Iran’s hardliners warn of a ‘coup’ as US truce comes under pressure

As Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian walked next to the coffin of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran last week, some of the black-clad mourners surrounding him chanted “death to the compromisers” not in tribute to the late leader but directly at him.

Near the site, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top diplomat who negotiated a ceasefire with the Trump administration and lifted some sanctions against the Islamic Republic, was forced to flee a funeral after a crowd pelted him with stones while chanting death chants accusing him. It has been accused of being a “treasonous sale”.

Hostility towards senior officials during the funeral This reflects a theory that has gained traction for months among the Islamic Republic’s most radical groups: Iran’s wartime leaders negotiated and signed the agreement While he and Washington staged a soft coup against the Islamic Republic and its revolutionary ideals, the new supreme power Leader remains largely invisible out of fear for his life – or, as some suggest, because he is incompetent.

Many radical groups attended the funeral They believe that rather than seeking revenge for Khamenei’s killing, Iranian officials surrendered by signing an agreement defying the orders of the late leader’s son and successor, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. But Khamenei was hidden from the public eyeHe neither addresses the nation directly nor visibly asserts his authority, even when officials negotiate or govern on his behalf.

Conservatives accused Iran’s apparent leadership (those who govern and represent the country while Khamenei hides) of planning to consolidate power by suspending parliament, defying his orders in negotiations, and trying to break up nightly street demonstrations that have become a powerful power base for religious fundamentalists.

“Warning to the Iranian people: Is a coup on the way?” Mahmoud Nabavian, an outspoken radical MP, asked in the X days: Before Khamenei’s funeral.

Days later, he wrote: “In these moments as we bid farewell to the martyr Imam Khamenei, we raise the flag of revenge from his blood and stand tall against the coup.”

Chief negotiator in Mojtaba’s absence Muhammad Bagher Galibaf, Pezeshkian And Araghchi became the most visible faces of post-war Iran. Arash Azizi, a US-based Iran expert and author of the book “What Iranians Want,” told CNN that conservatives who did not have access to the new religious leader and were unhappy with his performance accused them of planning a coup.

“Mojtaba’s absence means they have no access to him, and it also means that Ghalibaf and his allies are de facto in charge of the country. That’s why hardliners accused Ghalibaf and Pezeshkian of planning a ‘coup’ against Mojtaba,” Azizi said. he said.

‘We, the knife and your throat’

Despite widespread calls for wartime unity across Iran, The massive week-long funeral for Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes coordinated with the United States in late February, became a powerful showcase for the Islamic Republic’s staunchest supporters. They used this opportunity to strengthen their demands to avenge their leader through renewed war with Washington and declare their rejection of any deal with Trump.

Now it looks like their wish has come true. The fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US nearly collapsed this week After the Revolutionary Guard launched attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz in an attempt to assert control over the waterway. This led to retaliatory strikes by Washington and new demands from Iranian hardliners to cancel the ceasefire.

In the weeks before the conflict began, conservatives directed their anger at the leaders who signed the agreement with the United States.

Muhammad Ali Bakhshi said, “Mr. President, if the leader’s conditions are not met, then we will be your knife and your throat.” a “Maddah” attached to security He warned Pezeshkian, a religious singer loyal to the Iranian regime, during the ceremony. “We will bring hell on you.”

The apparent threat to kill the president was widely criticized, but Bakhshi is not known to face any legal repercussions.

Other officials under strict scrutiny include: Galibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with the US was a former Revolutionary Guard commander with deep political experience; His credentials enabled him to step up and take charge during the war, and he emerged widely accepted as the de facto leading operator of the regime.

“They are trying to elevate the role of the Supreme National Security Council while reducing the role of the religious leader and the parliament,” Kamran Ghazanfari, a conservative parliamentarian, said in a video statement in early July. he said. to the council that decides on the country’s most sensitive wartime works. “This is the political coup they designed and carried out step by step.”

Pushing radicals aside

On Tuesday, hard-line lawmaker Nabavian, who was one of the leading voices strongly opposing the deal and warning of a “coup”, was removed from his post on parliament’s National Security Committee, along with another parliamentarian critical of the deal.

Nabavian, who was on Iran’s negotiating team before opposing the talks and trying to derail the deal by leaking the text to the media before it was signed last month, claimed that Iran’s negotiating team had challenged the supreme leader’s red lines in talks with the United States. CNN was unable to reach Nabavian for comment.

He and others reflect the views of the “Jebhe-ye Paydari” (Endurance Front), whose hard-line members are often described by observers as “Super Revolutionaries.” They see themselves as guardians of the values ​​of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-Western ruler and established the Islamic theocracy.

Experts say Iran’s apparent leaders are actively trying to marginalize them.

“We see Ghalibaf using influence to push aside these hardline elements,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told CNN. “These are very costly to the system and they reveal their rivalry, especially when the situation in Iran becomes unstable.”

They are small in number but hold influential positions across the country, including in parliament and the national broadcaster IRIB, which has launched its own campaigns against the president.

It’s unclear how much support the group has received, but one of its most prominent figures is: former national security chief Saeed Jalili – He came second in the 2024 elections, collecting more than 13 million votes. The population of Iran is around 93 million.

Throughout months of war and diplomacy with Iran, Trump has repeatedly described the Islamic Republic as “severely fractured,” arguing that internal divisions prevent any deal. But despite visible divisions between the new leaders and hardliners, observers say the regime remains united around the core goal of ending the war on terms that would ease sanctions and preserve Tehran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yet Khamenei’s continued absence, his conditional support for the ceasefire, the growing strength of the Revolutionary Guard, and the mass attendance at his father’s funeral have emboldened radicals who now seek to impose their own aggressive agenda to continue the war with the United States and Israel.

“My suggestion is that we go to one of the US bases in the area where there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of these American terrorists,” former Iranian foreign minister and extremist Manuchehr Mottaki said in a televised interview on Wednesday. he said. “It would be enough if we took 100 soldiers and brought them to Iran.”

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