The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is facing growing criticism from a broad array of political hardliners and rightwing opponents who say his government is being duped by the US in an over-hasty attempt to clinch a nuclear deal with the west and end economic sanctions. At a meeting at the former American embassy building in central Tehran on Saturday, a newly formed group of MPs and rightwing activists calling itself "We're Worried" claimed Iran's negotiating team was ignoring national interests in the nuclear talks, which resume on 13 May in Vienna.

Since president Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate in Iran, took office last August, there has been a surge in executions: at least 537 people have been executed in the past eight months, nearly 200 of them since the beginning of this year, according to figures compiled by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. That compares with a total for 2013 of 624, according to data gathered by the United Nations. Some human rights activists and others fear that those who oppose Rouhani and his negotiations with Western powers over the country s nuclear programme are pushing the executions to weaken him.

Opposition inside Iran to the interim nuclear agreement between the administration of Hassan Rouhani and six world powers has gathered strength after the Iranian president labelled his domestic critics "a bunch of uneducated people".