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Deleted remarks spark rift
Iran’s government and state broadcaster IRIB reignited a years-long confrontation after parts of President Masoud Bezhkian’s remarks about how Iran decided to resume negotiations with the United States were deleted from the version aired on state television.
Bezhkian said, "He instructed us to go to negotiations," describing a closed-door meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after the "12-day war" and adding that opening the door to talks does not mean concessions.
The president’s office complained that the clip had been removed from the version aired by official television, and IRIB offered no public explanation for why that portion was removed.
The dispute was framed by both sides as a struggle over who controls the official narrative, with the Government Media Council accusing IRIB of censorship and selective handling of senior officials’ positions.
In parallel, Al Jazeera reported that the clip’s importance lay in its political implication, shifting negotiations from a private option to a path taken with the approval of the highest authority in the system.
Officials trade accusations
The Government Media Council accused IRIB of censorship after a segment of Bezhkian’s speech on July 21 was not shown, and Al Jazeera described the dispute as an open confrontation over Iran’s official narrative.
Bezhkian’s account, as presented in the full version of the speech, was that officials went to Ali Khamenei, explained the harms of the "no war, no peace" stance, and he ordered them to go to negotiations, so the talks began based on his directive.
In the same dispute, the Government Media Council linked the Bezhkian deletion to two previous cases involving Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi separately criticized state television.
Al Jazeera also reported that the Foreign Minister said he "fought with a sword" in wartime interviews with US media such as Fox and CNN, and he expected state television to show how Iran’s case was being presented to US audiences.
IRIB rejected the government’s accusations, emphasizing its duty to prevent "an incorrect and unreal suggestion of duality" in the country’s leadership pillars.
Mediators push diplomacy
As the government and IRIB sparred over how to portray negotiations, mediators from Oman were in Tehran on Friday to discuss the management of the Strait of Hormuz, described as a vital waterway whose control has become a central point of contention between the US and Iran.
“Tehran, Iran – A public rift has emerged between Iran’s government and state television over how to portray the state of war and negotiations with the United States, as mediators try to nudge both countries towards diplomacy”
Al Jazeera reported that the rift unfolded while mediators tried to nudge both countries towards diplomacy, and it placed the dispute inside a broader struggle over how the state frames war and negotiations with the United States.
The same report said US President Donald Trump argued on Friday the war was going “extremely well” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington in the coming days.
Trump also said the two sides continued to talk through mediators, but that he did not expect any agreement soon, and he refused to answer whether his threat of attacking power plants and bridges in Iran would constitute war crimes.
Within Iran’s system, the dispute was tied to claims that a political faction within state television was undermining national security and social cohesion, while IRIB countered that broadcasting the president’s segment would have propagated an appearance of division.
