Iranian leadership divided as hard-liners sabotage negotiations, Khameni still unseen - report

SEPTEMBER 14, 2026 05:30When Iranian forces fired on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz in July, they did so without advance knowledge or authorization of the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, or Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing five Iranian officials and two IRGC members. The incident was one of the most striking examples of how Iran's hard-line faction sabotaged negotiations between Iran and the US, a phenomenon made possible by the apparent absence of the only figure with authority to solve the conflict, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to the report.Khamenei has not been seen since his appointment in March, after the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and while written statements and messages have been issued in his name, many have doubted their veracity, including Pezeshkian, three Iranian officials told the NYT. Pezeshkian claimed he met with Khamenei in May without specifying when or where. Two Iranian officials and a former official described the circumstances in which an ambulance with blacked-out windows drove Pezeshkian around as a secure video connection was established with a person claiming to be an interlocutor for Khamenei and purportedly passed messages between the men.The officials told the NYT that Pezeshkian told an ally he was unsure whether he was actually talking to Khamenei. A handout photo made available by the Iranian Presidential Office shows Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian attending a press conference in the capital Tehran, on August 8, 2026. (credit: Iranian Presidential Office / AFP via Getty Images)Pezeshkian claimed he'd met again with Khamenei in August, saying on state television that the two had spoken for seven hours on various issues facing Iran, including affordability, unemployment, sanctions, unity and resilience during wartime, the NYT wrote.Multiple comments attributed to Khamenei have also fed into conflict, with Khamenei purportedly saying that he approved of the Memorandum of Understanding with the US due to the endorsements of the National Security Council and Pezeshkian but that he had a different opinion "on principle," wording which has since been used by hard-liners to attack the deal, according to the NYT. Accusations, shouting matches follow July strikesFollowing the July strikes, accusations of treason and betrayal, shouting matches, and threats to resign flew, according to Iranian officials.The conflict led Khamenei to appoint Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a politician and former commander-in-chief of the IRGC, to lead the Supreme National Security Council, in the hope that he could mediate between the different factions, the NYT wrote. However, division within the government continues, and Khamenei has been nowhere to be seen.The decision to strike the ships in July was made by spymaster cleric Hossein Taeb, Iranian officials told the NYT, who had opposed the peace deal with the US from he start. Khamenei recently appointed Taeb as the head of the Basij militia. Taeb previously served as chief of IRGC intelligence before the former supreme leader fired him over failures including Israeli infiltration of the IRGC.Taeb played a key role in selecting Mojtaba Khamenei as his father's successor, the NYT wrote. As Iranian officials tried to run damage control, claiming that the attacks on the three ships were a result of rogue operatives while talking to the US, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Oman in order to try to defuse tensions, hard-liners openly attacked the negotiating team on state news networks and at nightly rallies, according to the NYT. Eventually, the Iranian government landed on an official narrative in which the US violated the terms of their agreement first by not stopping Israel's attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and by withholding Iran's frozen assets.However, Iranian politicians, including Pezeshkian, have little faith in the explanation, and when he was told that Khamenei had authorized the attacks, Pezeshkian demanded proof, Iranian officials told the NYT. Conflict over how to move past stalemate with USNow, with the US and Iran in a stalemate, Iran's two factions have been advocating for different methods to break it.Hard-line generals, including Brig. Gen. Seyyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, press for escalating the conflict, presenting a detailed war plan in which Iran and allied groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and armed Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq, would intensify attacks and target regional oil facilities, officials and IRGC methods told the NYT. Pezeshkian and Speaker of Parliament Gen. Mohammad Bagher-Ghalibaf, who led negotiations with the US, warned that the plan risked dragging the country into economic disaster and additional US airstrikes, the NYT wrote. As of last Saturday, the hardliners gained the upper hand, with Iran making the decision to escalate the war, according to the NYT report. Follow us on Google