Tehran is riven with conflict. Trump's offer of talks won't ease it

The letter the US president, Donald Trump, says he sent to Iran's leadership offering to reopen talks on the country's nuclear programme comes at a point when Iranian domestic politics is at its most unstable for years.

- Patrick Wintour Diplomatic Editor

In the past month, the conservative-dominated parliament has asserted its power over the broadly reformist president elected last June by impeaching and sacking the experienced economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, while Mohammad Javad Zarif, the vice-president and most prominent reformist, has also been forced out.

Both power plays were clearly made against the wishes of the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, but with the economy reeling under the pressure of US economic sanctions, the 85-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has clearly decided against rescuing Pezeshkian.

The parliament, feeling it is on a roll, is now summoning a further group of 11 ministers to ask them 49 questions about their performance in what looks like an attempt to harass Pezeshkian's government into further submission.

Rumours that Pezeshkian, an emotional man who sets store by integrity, will soon resign have been rife. His departure would confirm that the deep state, or what some in Iran call the shadow government, will not tolerate a loss of power.