Tasnim News Warns Against Iran’s “Gorbachev Moment”

While Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked outlets, such as Javan, have welcomed the return of the pragmatic Ali Larijani – an advocate of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and a proponent of negotiations with the United States – to the Supreme National Security Council, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency cautioned against tying the resolution of Iran’s problems to talks with Washington, warning of a potential “Gorbachev moment” for Iran – a reference to Mikhail Gorbachev’s dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

• August 19: Jafar Hassankhani, deputy director of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece Tasnim News Agency’s Strategic Studies Center, wrote: 

• • “After the cessation of the war between Iran and the Zionist regime and the United States, the reformists, who for a long time have not been the driving force of political developments in Iran and, having fallen behind the course of events, have turned into a following sociopolitical force, have begun serious activity … demanding fundamental changes … However, calling for fundamental and structural changes amid crisis and war is neither prudent nor rational.” 

• • “One of the most prominent examples of Iranian politicians who seem to have fallen into a ‘Gorbachev moment’ trap is former President Hassan Rouhani. At the height of the nuclear negotiations, in a speech delivered on June 7, 2015,” Rouhani presented an agreement with the United States as the solution to Iran’s problems.  

• • “Another example was Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, who, along with some cabinet members, at the height of the economic pressures in 2018, explicitly stated: ‘The solution to all problems is negotiations with the United States.’ Although this view faced strong opposition from the revolutionary camp at home, the very emergence of such an idea among senior officials revealed the extent to which a self-demeaning and foreign-oriented mindset had penetrated.” 

• • “It must be emphasized that today’s Iran is not yesterday’s Soviet Union … it is now our duty, with open eyes and lessons drawn from history, to ensure that the ‘Gorbachev moment’ is not repeated in our land. Any politician today who ties the solution of the country’s problems to the White House, or to any foreign power, is in fact treading the same path once taken by Gorbachev.” 

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