Original Source
Trump Gives Iran Days to End Power Struggle, Return to Peace Talks
Iran's Deepening Divisions and U.S. Warning
President Donald Trump has reportedly given Iran's warring factions a short window to unify behind a coherent counter-offer. U.S. officials state that Trump is willing to allow 'three to five days' of additional ceasefire but emphasized it will not be open-ended. U.S. negotiators believe a deal to end the war and address Iran's nuclear program is still achievable, but they are concerned that there may be no one in Tehran empowered to approve such a deal. Currently, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is barely communicating, and the IRGC generals, who control the country, are openly at odds with Iran's civilian negotiators over strategy.
Aborted Peace Talks and Strait of Hormuz Dispute
These divisions became apparent after the first round of Islamabad talks when IRGC commander General Ahmad Vahidi and his deputies rejected much of what Iran's own negotiators had discussed. The split became public last Friday when Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but the IRGC refused to implement it and publicly attacked him. In the following days, Iran gave no substantive response to the latest U.S. proposal and refused to commit to a second round of talks in Pakistan. This internal fracture is partly attributed to Israel's March assassination of Ali Larijani, the previous secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. His replacement, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, is reportedly not effective in his role of coordinating between the IRGC, civilian leadership, and the supreme leader.
*Source: Axios (2026-04-22)*
