The winds of change are blowing in Iran

The mood music from Tehran regarding Donald Trump’s election victory was a mixture of ‘don’t care,’ and ‘very much do care.’ Regime insiders remember only too well the toll Trump’s last four years took on their state; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Qassem Soleimani killed; economy shattered; regionally isolated due to Israeli-Arab normalisation. Trump is not a popular figure in the Khamenei household. But others reacted with a shrug; we’ve dealt with him before and survived. Why not now? Many ordinary Iranians welcomed the pressure he’d bring to bear on the regime, hoping it may prove decisive.

But the half-denied, half-acknowledged secret meeting between Elon Musk and the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Saeid Iravani, hints at something different. Perhaps a desire for dialogue, not conflict. Insiders suggest they discussed ways to deescalate tensions, both bilaterally and in the Middle East.