Iran’s current posture in negotiations with the United States is being shaped not only by the talks abroad, but by intense pressure at home from a small but highly influential hardline camp. The article says the conservative Paydari Front, also known as the Steadfastness Front, has helped drive recent protests against the negotiations, while its allies dominate parts of decision-making and the media.
In recent weeks, criticism in Iran has focused on the chief negotiators, parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Some demonstrations, though not large, drew heavy coverage and even featured chants calling for the two men to be killed. The article also cites an appearance by hardline MP Mahmoud Nabavian on Iranian television and the publication of what was presented as a letter from the supreme leader’s inner circle opposing the talks.
The faction’s leading figures include Saadq Mahsuli, a former Revolutionary Guards officer and minister under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, cleric Morteza Tehrani, who chairs the front’s central council, Nabavian, and ultra-conservative MP Amir-Hossein Sabeti. Its wider network includes Saeed Jalili, long associated with Iran’s toughest nuclear negotiating line, who was backed by Paydari networks in the 2024 presidential race and continues to represent Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the Supreme National Security Council.
The group’s ideology centers on hostility to the United States, rejection of compromise with the West, preserving the “purity” of the 1979 revolution, and strict social conservatism. It opposes lighter domestic controls, supports harsh enforcement of hijab rules, and uses state-linked media, including Iranian state television, to amplify its message. Its influence has grown since the 2022 hijab protests, low election turnout, and mass candidate vetting by the Guardian Council narrowed political competition and gave hardliners more room to shape the public debate.
