After nearly two weeks of repetitive speeches in the Iranian parliament, where most ministers had little to say about their plans, one minister finally made remarks that resonated within the context of Iran's political impasse.
Abbas Salehi, nominated for the position of Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, emphasized the need for “national accord” between the government and the people, calling for a restoration of trust in the government. He was endorsed in parliament on Wednesday, along with others proposed by Pezeshkian.
Addressing President Masoud Pezeshkian’s vaguely defined concept of national accord, Salehi argued that it should be established on two levels: among Iran’s political factions and, more importantly, between the government and the public.
Salehi was alluding to the deepening fragmentation within Iranian society, where trust in the government has eroded due to the regime’s heavy-handed response to public dissent, beginning with the aftermath of the 2009 disputed presidential election and intensifying with the protests that have persisted since 2017, which intensified in 2022.
Additionally, Salehi urged greater attention to the demands of Iranian women, noting that the situation for women in Iran has evolved in recent years and that the government must recognize and adapt to these changes.
However, the government continues to imprison women activists, disregarding their demands. Meanwhile, despite Pezeshkian’s promises to rein in the Morality Police and curb the violence of hijab enforcers, Iranian authorities have aired the forced confession of a woman who was shot and paralyzed by police in northern Iran.
Apart from that, while the government was busy introducing the new ministers to the parliament, the authorities issued scores of death sentences and executed at least eight prisoners on Monday. This was a few days after Iran executed Reza Rasaei, a 34-year-old dissident who was arrested during the 2022 protests.
The new minister warned that the Iranian government must not overlook the demands of women. Salehi emphasized that the government is facing a significant decline in social capital, with research from the past decade highlighting this issue as a serious concern.
He also noted the growing divide between officials and the public, including the estrangement of artists and media activists, whose demands for freedom of speech have been consistently ignored by the government. Whether the new Culture Minister can, or will, take meaningful steps to bridge this divide remains to be seen.
In recent years, officials have lamented that the public's primary sources of news and information have shifted abroad. Meanwhile, media activists have pointed out that hundreds of Iranian journalists have fled the country following nationwide protests and the government's crackdown on press freedom.
Salehi pledged to contribute to fostering national accord, but observers are skeptical. Even if his promise is sincere, decisions about media freedom in Iran’s tightly controlled environment ultimately rest with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Whether Khamenei views increased media freedom as a threat to his government remains highly debatable.
The new minister highlighted that the percentage of Iranians with university degrees has risen from 2% in 1976 to over 20% in 2024, signaling the emergence of a middle class well-versed in critical thinking and culturally connected to the global community. He also noted that Iran now has 1.5 million female university students—a fiftyfold increase since 1976. “We simply cannot ignore that vast number,” he emphasized.
Salehi added, “Women have their own expectations and demands regarding their lifestyle and their individual and social rights, and this must be taken into account in shaping the relationship between the government and society.”
Catherin Perez-Shakdam, a French analyst, Middle East expert, who leads the advocacy group We Believe in Israel, came face-to-face with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei in 2017 after being invited for a private visit by the top leader.
"He was very slow in his movements but it's very calculated," she spoke of Iran's Supreme Leader.
She described her encounter with him as an "out of body" experience where she was advised not to make eye contact with him.
Shakdam said she was asked by the establishment to write for Khamenei's website. That included conducting several interviews, one of them being with George Galloway, a British MP who had previously been criticized for his appearances on Iran-backed Press TV.
In 2022, Fars news website, affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, published a statement to reject reports about Shakdam contributing to the English version of Khamenei’s website. The statement added that Khamenei.ir doesn’t have any columnist and Shakdam has no direct connection with the website.
However, it confirmed that Shakdam sent articles and opinion pieces on issues related to Islam and the Islamic Revolution to the website from about 2015 to 2017 that were published on the site.
How did a French Jew befriend Iran's ruling elite?
It was an encounter that was years in the making as she was groomed into becoming a mouth piece for the Islamic Republic by Nader Talebzadeh, Iran's chief propogandist who has since passed away.
He ensured that Skakdam's rise within Iran's government and IRGC ranks was met with no resistance, believing, she said that he could turn her into a pawn that he could control.
Shakdam first gained attention from the Iranian regime after she wrote an opinion piece for the Yemen Observer, where she criticized U.S. intervention in Iraq. In 2009, she moved to Yemen after marrying a Yemeni man, with whom she had two children. The couple has since divorced.
She said she was asked to appear as a commentator on Iranian state-media channels. She slowly started to get connections, befriending the upper elite, gaining their trust where they began to invite her to Iran on more official visits. She said they thought she could be manipulated to spread their message to Yemen and the western world too.
Once she had her in, she said she became Iran's 'favorite' Yemeni expert, featured on several Iran state media outlets, and was also featured as an Op-ed write from Russia Today (RT). Talebzadeh, she said, was involved.
"I was always very careful to let them lead. If you come up on the invitation of the leadership no one at the airport would ever dare question you."
