In his latest appearance on YouTube six days ago, after a two-month hiatus due to internet blackouts in Iran, Professor Motaharnia was asked about his interpretation of the large number of Iranian participants in the recent talks with the United States in Pakistan, given that the Iranian delegation included more than seventy people. Motaharnia replied:

"Because the Iranian delegation follows the 'elevator' approach. All around the world, everyone who enters an elevator turns toward its door and turns their back to those behind them, except in Iran, which is almost the only country in the world where people ride the elevator facing one another, eyes locked, due to a lack of trust and fear of being robbed. It’s clear that the Iranian delegation was influenced by the 'Iranian elevator' phenomenon and was negotiating in an 'elevator-like' manner with the American delegation, while every Iranian suspected every other Iranian."

Professor Mehdi Motaharnia is an Iranian national residing in Iran. Born on February 12, 1966, he is a prominent intellectual figure, analyst, and theorist of Iranian domestic and foreign policy. He also serves as the head of the "Simorgh" Institute for Thought and Studies. He has worked for years as a professor at Islamic Azad University branches in Qom, Central Tehran, and North Tehran, and has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Tehran, National Defense, Strategic Studies, and Sayyed Shirazi, specializing in political science, future studies, sociology, and cultural management.