In the past week, the U.S. has expressed interest in negotiating an agreement that would require Tehran to give up its nuclear program—and not merely put it on partial pause, as the 2015 deal required. Raz Zimmt examines how the Iranian government sees these overtures in the context of Washington’s reconsideration of its support for Ukraine. Note that Zimmt speaks of “hardliners” and “reformers,” but both groups are loyal to the regime’s core belief in “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

The hardliners view the developments surrounding the war in Ukraine as reinforcing their view that the United States is untrustworthy and unreliable. They have also emphasized Ukraine’s decision to relinquish its nuclear weapons after the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a cautionary tale for Iran. In contrast, the pragmatic-reformists have expressed growing concerns that closer ties between Moscow and Washington might come at Iran’s expense.

The strengthening of partnerships with Russia and China as part of Iran’s “Look East” policy, which the Islamic Republic has pursued in recent years, remains a major point of contention between the Iranian political factions. While regime loyalists in the conservative camp strongly support this policy, those affiliated with the pragmatic-reformist faction have long warned against Iran’s increasing dependence on Russia and China.

Moreover, according to Iranian hardliners, Russia’s rising influence amid recent developments in Ukraine validates the Iranian leadership’s decision to deepen its strategic partnership with Moscow. They argue that Iran is on the “right side of history” as the global order undergoes a transformation.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.