She also said being a women meant she wasn't seen as a threat.
That led to more meetings with the likes of Qasem Soleimani, a top General, who was killed by a US airstrike in January 2020. He was regarded as a powerful man and even hailed as a hero by IRGC sympathizers.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once called him a “living martyr of the revolution.” In the West, he was viewed as ruthless and was the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, which was deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization by the US and Canada.
She met with Soleimani in Southern Iraq, again under the invitation of Talabzadeh.
Shakdam told Iran International her interaction with him was brief at someone's house in Karbala. He reportedly spoke of his efforts to push ISIS out of some parts of Syria and Iraq.
"It wasn't a very comfortable conversation...he scared me. He was terrifying."
She also met with two of Iran's former presidents.
Her motivation, why do this?
Shakdam says what motivated her was not curiosity, but anger.
Over time, she developed resentment in Yemen as a Jewish woman who wore a hijab and felt that her children's identity was being stripped from them. Shakdam said she felt antisemitism growing inside the country.
She also saw shifts in Yemeni society with a growing influence of the Islamic Republic spreading an ideology she described as a "cancer." Shakdam attributes Iran's perceived infiltration of the country to growing sectarian violence that has led to its downfall.
"I saw it as a form of colonization through indoctrination," she said.
Yemen is the site of civilian suffering amid a civil war. Many analysts say the fighting, which is now more than seven years old, has turned into a proxy war with Iran-backed Houthis, who overthrew the Yemeni government, against a coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
Going undercover in Iran as a sympathizer, she said, helped her understand the threat. Just how effective has it been an thwarting the threat has yet to be determined, but she can at least share her knowledge and her warnings.
"I wanted to establish what is it they [Iran] wanted?"
Speaking about her experiences on Eye for Iran, Shakdam said the Iranian establishment is after Western civilization in a bid to subvert democracy and hijack institutions. She said the nation has already managed to infiltrate Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq - and that it can be done here too.
She said Iran has established networks of influence in the West like in the United Kingdom, which is where she currently resides, through the guise of British education centres, think-tanks and charities.
"Wake up world, " she said "When they [Islamic Republic] say death to American, this is death to democracy."
Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen to it on Apple, Spotify or Amazon.
Zonnour, previously known for his staunch opposition to the agreement, made these remarks just days after the parliament unanimously approved Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet. In his final defense, the new president revealed that the list of ministers had already been pre-approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Zonnur emphasized that the decision on the future of the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, is a collective one, involving various state bodies and officials. "Whether the nuclear deal moves forward or not is a supra-governmental decision," he said. "It's not up to one individual or one institution, but rather a collective decision involving bodies like the Supreme National Security Council and the heads of the three branches of government."
However, the decision about the revival of the nuclear deal has always been a collective one. This didn't stop Zonnour, who was the chairman of the parliament's Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy, from previously calling for the execution of then-President Hassan Rouhani during his term when the JCPOA was signed.
Zonnour also stated that he would support whatever decision the Islamic regime makes—whether it’s to continue negotiations, halt them, or revive the nuclear deal. This significant departure from his previous stance has raised eyebrows among observers, sparking speculation about the reasons behind his apparent change of heart.
The lawmaker's comments come amid increasing speculation about a potential shift in Iran's foreign policy. Some analysts suggest that Zonnour's reversal could signal a broader consensus within the Iranian establishment, leaning toward a more flexible approach to nuclear negotiations and possibly even toward the West.
In an unprecedented development earlier in the day, the chairman of Iran National Development Fund called on Pezeshkian to re-establish US consular services at the venue of former American embassy in Tehran.
"Now that all the pillars of the regime are supporting you and your government, please, if you see fit, implement a few tasks that have been left unfinished for many years. It might be better to do these before the honeymoon period ends," said Mehdi Ghazanfari, appointed by former hardline president Ebrahim Raisi.
While nothing is certain, it appears that hardliners may be aligning themselves with the broader consensus within the regime, especially after Pezeshkian confirmed publicly that Khamenei is behind the main decisions in his administration.
Amid swirling rumors of a shift in Iran's foreign policy, the world still holds its breath against the backdrop of a high-stakes diplomatic game to prevent any escalation in the Middle East.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday said he had spoken with his Israeli counterpart to discuss a range of issues in the region, including the ongoing exchanges of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border.
In a post on X, Austin said he also discussed the risk of escalation from Iran and Iran-backed groups in the call on Thursday and told Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant that the United States is well postured across the region.
The dialogue happened a few hours after US Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh emphasized on the US significant military buildup in the region, trying to portray it as a stark warning to Iran that any aggression would be met with unwavering force.
Houthi-affiliated media outlets reported Friday two US-British airstrikes on the Iran-backed group's positions west of Taiz governorate, southwest of Yemen.
Despite all this, Iran's new Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in conversations with French and British counterparts, stressed Tehran’s right to retaliate against the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.