The Islamic Republic’s powerful Assembly of Experts faces public split over the memorandum of understanding signed with the US.By World Israel News StaffIran’s ruling Islamic clerics are divided over talks with the Trump administration, Iran International has reported, after dozens of members of the Assembly of Experts issued a hardline statement on the country’s memorandum with the United States, only for the body’s own secretariat to criticize the way the statement was released hours later.The dispute has exposed divisions inside one of the Islamic Republic’s most senior clerical institutions at a sensitive moment for Tehran, as the government faces pressure over negotiations with Washington, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the future of Iran’s nuclear program and regional arrangements following the recent war.The spat became public when more than 60 members of the Assembly of Experts signed a statement warning Iranian officials not to repeat what they described as the mistakes of past negotiations.“Observing the Supreme Leader’s red lines is a religious obligation, and violating them is not permissible under any circumstances,” the statement said.The members who signed onto the statement thanked Iranian negotiators for pursuing Iran’s rights but urged them to remain alert to what they called the “deceptive and ill-intentioned enemy.” They said any breach of the memorandum should trigger an immediate response.“Any violation of the memorandum of understanding must be answered without delay,” the statement said.The statement also insisted that Iran’s nuclear program be kept out of the talks with Washington.Iran’s nuclear rights “must not be subject to discussion or dispute and must remain outside the scope of negotiations,” it said.In one of its sharpest passages, the clerics called for the punishment of those they held responsible for the recent war, naming the US president and Israel’s prime minister. Iranian versions of the statement used religious language declaring them liable to death and said anyone with access to them had a duty to kill them.The statement also denounced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz while Israeli military operations continued in Lebanon, calling it a breach of commitments made by Iranian officials and a “strategic error.” It further demanded compensation for war damage, the return of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions and the withdrawal of US forces from the region.The intervention was unusual for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body formally tasked with appointing and overseeing Iran’s supreme leader but one that rarely intervenes publicly in the details of foreign policy.Within hours, the Assembly’s secretariat issued a clarification that effectively rebuked the signatories’ procedure while saying it did not oppose the substance of the statement.The secretariat said official positions of the Assembly are normally issued through the full body, its chairman, the presidium or the secretariat, and that individual members releasing a statement under the title of a group of Assembly members was not customary.The secretariat said it had expected the organizers to preserve the unity of the Assembly and release the statement only after further discussion through the normal channels, “so that no ambiguity would be created in society.”It added that members whose names did not appear on the statement were not necessarily opposed to its contents, but some objected to the method of publication or had not been informed about the initiative.The clarification itself triggered criticism from hardline circles. Raja News, an outlet aligned with factions hostile to compromise with Washington, accused the secretariat of damaging the very unity it claimed to defend and asked why such a large group of senior clerics felt compelled to bypass the Assembly’s leadership.The dispute comes as Iran’s political system is already under strain from arguments over the US-Iran memorandum, the handling of Hormuz, the status of nuclear negotiations and whether Tehran’s negotiating team is respecting the supreme leader’s limits.President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, reportedly traveled to Qom, the center of Iran’s Shiite clerical establishment, in an apparent effort to shore up clerical backing as the government navigates the dispute.The post Ruling Iranian clerics sharply divided over nuclear concessions, US talks appeared first on World Israel News.