Ghalibaf and the Paydari Front: Islamic Republic split over ending the war

The rift between the Islamic Republic's factions over ending the war with the United States and the role of the mediators has become more visible. A current within the conservative camp close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Islamic Republic's parliament, wants a negotiated end to the war, but wants to keep its military and economic leverage against the United States, above all the Strait of Hormuz.

On 18 October, the newspaper Khorasan, one of this current's outlets, presented the Strait of Hormuz in several commentaries and an interview as a winning card in the bargaining, without saying how long the Islamic Republic can endure this situation. Ehsan Salehi, an adviser to Ebrahim Raisi, told the same newspaper that the Islamabad understanding should have been presented to the people as a possible achievement, and that officials should not be called traitors without evidence.

Hardliners and doubts about the mediators

On the other side, the Paydari Front and outlets such as Kayhan and Javan oppose any concession to Washington. Sedaye Iran, the online newspaper of Ali Khamenei's office, praised the mediation of Pakistan and Oman but spoke of serious doubts and claimed that the United States is not seeking an agreement. Ali Gholhaki, a media activist close to the principlists, said that Sergei Lavrov and Asim Munir left Tehran empty-handed, and Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of parliament, called one of the mediators, without naming him, part of the enemy's "hybrid war". Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman of the Islamic Republic's foreign ministry, defended continued diplomacy.

Parliament is not the decision-maker

Ghalibaf was re-elected speaker of parliament in the spring with 235 votes, but parliament does not decide on war and peace: the decisions of the Supreme National Security Council require the approval of the Islamic Republic's leader. The rift comes as Asim Munir, Pakistan's army chief, left Tehran after Ghalibaf and Mohsen Rezaei insisted on the Islamic Republic's conditions, and the new plan by Qatar and Pakistan has still not received a clear answer.

The quarrel between the two factions is about how to save the regime, not about the cost that the war and the blockade have imposed on the people of Iran.

Ghalibaf's faction wants to end the war while keeping the Hormuz leverage, and the hardliners call the mediators enemies.