All of Iran’s power centers involved in war, peace decisions, foreign ministry says
All parts of Iran’s ruling system were involved in decisions related to war, peace and negotiations, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday.
Baghaei said the foreign ministry implemented the system’s broad policies and the decisions of the Supreme National Security Council.
He also said Iran would honor its commitments only as long as the US also did the same, including on ending the war in Lebanon.
Baghaei said recent US attacks on targets inside Iran violated the first clause of the memorandum of understanding and warned that continued attacks would create problems for the negotiation process.
Iran saw no need for any country, including France, to intervene in issues related to the Strait of Hormuz, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday.
Baghaei said Iran was scheduled to hold a meeting with Qatari officials in Doha on Wednesday to discuss clauses of the memorandum of understanding and the release of blocked Iranian assets.
He also said Iran had no plan to meet US officials at any level in the coming days.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds had not yet been transferred to Iran, adding that the money remained subject to a 2023 agreement and was earmarked for humanitarian purchases.
The spokesperson said US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were in Doha to meet Qatari mediators about US-Iran negotiations, but would not meet Iranian officials directly at this stage.
The spokesperson also said Qatar was coordinating with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz and safe passage for vessels.
A direct communication line for deconfliction in the Strait of Hormuz has been used to contain confrontations over the past few days, the spokesperson said.
The IRGC Ground Forces said on Tuesday that a six-member armed team had been killed in a clash in the mountains between Mahabad and Piranshahr in northwest Iran.
In a statement, the IRGC’s Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base said the team had entered Iran’s northwestern border area for what it described as "sabotage and terrorist operations."
The IRGC said four bodies, along with weapons and equipment, were recovered after the clash, which it said involved fire support.
The statement warned that any attempt to destabilize Iran’s northwestern borders would face a “decisive” response.
A representative of a gold company linked to Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani said on Tuesday that 13 kilograms of gold belonging to him had been returned to Dubai, ILNA reported.
The representative said the gold was sent back to the United Arab Emirates, its country of origin, and did not re-enter Iran or return to the production chain for gold products.
The representative said the company had decided to procure gold domestically from now on and carry out production and minting inside Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, chairman of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, in Qom, Iran, June 30, 2026.
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.
