Tehran is emphasizing solidarity among its top officials as Washington continues to exert pressure on Iran amidst ongoing disputes in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a move designed to push back against United States efforts to portray the Islamic Republic’s leadership as fractured, President Masoud Pezeshkian announced a positive discussion with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. This announcement, made on Thursday, appears to mark Pezeshkian’s first audience with Khamenei since the latter’s selection for Iran’s most powerful position two months ago.
While the exact timing of their two-and-a-half-hour meeting was not specified, state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying that Khamenei fostered an atmosphere of “trust, calm, solidarity, and direct, unmediated dialogue.”
Since the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders at the start of the war on February 28, US President Donald Trump and other American officials have promoted the idea of divisions among Tehran’s military, security, and political authorities.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated this stance on Monday, telling reporters at the White House that “The time has come for Iran to make the sensible choice.” He added, “It’s not easy for them to do that, because they have a fracture in their own leadership system. Apart from that, the top people in that government are, to say the least, insane in the brain,” after Washington offered a new proposal for an understanding with Iran.
However, Iranian officials have swiftly countered these claims. Iran International, a London-based news network critical of the Islamic Republic, cited unnamed sources suggesting Pezeshkian was angered by military operations ordered by Ahmad Vahidi, Ali Abdollahi, and other commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and had considered resigning before demanding direct access to the supreme leader, who is recovering from injuries sustained in the attack that killed his father. Yet, the president’s chief of staff and his deputy for communications separately told the state-linked ISNA news agency that Pezeshkian and IRGC commanders make decisions in joint meetings, dismissing claims of resignations and rifts as “fake news.”
Experts speaking to Al Jazeera highlighted the IRGC’s entrenched central role in Iran’s strategic decision-making, particularly concerning the Strait of Hormuz. Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, noted, “I think the military and security camp around Mojtaba Khamenei currently has enormous influence, arguably more than at any point in years because the war elevated the importance of coercive power, deterrence, and wartime cohesion.”
Toossi explained that while the Supreme National Security Council formally remains a top institution, practical decision-making likely flows through smaller connections linked to the supreme leader’s office, senior IRGC figures, and trusted officials like security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr. He added, “At this stage, it is difficult to imagine any meaningful arrangement on the strait proceeding without their blessing,” emphasizing that Hormuz is increasingly viewed as a core strategic deterrent, especially after the war demonstrated Iran’s capacity to threaten shipping and energy flows despite intense US and Israeli bombardment.
Saeed Leylaz, a pro-establishment political and economic analyst in Tehran, believes that despite varying opinions among some figures, the leadership has rallied around the new supreme leader. Leylaz stated that Iranian authorities agree on the necessity to maintain control over Hormuz as long as the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports persists, which intensifies pressure on Iranian households. He criticized the US for not offering concessions, initiating the naval blockade immediately after the ceasefire, and then retracting promises to open the strait. “All of this signals to the Islamic Republic that if it gives up control of the strait without a strong geopolitical agreement, it would not be able to return and therefore it will lose,” Leylaz concluded.
Iranian authorities have continued diplomatic engagement with Washington through intermediaries while expressing distrust. Pezeshkian and others have stressed that they cannot agree to a deal that amounts to capitulation, despite threats of mass bombardment of Iran’s energy infrastructure. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to China this week and remains in close contact with Russia. After his meetings, Araghchi stated, “Our Chinese friends believe that Iran after the war is different from Iran before the war,” adding that Iran’s “international position has improved, and it has proven its capabilities and power.”
However, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue to demand a full halt to uranium enrichment on Iranian soil and the extraction of its buried highly-enriched uranium, echoing demands made before the war. Leylaz suggested Iran might make temporary compromises on its nuclear program but will not fully abandon enrichment. He also argued that while the blockade harms Iran, it also negatively impacts regional US allies like Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, who he believes have a lower pain threshold than Iran, accustomed to years of US and UN sanctions.
Toossi anticipates a more securitized Iranian state in the future, less invested in broad rapprochement with the US and more focused on deterrence, strategic self-sufficiency, and deepening ties with non-Western powers. He concluded, “At the same time, the system still appears interested in avoiding full-scale war if it can secure recognition of its core interests and avoid economic strangulation. So, I think the most likely path is prolonged managed confrontation, mixed with intermittent diplomacy rather than either full normalisation or immediate all-out war.”
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