Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended the country’s negotiating team on Tuesday, saying the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States was reached in full coordination with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
“Unfortunately, some groups, in line with the psychological operations of hostile media, are trying to weaken this achievement by attacking the negotiating team and questioning national decisions,” he said.
He added that the memorandum of understanding was reached within the framework of the Islamic Republic’s broader policies and with the support of the Supreme National Security Council.
Pezeshkian made the comments during a meeting with members of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, an influential body of senior Shi'ite clerics.
The remarks came as Pezeshkian’s government faced mounting pressure from ultraconservative factions over the memorandum of understanding with the United States.
In recent weeks, some hardline figures have accused the president and the negotiating team of making concessions and questioned whether key security decisions had the backing of the Supreme Leader.
The attacks have exposed divisions within Iran’s conservative camp, with some establishment-aligned conservatives pushing back against the most radical critics.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom Chairman Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri voiced support for the negotiating team and said running the country under current conditions was difficult.
Other members of the group reportedly raised concerns including alleged violations of parts of the Iran-US memorandum of understanding, the need to explain the talks more clearly to the public.
The president insisted that Iran would not retreat from its national rights or core principles, adding that the dominant view in the Supreme National Security Council had been to use diplomacy to consolidate gains made on the battlefield and protect national interests.
Pezeshkian said his government had pursued negotiations from a position of “dignity, power and national interest” and would not give in to imposed demands.
He said the final text of the agreement with the US had been reviewed by expert and security bodies before receiving what he called firm backing from the Supreme National Security Council.
Pezeshkian also said much of his government’s capacity over the past two years had been spent managing crises.
“Over the past two years, a large part of the government’s management capacity has been spent on managing crises, reducing the effects of foreign pressure and preventing the consequences of these challenges from being transferred to people’s daily lives,” he said.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.
