliner” and “moderate” “fabricated and hollow terms” borrowed from Western political literature.
The messaging blitz from Tehran followed the collapse of negotiations in Islamabad and reports that parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf—who led Tehran’s delegation there—may have stepped down from the negotiating team, fueling speculation over internal disagreements about talks with Washington.
Reports first circulated by Israel’s Channel 12 claimed Ghalibaf resigned following interference by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Other reports suggested he was reprimanded for trying to include Iran’s nuclear program in discussions with the United States.
Hardline lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian appeared to confirm tensions in a leaked audio recording, saying the team had discussed the nuclear issue “against the Supreme Leader’s position” and calling it a “strategic error.”
Saeed Saeed Jalili, widely rumored to be a possible replacement for Ghalibaf, struck a similar note while avoiding the exact phrasing, emphasizing “the unity of all segments of the nation” under the Supreme Leader.
The Supreme Leader’s official account also weighed in, warning that enemy “media operations” were aimed at undermining national unity and security.
Some analysts see Trump’s comments as deliberate pressure. Reformist journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi argued Trump was trying to “create division and conflict within the structure of the government” to present any eventual deal as “his complete victory.”
Ali Afshari, a US-based political analyst, described the remarks as “psychological warfare aimed at disrupting the cohesion of the opposing side.”
Yet even as officials insist on unity, conflicting signals from Tehran have deepened public uncertainty over negotiations and the future of the war.
Hardline lawmaker Ali Khezrian said the resumption of war was “inevitable” and claimed Iran had halted all communication with Washington.
Despite publicly dismissing reports of Ghalibaf’s resignation, parliament communications chief Iman Shamsaei said no new round of negotiations had been scheduled.
Journalist Saeed Agenji, meanwhile, insisted Ghalibaf still held “the helm of negotiations and domestic management of the country.”
Zeidabadi warned that mixed messaging over negotiations, ceasefire, agreement and even the ultimate goals of the war had left ordinary Iranians confused, risking reinforcing exactly the perception of disarray Tehran is trying to deny.
