Iranian President’s handwritten letter to the American people: “We have never initiated war.” Is it reconciliation or psychological warfare?

Iranian President Pezeshkian issued an open letter to the American people on Wednesday, claiming, “Iran has never initiated war,” and framing its military posture as lawful self-defense. The Wall Street Journal noted that Tehran is trying to project an image of being willing to talk, while shifting responsibility for the conflict onto Washington—yet the IRGC’s prior moves that simultaneously threatened U.S. companies significantly undercut the sincerity of this letter.
(Background: Trump: Iran has requested a ceasefire from the United States! But first open the Strait of Hormuz—otherwise Iran will be blasted back to the “Stone Age”)
(Background add-on: Iran threatens to bomb the U.S. Navy fleet and to blockade the Strait of Hormuz; Trump: If you dare retaliate, it will only invite even more猛烈 attacks.)

Table of contents

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• Trump’s two-track approach and Pezeshkian’s message
• The victim narrative
• Open letter seeks peace; the IRGC is sharpening its knives

On one side is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issuing a final ultimatum to 18 U.S. technology companies; on the other is the president’s handwritten letter to the American people calling out, “Iran has never started a war.” Tehran’s soft and hard tactics are laid out on the table at the same time.

Reporting by The Wall Street Journal says that on Wednesday, Iranian President Pezeshkian (Masoud Pezeshkian) published an open letter to the American people through state-run media. In the letter, he argues that Iran’s military deployments are entirely for “lawful self-defense,” not foreign aggression, and accuses Washington of deliberately maintaining tensions in the Middle East, using that to justify the long-term presence of U.S. forces in the region.

Trump’s two-track approach and Pezeshkian’s message

The timing of this letter is worth examining. Trump has recently hinted multiple times that he could accept Iran’s ceasefire request, but he set a condition of “first open the Strait of Hormuz,” while also threatening to blast Iran back to the Stone Age; Washington is also evaluating military options for seizing Iran’s enriched uranium.

Against this backdrop, Pezeshkian chose to bypass the White House and speak directly to the American public. Analysts believe this is more like an information campaign aimed at U.S. domestic opinion, with the goal not to persuade Trump to return to the negotiating table, but to weaken the domestic support base for his continued military actions.

The victim narrative

The Wall Street Journal said that in the letter, Pezeshkian deliberately portrays Iran as “the historically peaceful side” in U.S.-Iran relations, stressing that the two countries once had a solid foundation for constructive external interactions. He warned that the U.S.’s continued military actions would bring long-term instability risks, implying that Tehran is not refusing dialogue but that Washington has effectively slammed the door on negotiations.

Pezeshkian avoided direct retaliatory remarks regarding the assassination attempt on Khamenei, and instead adopted a victim narrative, positioning Iran as a defensive party forced to respond. The core strategy of this open letter is: “to frame itself as the side willing to engage, while placing responsibility for the conflict on the United States.”

Open letter seeks peace; the IRGC is sharpening its knives

However, Pezeshkian’s peace posture stands in sharp contrast to another force within Iran’s political system. Two days before the open letter was released, the Revolutionary Guard had just named targets such as Nvidia, Apple, and Meta—18 U.S. companies in total—threatening that “if another assassination happens, the relevant departments will be destroyed,” and demanding that employees evacuate immediately.

The Wall Street Journal’s reporting tends to view Tehran’s aim as not negotiations themselves, but controlling the narrative. For the market, this letter may be interpreted in the short term as a de-escalation signal, but amid the reality that the IRGC is continuing to escalate threats, uncertainty in the situation in the Middle East has not decreased. What we need to pay attention to is not what the open letter says, but whether within the next 48 hours, both sides take any actual military de-escalation actions.