Iranian Technocrats Suggest It Is “Time to End Hostilities”

During the presidential debates, as a candidate, President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted “Mr. Trump is a businessman, and we can do business with him.” Iranian technocratic elites appear to agree: Kargozaran Party Secretary-General Hossein Marashi, a confidante of former President Hassan Rouhani’s, wrote an article urging the regime to embrace President-elect Donald J. Trump and end hostilities between Iran and the United States. The article was met with a measured response from one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ main mouthpieces, which called the article an attempt to “theorize surrender.” That Marashi was not accused of treason may indicate the IRGC does not entirely disagree with Marashi regarding outreach to the newly elected U.S. president. 

• November 9: On its front page, technocratic Sazandegi newspaper published an opinion piece by Kargozaran Party Secretary-General Hossein Marashi, which stated: 
  • The American people, “voted for Donald J. Trump because of his promise to bring down inflation and safeguard or increase their welfare. Separately, American Muslims, who were extremely unhappy with the performance of President Joseph Biden on the Palestine issue, voted for Mr. Trump. Now, what about Iran-U.S. relations? We have experienced Trump before … When Mr. Trump decided to impose maximum pressure against Iran, our oil exports were reduced to 200,000 barrels per day. Under Mr. Biden, we managed to increase our exports to 1.5 million barrels per day and achieve a degree of balance in our economy. For this reason alone, there is of course a difference between the Biden administration and the Trump administration.” 
  • “However, there is no reason for us to remain in a permanent state of enmity with a country like the United States. In the past, we could have ceased hostilities. We may not want to establish relations with the Americans and engage in long-term cooperation with them, but there is also no reason to remain in a state of hostility. In the past, and now, in some regards, our positions were close to the positions of the United States. For example, regarding the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party in Iraq, we pursed the same objective. In Iraq, they wanted to establish a government based on popular vote, and so did we: We had Kurdish and Shia friends in Iraq who could reach the majority of the vote, and their influence was in our interest … The same was the case on our eastern borders, where the Americans overthrew the Taliban, and we pursued the same objective. Today, a cease-fire in Palestine and the establishment of a Palestinian state are our common objectives … If Arab Palestinians agree to establish a state, we can recognize them while not recognizing the other state,” referencing Israel. “At any rate, I want to emphasize that we should not think that our interests are always in conflict with the interests of the Americans, and I see no reason why we should remain in a state of hostility with the Americans.” 
  • “Our view of Mr. Trump ought not be one that is one hundred percent negative. After all, he was the only U.S. president who visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to meet the North Korean leader and solve the Korean issue. He did not succeed, but he engaged in the effort.”  
  • “In sum, I don’t think Mr. Trump today is the same person who renounced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the stroke of a pen. We too are not in the same situation as before, when President Hassan Rouhani was faced by an internal opposition that sabotaged his opening toward the United States.”  
• November 10: IRGC mouthpiece Mashregh News criticized Marashi’s article:  
  • “Marashi’s piece does not represent a new plan for changing the region but is a new way of theorizing surrender” to the United States. 

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