US sees growing support inside Iran for pact

Washington, June 13 (IANS) The Trump administration believes Iran’s political and military leadership is moving towards consensus on a proposed nuclear agreement with the United States, despite resistance from some hardliners, a senior administration official said Friday.

The assessment offers a rare glimpse into how Washington views internal decision-making in Tehran as negotiators move closer to a deal that officials say could be signed within days.

A senior administration official told reporters that the administration has seen growing evidence that key centres of power inside Iran support the proposed agreement.

“Most of the people that we’ve been speaking to, and most of the people who have authority within their system, want to sign this deal,” the official said.

The official cautioned, however, that Iran’s political system remains complex and that internal disagreements have not entirely disappeared.

“Not everybody” supports the agreement, the official said, adding that “those internal fractures are sort of working themselves out as they continue to try to get to a point where they can say yes to the deal.”

The comments came as the administration said confidence in reaching an agreement had risen significantly in recent days.

According to the official, negotiations have progressed from broad discussions and verbal understandings to a stage where both sides are working from a text that has received substantial support within their respective systems.

“We actually have a text of an MOU that I think both sides feel good about,” the official said.

One of the key questions raised during the briefing concerned the position of Iran’s Supreme Leader, whose approval is widely viewed as essential for any major national security decision.

Asked whether the Supreme Leader had signed off on the agreement, the official stopped short of offering a definitive confirmation but indicated that US interlocutors had received encouraging signals.

“Both on the civilian and military side, both of whom have attested that the Supreme Leader is comfortable with where we are in the negotiation,” the official said.

At the same time, the official acknowledged the limits of Washington’s visibility into internal Iranian deliberations.

“Obviously, in their system, they can’t do anything without the sign off of the Supreme Leader,” the official said.

The administration also rejected suggestions that opposition from hardliners or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could derail the process.

While acknowledging that some factions have expressed concerns, the official argued that broader support now outweighs resistance.

“What we do also see is a broad consensus in the IRGC, among the hardliners, among the civilian leadership, that this is a good and acceptable deal,” the official said.

“We actually feel quite confident that there is consensus within the system.”

The official said some critics inside Iran appear to believe the agreement does not provide enough benefits to Tehran, rather than objecting to the negotiations themselves.

“There are some people within their system who don’t love this deal,” the official said.

Nevertheless, the administration’s assessment is that dissent remains limited and unlikely to prevent a final agreement if negotiations continue on their current trajectory.

The official also argued that recent diplomatic engagement has helped build channels of communication that did not previously exist between the two governments.

Reflecting on talks held in Islamabad earlier this year, the official rejected suggestions that the meetings had failed to produce results.

“They were designed to introduce the highest levels of the Iranian government to the highest levels of the US government,” the official said.

The discussions, according to the administration, helped establish working relationships and clarify negotiating positions after decades of hostility.

“We wanted to get in the room, we wanted to figure out what the main issues were, we wanted to get a sense of where they were,” the official said.

–IANS

lkj/dan