As negotiations between the United States and Iran enter a critical stage, a small but influential hardline faction has intensified efforts to sabotage a potential deal with Washington, fuelling President Donald Trump’s claims of divisions within the Islamic Republic.
The group shares Trump’s view that the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was a mistake – but for different reasons. Its positions are so hostile to the West, even by the standards of Iran’s conservative hardliners, that the regime’s efforts to appease it have so far failed.
And as the Islamic Republic’s new leaders project unity in the face of the gravest existential threat the regime has faced, the ultra-hardline group has ramped up efforts across the media, in parliament and on the streets to advocate against an agreement with the US, arguing that only by defeating Washington can Iran secure a favorable deal.
Known as “Jebhe-ye Paydari” – or the Endurance Front – its members are often described by observers as “Super Revolutionaries” who view themselves as guardians of the values of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-Western Shah before imposing an authoritarian regime rooted in Shia Islamist ideology.
“They view resistance against the United States and Israel as an eternal fight,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told CNN. “They believe in a Shia state that needs to continue until the end of times and are quite fanatic when it comes to that religious ideology.”
The group’s emergence as one of the loudest forces against a rapprochement with the US over the past two months offers a glimpse into the power struggles shaping post-Ali Khamenei Iran after the former supreme leader was killed in late February, on the first day of the war. With Tehran engaged in high-stakes peace negotiations, the outcome could determine which faction prevails in the next phase of the Islamic Republic.
Over the past month, Iranian officials have tried to carefully balance negotiations with Trump while appeasing powerful factions across the country’s diverse political landscape, including the Paydari group. Inclusion of the group’s members in talks with American negotiators in Pakistan last month suggested Tehran was seeking to show internal cohesion.
Still, the group has grown increasingly vocal at home in its criticism of the negotiators, and experts say that is what prompted Trump to describe Iran’s leadership as “fractured” and in “disarray” last month.
Iran’s leaders, including new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, have issued statements projecting unity after Trump’s claim, but the hardline group has continued sowing division, accusing negotiators of disloyalty to the Islamic Republic and insubordination to Khamenei’s red lines in negotiations, including any discussion about Iran’s nuclear program.
Many within the group view even considering a deal with the US as capitulation.
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