On October 22, 2025, the world watched as President Trump claimed a historic diplomatic victory: a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the release of Israeli hostages, and a brief window of relief for Palestinians in Gaza. The achievement, celebrated in Washington and Jerusalem, was immediately cast into shadow by the enduring, complex role of Iran—a nation whose leadership remains steadfastly opposed to both the United States and Israel, and whose internal struggles are intensifying under the weight of renewed economic sanctions and mounting domestic dissent.
During his address to the Israeli Knesset, President Trump spoke directly to Iran’s rulers, extending what he described as a hand of friendship and cooperation. "We are ready when you are and it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made, and it’s going to happen. The hand of friendship and cooperation is open. I’m telling you, they (Iran) want to make a deal…it would be great if we could make a deal," Trump said, echoing overtures made by previous American presidents from both parties. Yet, as United Against Nuclear Iran policy director Jason M. Brodsky noted, such gestures have historically fallen flat. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s core foreign policy pillars—countering U.S. influence and seeking the eradication of Israel—have remained unyielding, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office or the Supreme Leader’s chair.
The October 2025 Sharm El-Sheikh peace summit, which Iran was invited to attend for the first time, was met with Tehran’s outright rejection. According to United Against Nuclear Iran, Iran’s refusal reflected its longstanding opposition to any American-led regional security order. Instead, Iran has often responded to such diplomatic initiatives with its own counterprogramming, seeking to rally the Muslim world against Israel and cast itself as the region’s true champion of Palestinian rights. This strategy was evident in Tehran’s efforts to undermine the Abraham Accords—President Trump’s signature Middle East achievement—by positioning Israel, not Iran, as the region’s primary destabilizing actor.
Despite some Iranian officials’ public support for ending the war in Gaza, Tehran’s actions have consistently told a different story. While the Foreign Ministry might endorse peace on paper, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continues to arm and fund proxy militias across the region, making any sustainable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a distant prospect. The gap between rhetoric and reality is as wide as ever.
Trump’s decision to launch Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israel’s campaign to dismantle Tehran’s proxy network, has left the Iranian regime facing what analysts describe as a crisis on multiple fronts: deterrence, diplomacy, economy, energy, water, and public confidence. Yet, as Brodsky cautioned, these setbacks have not led to capitulation. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains as defiant as ever, refusing to compromise on nuclear enrichment, missile development, or support for proxy forces—even after the 12-Day War with Israel in mid-June 2025.
In a televised address earlier this week, Khamenei dismissed President Trump’s overtures as "a handful of empty words and buffoonery," and declared that Tehran would not "submit to impositions" by Washington. According to Al Jazeera, this defiance is not merely rhetorical. Iran’s top military commanders, including new IRGC chief Mohammad Pakpour—appointed after his predecessor was assassinated by Israel—have vowed that "our next response will certainly be stronger than the response to the 12-day war." The IRGC claims to have recuperated from its losses and stands ready to retaliate against Israel or U.S. interests if provoked.
To bolster national morale amid adversity, Iranian authorities have turned to a campaign of nationalist symbolism. Statues and banners depicting Persian kings and mythical heroes have sprung up across the country, including a giant statue of Rostam, the legendary dragon-slayer, unveiled in Isfahan’s Shahinshahr. In Tehran, trucks with massive screens display images of ancient Persian triumphs and modern missile launches, accompanied by slogans like, “The message of ‘kneel before the Iranians’ is displayed in the streets.” It’s a striking effort to remind citizens of Iran’s resilience—even as inflation soars above 40 percent and the rial slides to near record lows against the U.S. dollar.
Sanctions reimposed by European powers via the "snapback" mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal have further battered Iran’s economy. Negotiations with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom failed to prevent the reinstatement of these penalties, and Iran has flatly refused to accept a total ban on nuclear enrichment, viewing it as national humiliation. The resulting economic pain is felt acutely by ordinary Iranians, who face rising prices, stagnant wages, and persistent internet and GPS restrictions that have only tightened since the war with Israel. President Masoud Pezeshkian’s moderate government has denied rumors of an impending hike in fuel prices and continues to spend billions on subsidies to stave off the kind of unrest that shook the country in 2019 and after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
Political infighting simmers between Iran’s hardliners and reformists. The government’s recent ratification of a bill for conditional accession to the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) has sparked fierce debate. Reformists argue that compliance with international anti-money laundering standards is essential for Iran’s financial survival, while hardliners warn it could hamper the country’s ability to evade sanctions and support its regional allies. Meanwhile, disputes over hijab enforcement have resurfaced, with reports of morality police vans returning to the streets despite official denials.
Prominent political figures have also found themselves under the spotlight. Ali Shamkhani, adviser to the supreme leader and a survivor of the June war, faced scrutiny after a leaked video showed his daughter without a hijab at her wedding—fueling accusations of hypocrisy among the elite. Former President Hassan Rouhani, whose tenure saw the signing and subsequent unraveling of the 2015 nuclear deal, has been castigated by hardliners as a "traitor" and blamed for the country’s economic woes. Rouhani, for his part, has pushed back online, arguing that laws opposed by 90 percent of society—an apparent reference to the hijab rule—are "pointless."
Amid all this, Iran’s regional ambitions remain undimmed. Iranian proxies continue to destabilize Syria, as seen in the September seizure of 200 Grad rockets in Al-Qusayr. The regime is reportedly seeking to rearm Hamas and other militant groups, and to reestablish weapons supply lines via Sudan—offering drones to the Sudanese Army in exchange for access to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Days after the release of Israeli hostages, a book titled Israel Annihilation Plan: The Islamic Republic’s Strategy for the Destruction of the Zionist Regime was unveiled in Tehran, and Khamenei himself launched a tirade against the United States, labeling it a terrorist state.
The message from Tehran is clear: the regime’s fundamental hostility toward the U.S. and Israel is not about to change, no matter the diplomatic overtures or economic pressures. As President Trump’s peace plan faces its toughest challenges yet, Iran’s leaders appear determined to keep all options on the table—defiant abroad, embattled at home, and unyielding in their vision of the region’s future.