Iranians who oppose the regime were “shocked” by the emerging details of an agreement between the US and Iran, an Iranian source told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The source, who is in touch with Iranians inside Iran and is knowledgeable about the situation on the ground in various parts of the country, discussed how the emerging agreement is being greeted in Iran.
Friends say “everything was going on organically to the advantage of the Iranian people and the world since the first war in June 2025 started against the Islamic Republic,” the source said, adding that the 12-day war, which began with Israeli strikes against Iran, was successful.
Nevertheless, dissidents in Iran have been surprised by the outcome of the Trump administration’s involvement, according to the source.
“He came to harvest what the Israelis had planted while the tree was still a sapling, and he ruined the seeding,” the source said.
One surprising comment among opponents of the regime is talk about how hardliners could stage a military coup inside Iran, because there is opposition to an emerging deal among elements in the IRGC, the source said, adding: “There’s numbers [sic] of hardliners in the regime body yet.”
“Reformists in the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]” have been doing “a purge in recent months,” the source said. “They isolated the hardliners.”
Iranian regime 'fooled' Trump administration, dissidents fear
The concern is that within Iran, the regime perceives an emerging deal, apparently mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, as a win for Tehran. “On Iranian state TV, they described it as the victory of the axis of resistance against the US,” the source notes. “We are all shocked. I was talking with a friend in Iran a few hours ago. They can’t believe they made the deal.”
The concern among those who oppose the regime in Iran is that the US has been convinced to make this deal.
Opponents of the regime are concerned that the US has been convinced to make this deal, the source said, adding that the Trump administration has been fooled by the regime.
“We were thinking that hardliners in Iran won’t allow the moderates and reformists to do the deal with the US,” the source said.
Iranian hardliners could 'sabotage deal, weaken regime'
This has led some to believe that it might be preferable for the “hardliners in Iran to gain more temporary power so that they can stop this agreement from being finalized,” the source added.
In a sense, the hardliners could sabotage the deal, which would weaken the regime in the long run, the source said.
“The moderates within the IRGC, and those working with them, understand the language of Western diplomacy,” the source said. “They know how to mislead Western governments, how to switch to the role of the ‘victim,’ and how to shape international public opinion so that it looks as if the Islamic Republic has been treated unfairly.”
Iranian dissidents are concerned that the regime and its proxies, such as the Houthis and Hezbollah, have won, the source said.
There is a sense that the Iranian people deserved better than what has happened, the source added. They were massacred in protests in January, and then the war that began on February 28 did not bring the toppling of the regime. Instead, the regime might feel empowered, the source said.