Mojtaba and Major Purges 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, 28 Ordibehesht 1405, May 18, 2026. Over the past two or three days, Mr. Trump had repeatedly threatened military action, and he insisted on it again this morning. Then this afternoon he suddenly wrote that, at the request of the Emir of Qatar, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the ruler of the Emirates, he had postponed for now the attack that was planned and scheduled against Iran for tomorrow, Tuesday. He wrote that he had instructed Defense Secretary Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine to postpone the operation.

1:02 Mr. Trump's flip-flopping apparently has no end. Some say this is his tactic, but many believe that he simply lacks mental focus in dealing with the crisis he has created. In any case, Mr. Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan's Interior Minister, who traveled to Iran and over two days held extensive meetings with Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Araghchi, Interior Minister Momeni, and Ghalibaf, the Speaker of the Majlis, is said to have delivered America's response to Iran's five conditions, received Iran's reply, and passed it on to America. The five conditions

2:06 Iran had set were: a ceasefire on all fronts, meaning Iran and Lebanon; America must pay war reparations; it must accept Iran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz; it must lift the sanctions; and it must release Iran's money. America's reply, in summary, is said to be this: it will not pay reparations; Iran must hand over its enriched uranium and may have only one nuclear site; America is prepared to release up to 10 billion dollars, roughly 25 percent of Iran's blocked funds, since about 44 billion dollars of Iran's reserves are said to be frozen by America; and it has made ending the war conditional on

3:05 negotiations. It is not clear what Iran's reply was, but the reality is that, as the Americans put it, with this response Mr. Trump has in fact blinked. He has backed down a little: he says Iran can have one nuclear site, and he is prepared to release 10 billion dollars. Such remarks show a degree of flexibility. It is possible that the Iranian side has also backed down somewhat, and that Pakistan has succeeded in bringing the Iranian side to a decision as well. And reportedly Iran delivered its reply to America much, much faster than on previous occasions.

3:58 So some speculate that this halt to military operations, which Mr. Trump said was at the request of these four countries, these three countries, which said they are very optimistic that negotiations will succeed, may also be based on the Islamic Republic's reply, meaning that they too may have blinked and shown flexibility. At the same time, the US Treasury Department extended for another 30 days the lifting, or easing, of sanctions on Russian oil already at sea. It had previously extended it once for 28 days,

4:52 and now it has extended it again, which affects the oil market. On the other hand, because of the heavy casualties Russia has suffered in the war, and the recent victories Ukraine has achieved, with Russia actually losing territory it had occupied, it is said that a prospect of peace in Ukraine is emerging and that Mr. Putin may agree to a ceasefire. If such a development happens in Russia and the Ukraine war, it will certainly affect Iran's political situation as well. Meanwhile, Mr. Putin is heading to China; after

5:54 Mr. Trump's visit, he too is going to negotiate and meet with Mr. Xi, the President of China. Meanwhile, Iran's Food and Drug Administration has announced that the supply of raw materials and the import of medicines have been disrupted. It said the reason was that foreign currency allocations have been reduced. In any case, people have been crying out for some time now that some medicines have become scarce or extremely expensive. There is now a shortage of test kits, a shortage of insulin for diabetic patients, and imported medicines, such as specialty drugs or

6:51 specialty cancer drugs, have gone up many times over. Altogether, it is said that 5 billion dollars in funds are needed for the government to allocate, both to pharmaceutical factories to import raw materials for medicines, which has even affected, for example, the production of painkillers, and to pay what is owed to pharmaceutical companies, which is said to have quadrupled. In any case, the situation of medicine, something that deals with people's lives, has become deplorable, and it is one more of those areas which, in the economic tsunami that is on its way, will severely squeeze and

7:52 afflict millions of people. As for Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei, a veil of ambiguity still remains. Once again an official of the Health Ministry said nothing at all has happened to him; he had a few wounds that were treated with bandages and the like. But then it is not clear why Mr. Mojtaba does not come out from behind the curtain. There are all kinds of speculation: whether he is wounded, alive or dead, in a coma or conscious, whether he has his arms and legs or not, whether his face is disfigured or not, whether he has his vocal cords or not. All this speculation is out there. But one thing can be said about Mojtaba Khamenei, and that is this: if he is alive, in whatever condition, and wants to sit at

8:52 the helm of the Leader's Office, he will have no choice but to carry out bloody and widespread purges. Even back then, starting 15 years ago, when his father gave him a free hand and he set up the central office and began dismissing and appointing his own people, he replaced 300 Friday prayer leaders alone. He reshuffled commanders at various levels of the IRGC, the intelligence apparatus and so on, until at some point, two or three years ago, it was heard that Khamenei had reined in his son. That same process now, if he is to sit at the helm of the Leader's Office, he has no choice but to bring the military, police and intelligence forces under his own command, and he will have to replace and purge many people,

9:45 especially the old guard. Yesterday, in fact, it was rumored and heard that within the Leader's Office, Asghar Mir-Hejazi, known as Asghar Hejazi, who is head of the Intelligence Protection Office of the Leader's Office and was effectively the third person in the Office for years, after Khamenei and this very Mojtaba, and under whose wing Mojtaba had been since the age of 14, so that he is in a sense also his teacher, it was rumored that Mojtaba had sidelined Asghar Hejazi too, and that he had gone to Qom hurt and upset. I, of course, could not get confirmation of this news, but if it is true, it confirms that the purges

10:40 within the regime at the hands of Mojtaba Khamenei will have to be heavier than we imagine. Purges that, in my view, may even lead to bloodshed, imprisonment, disappearances, and the elimination of a number of people. In hope of victory for Iran and Iranians.