Ghasem Rowanbakhsh, the MP for Qom, wrote on Viraستی about President Pezeshkian’s trip to New York: “We are at war with America, a country that a few months ago brazenly martyred our Leader and kidnapped the president of Venezuela. The arrest of Pezeshkian will cause him no trouble. But for us, it is a defeat.”

Rowanbakhsh added: “Trump has announced that he is willing to meet with Pezeshkian, but it may be that our president gets him to mislead [him] at the last moment and cancels it and does not accept him, or he sets conditions for this meeting—in which case he has brought disgrace to the country of Iran. And if the meeting takes place too, what good is a meeting with the killer of the Imam Martyr and thousands of Iranians?”