{"id":758,"date":"2026-06-20T14:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758"},"modified":"2026-06-20T14:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:39:29","slug":"iran-got-a-great-deal-that-it-could-still-squander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran appears to have ended the war on terms favorable to the Islamic Republic. It releases frozen Iranian assets, relaxes restrictions on Iranian oil sales, and lifts the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz\u2014in exchange for Iran ending its closure of the waterway. In other words, Iran receives things it didn\u2019t have before the war in exchange for giving up something it wasn\u2019t doing before the war.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Second Gamble on Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

But as good as these terms might look for Iran, they\u2019ve still proved controversial within the Islamic Republic. In the days before the agreement, a loud coterie of hard-liners threw everything it had against the deal. A member of Parliament from Tehran said that signing the deal would make Iran \u201ca colony of the United States.\u201d Hard-line demonstrators wished \u201cdeath\u201d on the two men who led the talks with the U.S.: Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Parliament, and Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister (respectively tagged as \u201cthe compromiser\u201d and \u201cthe dishonorable\u201d).<\/p>\n

Hard-liners oppose the memorandum of understanding because they see any deal with the United States as normalizing contact with the Great Satan. They also fear an end to international sanctions: If Iran is no longer alone and under siege, what will become of its anti-Western ideology?<\/p>\n

Yet the deal went ahead because it had the support of most of Iran\u2019s military and political leaders. About a dozen men sit on the National Security Council, the body that effectively runs Iran these days. Of them, reportedly only one opposed the deal, and this was likely Saeed Jalili, the former nuclear negotiator and unofficial leader of the ultra-hard-line faction. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have put its institutional weight behind agreement. Esmail Qaani, the head of IRGC\u2019s external-operations wing, known as the Quds Force, went on state television to back it: \u201cThe negotiating team are no different than our boys working at the missile launchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The memorandum is seen as a victory for Qalibaf, Araghchi, and the man who actually signed it for Iran, the reformist President Masud Pezeshkian. The pro-diplomacy coalition includes reformist forces, such as the Unity of the Nation Party, which asked for the deal to be followed by \u201crestorative justice\u201d for the regime\u2019s killing of protesters in January and an expansion of rights and freedoms. Two pro-reform former presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, have also backed the deal.<\/p>\n

But the Iranian regime has a long history of tug-of-war between two broad camps: the developmentalists, who are ready to move on from the Islamic Republic\u2019s founding ideology in the name of economic progress, and the ideologues, who remain committed to anti-Americanism and the quest to destroy Israel. The struggle goes back to the 1990s, and the developmentalists have lost most rounds, not least because Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader for 37 years, sided with the ideologues. Khamenei sometimes green-lighted diplomacy with the West to gain economic relief, but he firmly opposed normalizing ties with the U.S. or holding high-level talks with Americans.<\/p>\n

Read more The Eternal Allure of the Rabbit Hole<\/a><\/p>\n

His son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, is rhetorically committed to the same unforgiving worldview as his father was. In a message endorsing the deal, he said that he was \u201cfundamentally of another opinion\u201d but had been swayed by Pezeshkian\u2019s guarantees. By signaling that the deal was not his preference, the leader empowered hard-liners to oppose it. But in this message, Mojtaba also approved face-to-face meetings with Americans, in a sharp departure from his father.<\/p>\n

These dynamics among regime insiders matter because the tougher diplomatic task still lies ahead. The memorandum of understanding gives the U.S. and Iran 60 days to hash out a nuclear deal. This is the broader diplomatic arrangement that could lead to sanctions relief and be an economic game changer for Iran. (The memorandum of understanding has already proved beneficial in this regard: A U.S. dollar now sells for 1.56 million Iranian rials, down from 1.75 million last week.)<\/p>\n

But we\u2019ve been here several times before. In the 1990s, President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the grandfather of the developmentalists, sought to rebuild ties with the West and found himself stymied by Khamenei on one side and inconsistent partners in the U.S. on the other. Two decades later, when Rouhani was president, Iran painstakingly negotiated a nuclear deal with the Obama administration\u2014only for the first Trump administration to sink it in 2018.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s current leaders are navigating the same duality within the regime and will surely face similar headwinds from without. And to some extent, they are still cautiously straddling the regime\u2019s internal divide. Qalibaf presents himself as a statesman on the world stage, but last week also emptily pledged to \u201cliberate Jerusalem.\u201d But if he and the rest of Iran\u2019s new leaders are really to change their country\u2019s lot, they will have to change this mindset, prevail over the hard-liners, and make a clear choice: Do they want to perennially fight America and Israel, or to develop Iran\u2019s economy and move on?<\/p>\n

Soon Iranians will bury Ali Khamenei in a public funeral. They must also bury his revolutionary intransigence. Otherwise, they could well wind up squandering even this enviable deal with the United States.<\/p>\n

Read more Are GLP-1s Performance-Enhancing Drugs?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some forces in Iran, no agreement is a good agreement with the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global"],"yoast_head":"\nIran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For some forces in Iran, no agreement is a good agreement with the United States.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758\"},\"wordCount\":916,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Global\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758\",\"name\":\"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":625},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=758#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros","og_description":"For some forces in Iran, no agreement is a good agreement with the United States.","og_url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758","og_site_name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","article_published_time":"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"headline":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander","datePublished":"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758"},"wordCount":916,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif","articleSection":["Global"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758","name":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander - Commercial Relocation Pros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif","datePublished":"2026-06-20T14:39:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d0e2323b817a427f8721bb5b849403ab.avif","width":1200,"height":625},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=758#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Iran Got a Great Deal That It Could Still Squander"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/","name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}