Iran’s government is talking to state TV as allies push for talks with the US US-Israel War on Iran News

Tehran, Iran A public spat has erupted between Iran’s government and state television over how to present the war and negotiate with the United States, as the two sides try to destabilize both countries. to diplomacy.

The government’s Information Council on Friday accused state broadcaster IRIB of “investigating” after parts of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech earlier in the week were not shown to the public.

The broadcaster, whose head is appointed by the head of state, responded on Saturday rejecting the “accusations and inappropriate” of the government, stressing that it is responsible for preventing “the wrong and incorrect idea of ​​doubling in the pillars of the country’s leadership”.

In his speech, Pezeshkian said that after last year The 12-day war with IsraelFormer Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly said there will be no talks with Washington – but has privately given his approval.

“We went to the beloved leader, and explained to him the situation, and we asked him what to do since he said that ‘no war, no peace’ is bad in this country,” said the president. He ordered us to go and discuss.

The government said in a statement that the move was part of an “unusual” move by state television regarding recent comments by government leaders, parliament and the courts.

He said that earlier this month, the session of parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the state-run television channel were also cut. The state council added that part of a speech earlier this week by the head of the judiciary Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei was not broadcast, where he expressed his support for the president.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also separately criticized the IRIB, saying in an interview with a government-linked site released on Saturday that he “fought with a sword” in interviews with US media such as Fox, CNN and others. The ambassador said he hoped state television would show how strongly the Iran issue was being presented to US audiences and policymakers, but only one or two words from the interview came out.

Araghchi also rejected the idea put forward by the hardliners that the ceasefire memorandum signed by the US last month was “imposed” on the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, as some hardliners say. He considered it the best deal under the circumstances.

In its own statement, the government blamed the incident on “an inner political group” on state television, citing Paydari Front of ultrahardlinersand said that their actions could affect national security and social cohesion.

IRIB, in a statement issued by its public relations department, argued that airing the President’s session would have created divisiveness.

The two groups accused each other of violating the order issued last week by Mojtaba Khamenei to reach “sacred unity” in the face of military, economic and diplomatic pressure from the US.

Mohammad Mirzaei, a member of parliament and spokesman for the committee that oversees IRIB, said on Saturday that state broadcasters have been warned about the need to show diversity and act as a “symbol of national unity”.

Conservative journalist Mohammad Mohajeri told local media that the broadcaster is now too expensive and inefficient. Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, who is a reformist, described the main problem as “one government is established and another government called IRIB is working against it”.

Reformist newspaper Entekhab reported, citing an anonymous source, that Pezeshkian strongly criticized IRIB director Peyman Jebeli at a cabinet meeting after a dispute during the talks. Jebeli, who was appointed by Ali Khamenei in 2021, was deputy press secretary at the Supreme National Security Council while Saeed Jalili, the only member of the council who said he voted against a long-term deal with the US last month, was his secretary.

Hardline lawmaker Meysam Zohourian said the president threatened to cut the television budget, but the administration did not confirm this.

As the conflict unfolded, mediators from Oman were in Tehran on Friday to discuss the management of the Strait of Hormuz, an important waterway whose sovereignty has been successful. in the middle of an argument between the US and Iran.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Friday that the war is “going very well” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington in the coming days.

He said that the two sides continued to discuss through negotiations, but he did not expect to reach an agreement in the near future.

The US president also refused to comment on whether his threats to launch a systematic attack on factories and bridges in Iran if the war escalated would amount to war crimes.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, responded on Saturday by saying that the airstrikes and drones across the region will continue “until the enemy surrenders completely” and avenge the blood of civilians killed in the war.