Iran’s parliament has passed Article 22 of the bill titled “Countering the Infiltration of Foreign Intelligence Services and Governments or Institutions,” under which Iranian nationals would be barred, on pain of punishment, from giving interviews to or participating in conversations with media outlets or individuals that the Ministry of Intelligence designates and publicly declares “hostile.” Violations carry Category Six penalties under the Islamic Penal Code, including prison sentences of more than six months to two years, fines, flogging and loss of social rights. The measure is not yet law: the Guardian Council must review the bill before final implementation. The broader bill gained initial parliamentary approval in August.
Separately, a group of hardline MPs led by Amirhossein Sabeti of the Paydari Front filed an impeachment motion against Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over his meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff on September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The MPs argue the meeting was conducted without authorisation from the Supreme Leader or coordination with the Supreme National Security Council. A member of parliament’s presiding board confirmed the motion has been registered in the parliamentary electronic system but has not been referred to the board or placed on the agenda, so registration does not yet mean a parliamentary vote.
The New York talks were held with Qatar acting as intermediary and focused on conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key stumbling block in negotiations between Tehran and Washington since the war began in February. SNSC secretary Mohsen Rezaei directly contradicted the hardliners’ claim, saying it had been agreed that Araghchi would convey Iran’s conditions to the intermediaries in New York, indicating the talks had prior approval from Iran’s higher authorities. Araghchi set out Tehran’s conditions, including the immediate lifting of the US naval blockade, the transfer of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the war on all fronts; US President Donald Trump rejected the proposal.
Taken together, the two moves signal that hardliners in parliament are constraining both the diplomatic channel and the information channel at the same time. If the Speaker refers the motion to the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Araghchi would have to defend his mandate in public; if the Guardian Council approves the bill, speaking to designated foreign media becomes a prosecutable act for ordinary Iranians. Either development would raise the political cost of any US-Iran de-escalation bargain on Hormuz.