Any aggression will have severe consequences, Iran warns Trump

Asked about Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's characterization of any negotiations with Washington over Tehran's disputed nuclear program as unwise, Republican Senator Rick Scott said, "I think he's foolish."

"If you look at everything he's been trying to do, it's failed," the Florida Senator said at the sidelines of a bipartisan luncheon, citing setbacks to Iran's network of militant allies in the region at the hands of Israel's US-armed military.

The 15-month campaign has put on the backfoot an array of Islamist armed factions in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have long been funded and armed by Tehran.

Israel decapitated the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon and helped bring about the downfall of the Assad dynasty in Syria, Iran's oldest Arab ally.

The blows and a direct attack on Iran on Oct. 26 have left Iran weakened and brought the issue of Iran's disputed nuclear program and a deal to resolve it in greater focus.

"Clearly everybody would rather them decide not to have a nuclear weapon and stop giving money to their proxies," Scott said. "We feel sorry for the people of Iran, but they're going to have to take matters in their own hand and get a better government."

Trump has said he much prefers a deal over Iran's nuclear program over any military confrontation but reimposed harsh sanctions from his first term.

The renewal of the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign has cheered Iran hawks in Washington, mostly Republicans, who long criticized what they viewed as a permissive attitude by the Joe Biden administration on Iran.

Democrats meanwhile have struggled to mount an effective opposition to Trump's blizzard of executive orders aimed at downsizing government and reining in policy priorities they championed under Biden.

Their qualms with Trump in the foreign policy sphere have mostly focused on the planned gutting of USAID, the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid.

"Quite honestly, Iran has gotten really used to a paper tiger in the White House," Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said. "They no longer have that. And I think we have to flex our muscles and then back up whatever it is we say."

Cramer told Iran International's Arash Aalaei that Khamenei's remarks ought not to shock Washington but rather bring into focus the nature of their adversary, expressing no misgivings about Trump's stated reluctance to punish Iran and preference for an agreement.

"I have no doubt that when (Trump) says he wants to sit down and negotiate, he's going to be negotiating with somebody who he's got a headlock on."

Electricity was cut off in several Tehran neighborhoods including Narmak, Tehranpars, Pasdaran, Shahrak-e Gharb and the capital's central districts due to the state's "inability to supply gas and diesel for power plants," state media reported.

According to Iran’s state electricity company Tavanir, the blackouts were caused by cold weather, increased household gas consumption, and limitations in gas supply and transmission to power plants.

The company said the outages were necessary to maintain network stability.

Iranian media reported that the power cuts also led to internet disruptions and heavy traffic congestion in some parts of the city due to malfunctioning traffic lights.

"Shortly after the power cut in Sohrevardi (a street in northeastern Tehran), slogans were being chanted in the entire alley," Iranian journalist Bahman Daroshafaei tweeted, apparently referring to anti-government slogans.

Similar outages were also reported in Karaj, a city in western Tehran.

Since November, electricity distribution companies in Tehran and other provinces have been announcing rolling blackouts for residential and commercial areas as a government strategy to conserve fuel and reduce reliance on mazut, a pollutant-heavy oil, as power plants struggle to meet demand.

Iran’s energy infrastructure is grappling with one of its most challenging winters. Facing a critical natural gas shortage, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration has prioritized avoiding the widespread burning of mazut, or high-sulfur fuel oil, as a substitute at major power plants in cities like Arak, Isfahan, and Karaj.

With around 80% of Iran’s electricity derived from thermal power plants reliant on gas, the administration faces mounting pressure to address systemic fuel shortages.

Iran’s winter energy crisis highlighted the country’s reliance on emergency measures, as officials grapple with a resource shortage exacerbated by decades of underinvestment. With blackouts set to continue, questions over energy policy and sustainability linger.

Investigators have connected two middle-aged sisters to the operation, which is thought to involve the unlawful sale of infants procured from impoverished or drug-dependent families who are distributed to those unable to conceive.

Child trafficking in Iran, although relatively infrequent, may point to deepening poverty and a fraying social safety net.

As reported by Rouydad 24 website, the discovery of the case occurred after informants supplied police information regarding the network's operations, culminating in the arrest of a person in Mashhad who had purchased a one-year-old girl.

The child's mother, a 23-year-old woman struggling with addiction, was also detained. She explained to the authorities that her decision to sell her daughter came from a place of desperation.

"My husband is a homeless addict, and I don’t know where he is. I wasn’t in a good state," she was quoted as saying. "I went to a woman’s house, and she, acting as an intermediary, sold my daughter to another woman. They gave me 600 million rials (about $650)."

After reconsidering, the mother attempted to reclaim her child but was met with threats from the buyer, who demanded 800 million rials (about $850).

Further investigation linked the ringleader, one of the arrested sisters, to similar trafficking schemes in other cities across the country. She said she purchased the child from the addicted mother for 600 million rials and sold the girl to a childless woman who had undergone multiple failed treatments.

