Iran is running a covert diplomatic campaign to undermine the Trump deal, experts say
The Iranian regime’s ‘tough talk’ is heating up as the US deal nears
President Donald Trump is taking a tough line on Iran’s economic meltdown and ongoing nuclear talks, insisting that the US military is ready if talks fail. John Roberts and Sandra Smith report on the White House Cabinet meeting, where Trump discusses the high rate of inflation in Iran and the lack of sanctions relief. Dr. Mahsa Tehrani questions the credibility of the Islamic Republic.
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Tehran has launched a new platform on Western social media, including a covert campaign to try to sway Americans and undermine President Donald Trump’s push for a nuclear deal, experts warned Sunday.
After the February US strike in Iran that removed most of Tehran’s leadership and the signing of a temporary cooperation agreement (MOU) between Tehran and Washington, analysts also say that Iranian officials are relying more on digital proxies to perform the task of controlling one place.
“Iran’s leadership is now living in X because it is a beheaded leadership,” counter-terrorist expert Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital.
“The regime has transferred its legitimacy contest to the arena, and when it is removed from there, it enjoys it,” added Mohammed, of the George Washington Program on Extremism.
IRANIAN GOVERNMENT IS SPREADING ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA BETWEEN MANY INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNTS: REPORT
The administration’s memorandum of understanding with Tehran revealed divisions among Republicans over what constitutes victory after a military campaign against Iran. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“There are English, lines suitable for screenshots, memorable contempt and pride of civilization. Adaptation under pressure – strong performance forced that the men running in Iran can no longer stand on the platform.”
After the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28, the regime’s top leadership was largely eliminated, and the new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is in hiding. Mohammed said Iran’s digital messaging has since become one.
“The cooperation between the leadership is visible: You see the same lines written by the head of the judiciary, the vice president and the security council in a few minutes,” explained the expert.
“This is a major media outlet pushing copy, not independent officials at the same time. And the Register explains it.”
According to Mohammed, the accounts of the X regime act as a manufactured representative of the leadership while using the political divisions in the United States, a strategy that he said became even more apparent after Trump signed a new peace agreement on June 17 in Versailles.
“Tehran is not targeting the United States as a single entity,” Mohammed said.
IRAN’S ‘UNIVERSAL’ US EMPLOYEES SPEAK ASSURANCES ARE ONE EXPRESSION: EXPERT
Iran’s New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and President Donald Trump have been sidelined as polar opposites in the Middle East. (Vahid Salemi/AP; Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)
“It reads Washington as two centers of power and a platform for both – it works to undermine the agreement the president has while speaking a mixed language back to the worldview that points to the vice president.”
After the signing and the first round of talks in Switzerland, for example, Trump said on Truth Social that unfrozen Iranian goods would be used to buy American agricultural products, including soybeans, wheat and corn.
He wrote that the Treasury Department will release Iranian goods “from escrow, which is controlled by the United States, and will be used for the purchase of food and medical supplies, from the United States only, including corn, wheat and soybeans from our major American farmers. These are the things that Iran needs the most.”
Government positions from the lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, derided the allegations as “trash talks.”
“America lies that our unfrozen goods will buy agriculture. It’s interesting. The only harvest we reap is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It’s organic, abundant, and domestic. But apparently the US only sends GMO beans, broken promises and trash talks,” Ghalibaf wrote in X.
“The agricultural jab is aimed directly at Trump, who sold American farmers the release of frozen goods such as corn and soybeans, so the mockery of ‘GMO soybeans and broken promises’ is designed to embarrass the deal he has,” said Mohammed.
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Vance tells Fox News Digital that the US-Iran deal is testing whether Tehran will trade decades of isolation in order to lift sanctions and restore relations with the West. (Fox News Digital)
“Tehran benefits if it can reverse the image sold by the president,” he added.
“That’s not even a 64-year-old Iranian speaker writing for himself; that’s a small social media group writing on his behalf,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed also noted that Trump’s post was his, “with the same account and the same man.”
“Iran’s accounts are contradictory. They come from an institution that produces leadership that can no longer appear in person,” he said.
As ordinary Iranian citizens continue to face strict internet restrictions at home, officials in Tehran enjoy open access to foreign platforms to target Western audiences.
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Tehran has launched a new platform on Western social media, including a campaign to influence the American public and undermine President Donald Trump’s campaign to secure a deal, analysts warn. (Photos by Hamed Malekpour / Middle East / AFP via Getty Images)
Alp Toker, of internet monitoring company NetBlocks, told Fox News Digital that the government has “learned” to combat asymmetric data.
“These regimes are learning to integrate social media, AI and cyber surveillance as tools of asymmetric information warfare, benefiting a global audience while avoiding accountability to their own citizens,” he said.
“There is a two-tier system where government officials can freely use the platform to promote their agenda while denying access to their own citizens, as they did in Iran.
“It’s a double-edged sword – you get open politics at the expense of state broadcasting.
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“The Iranian authorities, among others, are getting better at playing the game,” Toker said.
Mohammed said that the parallel programs – the Internet is heavily censored at home and what he describes as an “open megaphone” aimed at Western audiences – provide more powerful evidence of the campaign is the operation of foreign influence than lively domestic discourse.
