Iran's political elite is fracturing again, three weeks into a fragile ceasefire with the US and Israel. Hardline politicians close to the influential Paydari faction are openly attacking parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf for leading talks with US vice-president JD Vance in Pakistan earlier in April. Their core demand: that Iran's nuclear programme not be on the table, and that the new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — who has not been seen in public since the war started on 28 February, reportedly injured in the strike that killed his father Ali Khamenei — be obeyed strictly.
A Monday vote saw 261 of 290 MPs sign a statement supporting Ghalibaf and the negotiators, but key Paydari members were absent. A second round of talks scheduled for Pakistan over the weekend collapsed when Iran insisted the US first lift its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, after which President Donald Trump cancelled the US delegation's trip and tweeted there was "tremendous infighting" inside Iran's leadership. Tehran's official line is unity: Ghalibaf, reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian and the judiciary chief jointly stated on X that "in our Iran, there are no hardliners or moderates".
Iran's red lines have not moved: the US must lift its blockade, Iran retains the right to charge Strait of Hormuz transit fees, the right to enrich uranium, and refuses to transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to the US. The first round of talks drew a 70-strong Iranian delegation, suggesting genuine cross-faction coordination. But foreign diplomats note that Khamenei's hiding makes operational decision-making slow, and reformists fear hardliners will reignite open war if talks stall. Source: Financial Times, 28 April 2026, Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Andrew England.