Why Is Mohammad Khatami Warning Against Non-Compliance With the Iran-US Memorandum
By Reza Hoseani
understanding signed between Masoud Pezeshkian and the US administration — and symbolically kissed the hand of its signatory — go far beyond a diplomatic position. They are a clear sign of a deepening strategic rift at the very top of the Islamic Republic’s power structure.
Khatami warns that losing this opportunity will confront the regime with “strange problems.” The central question is this: Why is the so-called reformist faction clinging so desperately to this memorandum, while the Supreme Leader’s inner circle and his successor-in-waiting, Mojtaba Khamenei, are pushing back with the dismissive phrase “in principle”?
1. The Memorandum: A Concession or a Poisoned Chalice?
In his remarks, Khatami presents an exaggerated picture of the memorandum, claiming:
“Go and read this memorandum. It has no precedent. Since World War II, no memorandum, no document signed by a US president, has granted so many concessions to the opposing side… Nine times, the United States says it is committed… One is the preservation of sovereignty, respect for national sovereignty… and another is the cessation of hostilities.”
He then adds:
“I must say here that I truly kiss Mr. Pezeshkian’s hand for going and signing this courageously and selflessly. It is truly an honor for the Islamic Republic.”
This rhetoric is precisely the logic of a defeated and opportunistic faction that sees its survival as dependent on political life support from the West. This faction, which as a whole has been complicit in decades of systemic plunder, is now grasping at every possible lifeline to preserve its share of power and wealth. For them, the memorandum is an achievement.
For the regime’s hard core of power, and for Mojtaba Khamenei in particular, the picture is exactly the opposite. The historical experience of the Velayat-e Faqih system has shown that every retreat can become the starting point for a chain of further demands.
In January 1984, in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini himself declared:
“We have all entered a field where, if we take one step backward, we will be defeated.”
Mojtaba Khamenei understands perfectly well that, taken as a whole, this memorandum is a poisoned chalice — a development capable of undermining the Supreme Leader’s hegemony and, ultimately, dragging the entire system into a whirlpool of social demands and a storm of uprisings by different segments of Iranian society.
That is why the Supreme Leader’s strategy is either war or, at the very least, the maintenance of a confrontational and war-ready posture — not lasting peace.
2. Dissecting the Fake Reformist Faction: From “Facilitator” to Defender of the Status Quo
The inability of the reformist movement to bring about meaningful change is rooted in its very nature. Khatami himself, in the final year of his presidency, described his role as merely being a “facilitator” (tadarokchi) for the system. He never stepped outside the framework of Velayat-e Faqih.
His record speaks for itself.
He described the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as “the most ideological armed force in the world” and referred to the torturers of the Ministry of Intelligence as “valuable assets of the country.”
While Article 177 of the regime’s own constitution provides for constitutional revision, he described any discussion of changing the constitution as “a betrayal of the Iranian nation.”
He described Velayat-e Faqih as “a superior will attributed to revelation” and the system as a “revelational democracy,” while stating that the legitimacy of a religious government does not derive from the people’s vote.
This is the same man who, while serving as Khomeini’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, headed the wartime propaganda apparatus and was directly involved in sending more than 440,000 schoolchildren onto minefields.
Such a record makes clear that his dispute with Mojtaba Khamenei is not fundamentally about the nature of the regime. It is about the distribution of power and wealth within it — and the fear of its inevitable overthrow.
As Tabatabai, another figure from this same faction, admitted on Simaye Azadi television in February 2024:
“People don’t trust the whole thing… In the streets, to those people who are cursing us, there is no difference between you and me… They say, ‘These guys will come back again and make us another promise.'”
3. Fake Alternatives: From the Shah’s Son to the Sheikh’s Son
The great lesson of two wars and one uprising in 2025 is that the return of a puppet monarchist fascism is nothing more than a mirage.
Throughout Iranian history, dynasties rose to power through their own military force. The Pahlavi dynasty, by contrast, was the product of a foreign-backed coup and became a creation of foreign intervention. A cardboard Lion and Sun has no place in Iran’s future democratic revolution.
The reality is that the noisy propaganda and political theatrics of the Shah’s son over the years have, in practice, played into the regime’s hands and contributed to division among its opponents.
The regime’s own newspaper, Vatan-e Emruz, went so far as to write on February 1, 2025:
“The monarchists, by creating divisions among the opposition, performed a service for the Islamic Republic that no other group was capable of providing.”
If these political provocateurs had not appeared on the Iranian political scene after the December 2017-January 2018 uprising, the balance of forces would undoubtedly have been far more unfavorable to the regime.
Historical documents have also shown how the Iranian regime was able to deceive the United States through Ahmad Chalabi and carry out one of the largest intelligence operations in contemporary history — an episode exposed by the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.
It can be said with certainty that the Shah’s son, in addition to his deeply questionable connections with the IRGC, has for a quarter of a century been surrounded by a network of intelligence-linked associates whose documents will one day be exposed, just as the documents surrounding the 1953 coup were eventually revealed.
On the other side, Khamenei’s son, like the Shah’s son, wants the continuation of war. They both understand that without a climate of war and securitization, they have little future and little chance of retaining their positions.
Whatever disaster may befall Iran and its people is of no consequence to them.
At this point, the infighting among these wolves can be summed up in one sentence, echoing the voice of the grieving families of the martyrs:
“My father, my wife, my sister, my niece, and my brother-in-law were not killed so that you could fill your pockets and demand a greater share of power.”
Conclusion: Foam on the Water and the Roaring Flood
All these diversionary currents — whether the fake alternative within the regime under the banner of reformism, or the manufactured alternative represented outside the regime by the Shah’s son — are nothing more than foam on the water.
The anti-national and anti-people records of both factions throughout their political history make this abundantly clear.
The Iranian Resistance has repeatedly emphasized that it welcomes the religious fascism drinking the “nuclear poison,” or any other poison, because every retreat and every war can accelerate its downfall.
All these diversionary currents are merely foam on the water. They can no longer stop, divert, or slow the roaring flood of the Iranian people’s radical and democratic revolution.
The inevitable overthrow of this regime awaits — whether through war, through the Iran-US memorandum, through attempts to revive the remnants of the buried monarchy, or through the collapse of the remnants of the Velayat-e Faqih regime founded by the criminal Khomeini.
A massive nationwide uprising is on its way. It will place the final seal of rejection on this regime and consign it to the dustbin of history.
Yes, victory belongs to the brave people of Iran.
About the Author
Reza Hoseani has been writing on political and social developments in Iran and the Middle East for over two decades. His main focus is on strategies to contain the Iranian regime’s warmongering and to support the Iranian people’s democratic movements.
Contact & Works:
Twitter:
Iran Panorama News
@IranPanoramaNew
Weblog:
Website:
https://iranpanoramanews.wordpress.com/
https://democracyforirannews.wordpress.com/
Youtube:
Iran Panorama – Focus on human rights, protests of the Iranian people
Welcome to Iran Panorama. We focus on human rights and the protests of the Iranian people. From pensioners in Shush to students in Kord and Birjand, from telecom retirees in Kermanshah to teachers across Iran – we bring you over 3,400 videos of the people’s struggle. Subscribe to Iran Panorama and be the voice of Iran.”
Comments
Post a Comment