BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, October 7, 2025, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
As the world cautiously welcomes a ceasefire in Gaza and hopes for an end to months of bloodshed, Iran’s clerical regime stands defiantly apart. While nations call for calm, Tehran denounces peace itself as a “devilish plot.”
On October 3rd, from the Friday pulpit in Tehran, Ahmad Khatami, a regime’s influential voice, branded the U.S. peace plan as satanic politics, urging rejection and mocking international pressure. Another representative of Ali Khamenei warned Gazans not to trust the ceasefire, comparing it to Iran’s own nuclear deal, the JCPOA, which he claimed the West betrayed.
Just days later, Tehran’s actions matched its words. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the Cairo agreement with the IAEA obsolete after the snapback sanctions. Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker and former IRGC commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf openly admitted to past missile transfers to Lebanon, framing them as vital for regime survival.
And while Tehran officials speak of dialogue, they draw red lines around their missiles. Former negotiator Ali Larijani and a confidant of Khamenei recently admitted that Western diplomats asked Iran to curb long-range weapons. His response? A warning that Tehran will never give up its “only defensive factor.”
This is the regime’s two-language strategy: sermons at home glorify defiance, while diplomats abroad stage negotiation theater, appearing flexible but never conceding what truly matters to their survival: weapons, proxies, and perpetual conflict and terror abroad and killings inside Iran.
In contrast, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, welcoming the prospect of a ceasefire and an end to the war in the region, reiterated that as long as Khamenei remains in power, he will not cease obstructing peace or fueling war and chaos.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that the Iranian regime has exploited the issue of Palestine more than any other party over the past 45 years, which has prolonged and intensified the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The truth is simple. Peace, for Tehran, is not just undesirable, For a regime built on chaos, real peace is a threat as it empowers a nation already demanding freedom and accountability.