Banner reflect hard-line backlash in Iran

Banners that suddenly cropped around Tehran in the past week depict an American diplomat dressed in a jacket and tie, while under the negotiating table he is wearing military pants and pointing a gun at an Iranian envoy.
The anti-American images were ordered taken down yesterday by Tehran authorities. But they made their point.
It was another salvo by hard-liners who are opposed to President Hassan Rouhani's pursuit of better ties with Washington and worried that Iran could make unnecessary concessions in its nuclear program in exchange for relief from Western sanctions.
The banners and posters were something of a warm-up to the main event: Rouhani's critics are planning major anti-US rallies and amped-up "Death to America" chants on the Nov. 4 anniversary of the US Embassy takeover in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution.

Anti-American murals have long been part of the urban landscape in Iran, and include images of the Statue of Liberty transformed into a creepy skeleton and bombs raining down from the Stars and Stripes. The storming of the US Embassy is marked every year with protests outside the compound's brick walls.
Now, however, the images reflect internal divisions in Iran and suggest more intrigue ahead.

Rouhani's groundbreaking overtures to the US appear to have the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This means that at least for the moment he has the ultimate political cover to try to reach a nuclear deal and perhaps find other ways to cross the 34-year diplomatic no man's land between the countries.

However, the criticism and protests by hard-line resisters, led by the Revolutionary Guard, are as much directed at Rouhani's government as they are intended as a message for the supreme leader.
The Guard and others know that Khamenei does not want to risk an open confrontation that could sow further discord in Iran.
The subtext of the posters and banners: More pressure could come if Rouhani's government is perceived as moving too fast toward concessions when nuclear talks resume next week in Geneva with the US and other world powers.