Divisions within Iran's leadership weigh on talks with the US

D onald Trump is likely unaware that he faces the same challenge Barack Obama did in 2015 when he sought to reach an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Divisions within Iran's leadership continue to weigh on talks with the United States, further complicating negotiations already undermined by a total lack of mutual trust. The very nature of the Iranian regime exacerbates these factional struggles. Established in 1979, the Islamic Republic was built on a dyarchy: the theocratic authority of the supreme leader on one side and the elected authority of the president on the other. Although the president's authority is confirmed by a highly constrained form of universal suffrage, it remains subordinate to the supreme leader's clerical authority. The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, served as its first supreme leader until his death in 1989. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei succeeded him. In 2015, Obama skillfully brought in the European Union, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as Russia and China, to join the painstaking nuclear negotiations with Iran . This multilateral framework prevented the US from being isolated in face-to-face discussions with an Islamic Republic fueled by anti-American sentiment since its inception. It also allowed then Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister and signatory of the agreement, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to neutralize criticism from regime hardliners. American amateurism Through this approach, the White House managed to impose unprecedented constraints on Iran's nuclear program, despite opposition from Khamenei and a significant portion of the Revolutionary Guards. These restrictions lasted for three years, until Trump torpedoed the 2018 agreement. Iranian hawks, relieved to be freed from the constraints of the international deal, went on the offensive against US bases in Iraq starting in 2020. When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he was forced to acknowledge that sanctions had not neutralized the Islamic Republic's capacity for disruption. He nevertheless rejected any multilateral approach and focused instead on direct negotiations between the US and Iran, under Omani diplomatic auspices , in April 2025 and again in February 2026. Despite initial promise, the talks were undermined by the amateurism of the American envoys: Steve Witkoff , Trump's golf partner, accompanied by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law. You have 48.27% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.