70-member Iranian delegation in Pakistan and escalating disputes within the government

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. It is Monday, 24 Farvardin 1405, April 13, 2026. First, I apologize that I could not be with you on Friday as usual, because of travel and the circumstances that came up during the trip. This past weekend, negotiations between the Iranian and American delegations were held in Islamabad, Pakistan. They talked for 21 hours, but at the end Mr. JD Vance, Mr. Trump's vice president and head of the American delegation, gave a short press conference and said that

0:56 we did not reach an agreement, that the Iranians are not willing to give up on building an atomic bomb, and he returned to America. Mr. Ghalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis), wrote on his social media account that the Americans could not win our trust, because Iran had said that America must give assurances that it will not wage war or attack again. In any case, regarding these negotiations, the Pakistanis, who are the mediators, said today, both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the foreign minister, that communications and contacts are ongoing, the ceasefire remains in place, and

1:58 the negotiations have in fact progressed well and are still progressing. A point that has been raised about both delegations is this: on the American side, where Mr. JD Vance was the head and Messrs. Kushner and Witkoff were also on the delegation, Mr. Vance himself said he had been in contact with Mr. Trump more than six times and that Trump was kept informed of the negotiations. So many people, both inside and outside Iran, told the press that the American delegation had no authority, that the real negotiator was Trump himself, and that the talks reached a deadlock because of the things, the instructions and issues, that Trump laid out. In

2:54 effect, the American delegation had come without authority. But even more interesting is the Iranian side. It is said that 70 people went to Islamabad with Mr. Ghalibaf, every kind of person, from the foreign minister and deputy foreign ministers to members of the Majlis, and even someone whose record includes the murder and assassination of Kurdish leaders. In short, it was a huge hodgepodge, which has really raised the question: why should 70 people go to a negotiation, a negotiation that is indirect at that, where presumably every time

3:50 the American side said something, the Pakistani foreign minister would carry it over to the Iranian side? When 70 people are supposed to give their opinions, make decisions, and give a response, it is obvious what a mess that becomes. Many believe that this business of loading every kind of creature onto Noah's ark and taking them to Pakistan shows that in Iran, in the Islamic Republic, the various factions that exist now and the rifts within the regime are such that they cannot agree, for example, to give authority to one group, say Mr. Ghalibaf, the foreign minister, and three or four others, so that they go and, for instance,

4:44 conduct a negotiation. The disagreements among these various groups within the regime are great. The result was that each section, each so-called faction, sent one, two, or several people along, in the hope that they could reach agreement among themselves there. Anyway, that is the Iranian delegation's side. I do think, of course, that if this war stops at some point, the shadow of war is lifted, and the country is to return to normal, then these struggles within the regime will show themselves intensely. For now, because of the war, the rifts within the regime have temporarily narrowed and everyone has more or less come together, although in the negotiations,

5:44 which are a prelude to peace, these disagreements have burst into the open. But if this war ends and life returns to normal, these disagreements may well lead to bloody purges within the regime. In any case, for now, one week still remains of the two-week ceasefire, and there is still talk that the negotiations will bear fruit. But despite the differing statements heard from both sides, it is really still not clear exactly over what issue the talks in Islamabad failed and the two sides could not reach agreement.

6:41 Meanwhile, today, at 10 a.m. U.S. time and 5:30 p.m. Iran time, Mr. Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to put a naval blockade of Iran into effect. This naval blockade is apparently meant to stop at sea any ship heading to or departing from Iranian ports, and possibly seize it. It is also meant to stop any ship that has obeyed Iran's orders and passed through the strait, possibly having paid tolls or not. In response, of course, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central

7:34 Headquarters, which is in charge of the war, threatened that if our ports are threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be safe, meaning that attacks from Iran could once again be launched against the Arab countries on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. We have 30 small and large ports along the entire 2,500-kilometer southern coastline of Iran, from the port of Khorramshahr to the port of Chabahar. The largest is Bandar Abbas, where the two large ports of Shahid Rajaee and Shahid Bahonar are located. Ports such as Bandar Imam and Bandar Mahshahr are hubs for petrochemical exports. Ports such as Bushehr and

8:32 Chabahar handle commercial matters, and Chabahar in particular is a free zone located at the easternmost point, overlooking the Indian Ocean. In any case, if this blockade becomes serious, it will naturally affect Iran's economy. Not only exports of oil, petrochemicals, and so on, but if it also includes imports into Iran, wheat, rice, and the country's other needs, then the hardships on the people will increase as well. In any event, what Mr. Trump has done will not solve the two problems he is facing.

9:32 First, the price of oil: just today, with the announcement of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, it jumped again from ninety-some dollars to above 100 dollars, reaching 134 dollars a barrel. The rise in oil prices is in practice the main problem; it has affected inflation in America itself, affected the stock markets, and so on, and it will get worse, because at least 2 million barrels of Iranian oil will be taken out of the market, plus, for example, Iraqi oil and others that Iran had been letting through; if those are blocked, it will get worse. Mr. Trump's second problem is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, and

10:24 this so-called naval blockade does not solve the problem of opening the strait. Although Mr. Trump has said that minesweepers have gone to clear the mines, Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz is not done with mines; rather, with drones and missiles from anywhere in Iran, it threatens ships that if they try to pass, it will target them. So it is unlikely that this naval blockade can either bring down the price of oil or open the Strait of Hormuz. As The Economist magazine put it, with this move it is as if Trump has gone and started cooperating with Iran on closing the Strait of Hormuz, and

11:21 he has made it worse. But this same Mr. Trump pulled off another masterpiece today. Pope Leo, the head of the Catholic Church, whom the world's 1.4 billion Catholics regard as their authority, had criticized Trump for saying he would attack Iran's infrastructure and destroy Iran's civilization, the nonsense Mr. Trump had spoken last week. The Pope criticized those remarks and called for peace; naturally, calling for peace befits a pope. But suddenly, yesterday, Sunday, Mr. Trump wrote a lengthy post on Truth Social and launched

12:16 heavy attacks on the Pope, saying he doesn't understand politics, he's too liberal, and so on. This pope, as it happens, is the first American pope. And although the Pope's reaction was that he is not afraid of the Trump administration, as this affair continued, Mr. Trump posted an image of himself, again on his Truth Social, in the form of Jesus Christ healing a sick person. This second one caused a huge uproar, and many people spoke out in criticism, even Mr. Trump's ardent supporters; it wounded religious sentiments to such a degree that after a few hours Mr. Trump removed the post from his social network.

13:11 Then he himself said: no, I didn't mean to be Jesus Christ, I meant a doctor; this picture was supposed to show me as a doctor. In any case, these bizarre actions of Mr. Trump drew an outcry from, for example, Ms. Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, who had the closest relationship with Mr. Trump among the Europeans; she strongly criticized his attacks on the Pope. And Mr. Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of Britain, also criticized in Parliament the kind of remarks Mr. Trump has made, such as "we will destroy Iran's civilization," and strongly condemned this kind of language. In hope of victory for Iran and the Iranian people.