In rare effort, top Iranian officials urged Khamenei to allow talks with US, or risk fall of regime — report

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was urged by top officials to allow negotiations with the United States on their nuclear program or risk the fall of the Islamic regime, The New York Times reports.

The report cites two senior Iranian officials who are familiar with the meeting last month.

The meeting was attended by heads of the judiciary and parliament, who, in what the sources described as a rare coordinated effort, pressured Khamenei into accepting talks with Washington, even direct ones.

Those who attended the meeting told Khamenei that the threat of military action by the US and Israel against its nuclear sites was serious. The country, already in economic shambles, would be forced to respond, but then would also likely be plunged into domestic unrest if it were to go to war, the report says.

The combination of such events would amount to an existential threat to the Islamic Republic, the officials told Khamenei, the report says.

US-Iran talks on Iran’s nuclear program are set to be held in Oman on Saturday.