For days, both Iranian and US officials were signaling that some level of interaction between the two sides would take place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
So, it came as little surprise when news broke that White House Special Representative Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had met on September 22.
But that did not stop hard-liners inside Iran from railing against the government of Masud Pezeshkian, with some going as far as demanding impeachment proceedings.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) appeared to endorse talks hours before the meeting was made public, with an IRGC spokesman telling state television that negotiating “is another facet of war” and that talks can be held “if the interests of the country so require.”
On social media, hard-liners took the government to task for agreeing to sit down with the Americans to end the nearly seven-month long war.
Some called for impeachment proceedings to be launched though they were not clear if they wanted Araqchi or Pezeshkian out of office. One user charged that the meeting was “an even bigger mistake” than Pezeshkian traveling to the US for the UN General Assembly.
“If anyone’s met and negotiated with the Americans, they better stay there. [Iran] is a country for honorable people,” wrote Vahid Azizi, an economist and former official at the Iranian National Tax Administration under hard-line late president Ebrahim Raisi.
Hard-line commentator Mohsen Maqsudi said it was “sheer stupidity” to negotiate with Washington while “under threat” and cause a drop in oil prices. Tehran has been hoping that the rise in fuel costs will pressure Trump into ending the war.
During his speech at the UN, Trump said he would either strike a deal with Iran or “annihilate” it.
The precise details of the talks, which Witkoff said were carried out through mediators, have not been made public. Witkoff said he hoped the talks “will prove constructive and promising” while Iranian media said Tehran conveyed its conditions for the reopening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the assembly on September 23, which marks the beginning of the school year in Iran. Hard-liners have been calling on the Iranian president to use the occasion to highlight the bombing of a girl’s school in Minab on the first day of the war on February 28.
