Fault lines within the complex power-sharing structure of Iran became apparent when President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Saturday apology to neighbours in the Middle East started drawing sharp criticism from hardliners within the Iranian regime amid the raging armed conflict in the region.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Mohseni-Ejei, a hardline member of the three-man temporary leadership council that also includes the president, said the territory of some regional countries was being used, openly and secretly, for attacks against the country, and retaliatory strikes would continue.
“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” he posted on X.
Pezeshkian’s statement also appeared to anger a key Iranian official with past association with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“As long as the presence of US bases in the region continue, the countries will not enjoy peace,” Iran’s Parliament speaker and a former Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X.
Meanwhile, Hamid Rasai, a hardline cleric and Iranian lawmaker, wrote on X, “Mr Pezeshkian, your stance was unprofessional, weak and unacceptable,” referring to the statement that the presidential office partially amended following the domestic stir.
In his original statement, Pezeshkian, in a televised address, had said, “I apologise to the neighbouring countries. We have no intention of invading other countries.” The public statement said Iran’s leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.
“From now on, they should not attack neighbouring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy,” he said.
Pezeshkian also dismissed US President Donald Trump’s demand for the Islamic Republic’s unconditional surrender as “a dream”.
However, despite the anti-American posturing, backlash from hardliners over the apology ostensibly prompted his office to reiterate Iran’s military would respond firmly to attacks from US bases in the region.
The Iranian president even left out the apology part while repeating his statement on social media later.
Hours after Pezeshkian’s original announcement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed their drones struck a US air combat centre at Al Dhafra Air Base, near UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi.
The Revolutionary Guards also targeted US forces at a base in Bahrain, Iranian state media said. Blasts were also heard in Doha, a witness cited by news agency Reuters said.
The IRGC controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries. It answered only to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the joint US-Israeli strike on Tehran in late February.
The paramilitary force now appears to be picking its own targets, the Associated Press noted.
Iran’s UN mission later suggested, without substantiating the claim, that strikes on non-military sites “may have resulted from interception by US electronic defence systems”, according to AP.
(With inputs from agencies)
