{"id":211856,"date":"2026-05-27T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/deep-suspicion-of-us-lingers-as-iran-ponders-agreement-to-end-war-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:38:10","slug":"deep-suspicion-of-us-lingers-as-iran-ponders-agreement-to-end-war-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/deep-suspicion-of-us-lingers-as-iran-ponders-agreement-to-end-war-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deep suspicion\u2019 of US lingers as Iran ponders agreement to end war – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iranian officials said the latest US strikes only validated their scepticism and resolve to stand firm on demands.<\/em>
Save
Share
Tehran, Iran \u2013<\/strong> \u201cThe fundamental principle is distrust towards America\u201d \u2013 this is how senior lawmaker Abbas Moghtadaei described the situation to state television on Tuesday afternoon.
It came after an Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, returned to Tehran from Qatar amid efforts to reach an understanding with the United States on ending the nearly three-month-long war on the country.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Washington of committing a \u201cblatant violation\u201d of the shaky ceasefire reached on April 8 by attacking the southern province of Hormozgan on Monday night. It added that the strikes validated the \u201cdeep suspicion\u201d Iran harboured towards the US.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iranian armed forces fired back and shot down a US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, using a domestically-made air defence system called Arash-e Kamangir<\/a> \u2013 named after a hero in Persian mythology. State television aired footage of the remains of a downed drone.
The US military said it was hitting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to lay sea mines in a \u201cdefensive\u201d move, but IRGC commanders said they have the right to retaliate.
On Tuesday afternoon, a tanker reported an external explosion and fuel leak some 60 nautical miles (about 111 kilometres) east of Oman\u2019s capital city Muscat, according to British maritime intelligence. Iranian officials did not comment on the incident.
The escalation comes as the two sides try to hammer out the final details of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoM) that could potentially facilitate increased transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which has largely frozen since the US and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran on February 28.
The deal would also grant Iran access to some of its own overseas funds that have been frozen due to US sanctions and offer a pathway for a future agreement<\/a> over the country\u2019s nuclear programme.
Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po\u2019s Center for International Research, said many in the Iranian leadership appear concerned that an agreement could simply provide operational pause, intelligence access or political cover before the US and Israel launch another round of large-scale attacks on the country.
\u201cFor the deal to be politically sellable internally, Tehran likely needs to frame it not as capitulation under military pressure but as a managed stabilisation that preserved core sovereign red lines,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.
\u201cThat probably means maintaining some form of enrichment capability for now, avoiding immediate surrender of the stockpile, securing meaningful sanctions or asset relief, and preserving regional deterrence structures, at least formally outside the agreement.\u201d
From relatively moderate Iranian politicians in the government to the most hardline military-security factions, all have pledged that the Islamic Republic will not accede to a deal that amounts to \u201csurrender\u201d.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television earlier this week that he wants to assure the international community \u201cwe are not after nuclear weapons, we are not after insecurity in the region\u201d.
But Majid Mousavi, the influential aerospace commander of the IRGC, wrote in a post on X, in reference to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: \u201cAs our martyred imam said, negotiating with the enemy is pure loss.\u201d
Mousavi said he would follow the orders of the country\u2019s new supreme leader, Khamenei\u2019s son Mojtaba, who said in a message to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday, that \u201cnations and territories of the region will no longer be the shield of American bases\u201d. He also predicted that Israel would no longer exist in 15 years\u2019 time, as foreshadowed by his slain father.
Ali Abdollahi, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and a leading figure in the war, made a first public appearance on Monday to urge the Iranian armed forces to make the \u201cdefeat\u201d of the enemy a priority.
\u201cThe Americans talk too much and keep changing their story in a moment. We\u2019ve said many times that we will show on the battlefield what we are capable of,\u201d he told state television on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran to commemorate Iranian leaders killed during the war.<\/p>\n

In his first public message as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, released on Monday, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a top IRGC general, pledged, \u201cthere will be no retreat\u201d.
IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi has also expressed readiness to resume military confrontations with the US if necessary.
Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said decision-makers in Tehran are not just concerned about a \u2018bad deal\u2019 but also one that could force Iran to give up key leverage in the event of future disputes.
\u201cHardliners are especially alarmed by any discussion involving Hormuz, sanctions sequencing or nuclear concessions because they increasingly view coercive leverage, especially maritime pressure, as Iran\u2019s main post-war bargaining asset,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. That is why the debate inside Tehran has shifted from \u2018should we negotiate?\u2019 to \u2018what exactly are we giving up?\u201d he told Al Jazeera.
For a deal to succeed, the Iranian leadership will need to believe that some sanctions relief will be tangible and fast, he added.
Iran will also seek to preserve enough of a deterrence mechanism and symbolic dignity to avoid looking defeated, and ensure that the agreement prevents another war from breaking out in the future.
But as it stands \u2013 and there is scant information on it \u2013 Vatanka said the emerging memorandum \u201clooks less like a historic peace settlement and more like a ceasefire-management mechanism designed to buy time, reduce immediate war risks, reopen parts of Hormuz, and defer the hardest nuclear questions into later rounds\u201d. This would mean lingering suspicion and uncertainty would persist.
Iranian state media pundits have also claimed that senior Iranian figures would be vulnerable to assassination if military operations resume.
\u201cIf the US, at any point during the current agreement talks, gains access to our supreme leader, it will strike without any consideration for its other interests or consideration for intermediaries like Pakistan and Qatar,\u201d Nima Akbarkhani, an IRGC-linked pundit, said on state television on Tuesday.
Ali Samadzadeh, another state-linked analyst, claimed the emerging US-Iranian agreement could even be a \u201choneypot\u201d scheme to draw out leaders.
According to US media outlets, Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard from in public since the start of the war, except for written messages attributed to him, is hiding in an undisclosed secure location where even many government officials have no access to him. US officials have said this has slowed the process of talks.
Sciences Po\u2019s Grajewski said over the next few days, the key issue for the Islamic Republic will be securing internal approval. Hardline factions will also scrutinise any concessions made to the US, even those made as part of a crisis-management memorandum that leaves more difficult issues to be faced at a later date.
\u201cSo, the realistic outcome in the near term is probably an unstable interim arrangement rather than a comprehensive settlement,\u201d she said.
\u201cWhether it evolves into something more durable depends almost entirely on whether the follow-on nuclear negotiations produce concrete mechanisms both sides can live with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian officials said the latest US strikes only validated their scepticism and resolve to stand firm on demands.SaveShareTehran, Iran \u2013 \u201cThe fundamental principle is distrust towards America\u201d \u2013 this is how senior lawmaker Abbas Moghtadaei described the situation to state television on Tuesday afternoon.It came after an Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}