There are murmurs in Tehran that the pressure on the moderate nuclear negotiation team is rising. A hard-line figure has admitted in an interview with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that his like-minded friends have made a string of targeted attacks against foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif and his team.

The figure, a graduate of Imam Sadeq University, which specializes in training future managers of the Islamic establishment, told Al-Monitor that he had said in a private meeting with other hard-liners that "they are stepping up pressure” over concerns that Americans are wasting time in the negotiations.

Pressure on Zarif is nothing new, but it intensified after the veteran diplomat went for a stroll Jan. 14 with US Secretary of State John Kerry during intense nuclear negotiations in Geneva, aimed at reaching a settlement of the 12-year nuclear dispute.

The moderate minister is now accused at home of "too much" compromise and ignoring the "ideals of the Islamic revolution" during his talks with the the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.