“The Real Saboteurs of Iran’s Diplomacy: How Internal Extremists and External Renegades Paved the Road to War”

According to Saed News, Dr. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who chaired Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission during the tenth parliament, delivered a stark critique of the forces that derailed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and steered Tehran toward renewed hostilities. Reflecting on his 2015 warning about the “snap‑back” mechanism—which automatically reinstates UN sanctions if any party alleges a breach—he lamented that fellow Iranians and Western powers alike “burned the country’s best diplomatic opportunities” through partisan posturing and broken promises.

Falahatpisheh identifies two intertwined culprits: “domestic extremists” who obstructed every compromise inside Iran, and “external oath‑breakers” who exploited those divisions to trigger the snap‑back. He recalls two critical windows for reviving the deal—late in President Rouhani’s term and early under President Raisi’s successor—that were lost first to factional infighting and then to the Ukraine war’s fallout.

The veteran political scientist argues that these twin forces “two‑faced as a single coin” systematically undermined Iran’s negotiators, leaving diplomacy so fraught that “war—not negotiation—claimed our commanders.” He warns the current administration, led by Speaker‑turned‑President Masoud Pezeshkian, that it must recognize this unfolding “fitna” (strife) and neutralize it swiftly. Otherwise, Falahatpisheh cautions, Iran will remain ensnared between internal zealots and cynical foreign actors—its fate decided not at the negotiating table but on the battlefield.