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Hard-liners in Iran turned out in full force at the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month. Many called for revenge, angry at the Iranian government for entering ceasefire talks with the U.S. Now, those talks have since broken down, and there is debate about how much clout these hard-liners carry. But as NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi reports, they are useful to the current regime.
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HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: In a video posted online, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who had been leading ceasefire talks with the U.S., is jostled in a mob of people all dressed in black.
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AL-SHALCHI: "Death to the compromiser, death to the compromiser," they shout at him. They're mourners at the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on the first day of the war. Some carry signs reading Kill Trump and wave red flags that symbolize their calls.
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AL-SHALCHI: The cry goes, "revenge, revenge." These ultra hard-liners want the Iranian regime to continue fighting the United States. They were shaming Araghch for engaging in ceasefire talks. In another video, mourners gather around hard-line politician Saeed Jalili, who has been vehemently anti-U.S.
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AL-SHALCHI: "Jalili, you are our only hope," one woman shouts at him. Another clip shows Hossein Shariatmadari, an ultraconservative author, proposing a condition to any ceasefire.
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AL-SHALCHI: "One of our demands is the arrest of President Trump," he says.
Ali Vaez is the Iran project director at International Crisis Group. He says many of these people became further radicalized after the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran started. And while some of their rhetoric is anti-regime, current Iranian leaders need them to survive.
ALI VAEZ: These are the people who are willing to come to the streets and fight with any internal opponents to ensure the regime's survival. At the same time, they are also creating a very toxic environment internally for diplomacy.
AL-SHALCHI: In June, the U.S. and Iran had signed a memorandum of understanding that would have limited Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and talks to end the war permanently. But the fragile deal quickly unraveled after the U.S. and Iran began trading strikes in July, and Trump declared the ceasefire over. Vaez says the preliminary agreement would have also been bad for some of those who gain financially from keeping Iran at war.
VAEZ: There have been an entire class often associated and affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards who've been enriched through creating channels for circumventing U.S. sanctions. So they manage the black market, and they don't want economic reopening of the country.
AL-SHALCHI: Under the agreement, Iran would have been allowed to sell oil on the international market, making black market transactions less lucrative.
VAEZ: If you imagine the commission that these people would get from those transactions, all of that could have evaporated if this MOU would have been fully implemented.
AL-SHALCHI: But Vaez says that while hard-liners are pivotal to keeping the current Iranian regime alive, they don't call the shots. He says Iran is ruled by a group of decision-makers who are connected to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which doesn't include many of these hard-liners. Those decision-makers had the same strategic objectives, give Iran an economic reprieve and regroup for future conflicts.
VAEZ: Yes, there are lots of debates and differences. But that doesn't really affect the policymakers because they hold the power, and there's no one really outside of that realm who can challenge them.
AL-SHALCHI: While hard-liners may not move the needle of diplomacy, they are loud, and the regime tolerates and fuels their message. In a rare address last week by the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and current Iranian leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei called for revenge. A news anchor read his statement on Iranian state TV.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "We pledge to take revenge for your pure blood and all the martyrs of these two wars," he said.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "This revenge is the will of our nation and must be carried out without fail," he said.
Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Istanbul.
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