Khamenei warns against division amid US negotiations

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei urged lawmakers not to turn political differences into division, in a message to parliament as its speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, leads Tehran’s negotiating team in talks with the United States.

The message, issued to mark the anniversary of the opening of Iran’s parliament and the start of the third year of the current Majlis, came as parliament has only recently resumed open sessions after the war.

Khamenei thanked lawmakers and specifically praised Ghalibaf’s efforts, without directly referring to the negotiations with Washington.

The message also comes as questions persist over how closely Ghalibaf and the negotiating team are coordinated with Khamenei on the substance and direction of the talks.

Khamenei said preserving national unity was a religious and political duty.

“One example of piety is preserving the great blessing of national unity and the unparalleled cohesion granted to the awakened nation around the flag of Islamic Iran, which is among the most important factors of victory against the Great Satan.

He said lawmakers and other political and intellectual elites should avoid turning disputes into public fractures, arguing that enemies were seeking to exploit internal divisions after the war, economic pressure and political isolation.

“The enemy’s blind plan after the imposed war, economic pressure and propaganda and political siege is to create division and social fragmentation in order to compensate for its defeats on the battlefield and bring the nation to its knees,” he said, adding that those who care about Islam, the revolution or Iran’s independence should “not turn unwarranted and even warranted differences into conflict and division.”

Khamenei also referred lawmakers back to his late father’s annual meetings with parliament,advising them to study those speeches closely as they contained "practical and operational" lessons for the current moment.

He also called on parliament to focus on economic stability, inflation, production, reconstruction of war damage and planning for the post-war period.

Khamenei said lawmakers should pay attention to parliamentary diplomacy, take clear positions against what he called the demands of arrogant powers, and remain aware of what he described as Iran’s new position in the region and the world.