In shift, Iran's IRGC backs nuclear talks as Araghchi courts US investment
Iran’s previously anti-engagement camp, which relentlessly dismissed talks with the US as “humiliating,” has pivoted and is demonstrating alignment with the negotiating team after Khamenei’s U-turn toward diplomacy.
TEHRAN — Iran's hard-line figures and institutions, most notably the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, appear to be shifting rhetoric with a more positive approach toward the ongoing Iran-US nuclear talks.
The diplomatic initiative on the Iranian side is being led by the administration of moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian, with approval from the conservative Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The reassessment of the IRGC's official line was revealed in a Tuesday interview published by the ILNA news agency with Khamenei aide Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanaei-Rad, who also serves as political deputy in Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office.
The general, who has been a prominent figure in articulating the IRGC's ideology and positions on key domestic and regional matters, underscored the alignment between Iran's diplomatic efforts and its defense posture. "The battlefield backs diplomacy," he said, referring to the nuclear negotiators as Iran's "political soldiers" and "assets of the Islamic Republic."
