Around 60 members of Iran's Majlis, the 290-seat Parliament, signed a letter demanding speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf explain why he put his name to the memorandum.1 That is roughly a fifth of the chamber, a bloc large enough to threaten any ratification vote. Ghalibaf signed for the Parliament; the Parliament is now asking him to account for it. The revolt followed street protests in which the Basij marched on the foreign ministry and crowds in Mashhad demonstrated against Araghchi.
The legal argument cuts against the government. MP Abolfazl Aboutorabi said the document carries binding obligations "that cannot be resolved by simply changing the name", rejecting any claim that the memorandum label makes it less than a treaty. Amirhossein Sabeti of the hardline Paydari faction said the deal "violates the Supreme Leader's red lines". President Masoud Pezeshkian defended his negotiators, calling it unfortunate that officials safeguarding the national interest "face accusations of betrayal".
Mojtaba Khamenei, the one signature Iran most needs, has not appeared in public since March and rules by handwritten messages carried by courier, with a lag of several days. Trump claimed the Supreme Leader had personally approved the deal, but the approver has stayed unreachable at the speed the diplomacy is moving, and a mediating-country diplomat told Axios the deal was cleared "at high levels" but "likely not" by Khamenei himself. Ghalibaf's name is on the paper; Khamenei's is not.