While local authorities have arrested several suspects, authorities believe the trafficking ring may be part of a larger network operating throughout the country, triggering a broader investigation into the sale of babies in other cities.

The case adds to a growing body of evidence pointing to the abuse of vulnerable families, in particular those living with poverty and addiction.

Nahid Modarresi, an undocumented Iranian refugee who lives in hiding from Turkish authorities, is one among the tens of thousands of Iranian asylum-seekers whose fate hangs in the balance.

“I hide myself because I am too afraid to go outside," Nahid told Iran International.

Protected person status, a legal term under international law offering protection if host governments are unable, was granted to Nahid in 2018 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Turkish Supreme Court recently revoked it, throwing her life into disarray.

Though there are no official statistics, at least 3,000 Iranians who once had been granted protected persons status have had it revoked by Ankara, a Turkey-based Iranian researcher who works with asylum seekers told Iran International, declining to be identified for safety reasons.

Nahid says she fled Iran in 2018 over her sexual orientation and has since publicly engaged in human rights activities aimed against the country's Islamic authorities.

“My life is in danger,” said Nahid. “If I get sent back to Iran, they will arrest me and maybe execute me.”

Homosexuality in Iran is punishable by death for men and by 100 lashes for women. On repeated offenses, women can be also executed.

Nahid gained prominence in the human rights community for public campaigning after her sister Elham Modarresi was imprisoned for taking part in the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement that rocked Iran in 2022.

Elham was taken by security forces from the home she shared with her family to Kachooie Prison outside Tehran in 2022 and was tortured and denied medication for a genetic liver condition, she and Nahid told Iran International.

In 2023, Elham was released on bail and managed to escape to her sister in Turkey.

Nahid advocated to help move her sister to Canada where she successfully had a liver transplant that helped save her life, but Nahid herself was left behind.

"I am very worried for my sister. I am so scared for her," Elham told Iran International.

Iranian refugees vulnerable in Turkey

Now faced with the revocation of her protected persons status, Nahid is speaking out and making a plea for herself and all Iranian refugees.

“It’s not just me and my situation. It's all political fighters from Iran. We fight the Islamic Republic,” said Nahid.

Nahid’s legal counselor in Ontario Hooshang Lotfi has filed an application to bring her to Canada and found five people willing to sponsor her. Pleading her case to Canadian authorities, Lotfi says Nahid's time is running out.

UNHCR's departure

In September 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ended registration and refugee status determination procedures in Turkey in what it described as a response to Ankara's improvement of its immigrant population registry and refugee status determination process.

The UNHCR's departure followed by a European Union-Turkey migration agreement has put Iranian refugees in a precarious position, said Behnam Daraeizadeh, a senior fellow at the Canada-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“It is a big challenge and unfortunately has led to more deportations for the individuals who have already been accepted by the UN."

Since the change, organizations like CHRI have reported that Turkish authorities stepped up efforts to detain and deport unregistered migrants.

“These activists face arbitrary detention, possible torture, sham convictions on national security charges, and years of prison if they are extradited back to Iran,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.

Sina Rostami, a 35-year-old Iranian in exile in Turkey described to Iran International the horrors of what he has faced for months at a Turkish deportation camp.

“The way they treat us here is like we’re not humans,” said Sina, a Woman, Life, Freedom protestor who faces deportation to Iran. Sina’s sleeping quarters that he shares with six people and the washrooms have no lights. Sina said he often has to wait 12 to 14 hours before he is permitted recreation outdoors.

The Turkish government has not responded to Iran International's request for comment on these allegations.

A hub for refugees

Turkey is the world's leading host of refugees and is a middle ground between conflict zones and Western countries where migrants seek better lives.

Daraeizadeh said the Turkish government lobbied the UN so it could have more control over asylum seekers in a setback to the asylum-seekers.

Since Iran provided political support to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a failed coup in 2016, many activists argue Turkey is not keen on sheltering Iranians political asylum seekers.

Despite the risks, Iranians continue to flee their homeland as security forces keep up a crackdown on dissidents.

"Global peace and security can only be realized through connection, friendship, and sincerity—not through aggression, murder, massacres, expulsion, or discrimination. We must create a foundation for human interaction," said Pezeshkian, a relative moderate.

The remarks at a tourism exposition in Tehran referenced the devastation of Gaza in a 15-month incursion by Israel, which is backed by Iran's arch-foe the United States.

"We are not the ones seeking war. We are brothers with our neighbors, and we approach the world with dialogue and peace. It is those who wield power, stockpile weapons of mass destruction, and fuel wars and bloodshed—not us.”

His comments came one day after he threw his weight behind Khamenei's opposition to dialogue with the United States, saying the Supreme Leader "has the final say" on negotiations.

Pezeshkian's speech followed a wave of critical statements from Iranian officials against the idea of US talks after Trump mooted a deal over Iran's disputed nuclear program but reimposed harsh sanctions from his first term.

Earlier this month, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made ambivalent comments about the prospect of negotiations, which initially pleased Pezeshkian’s supporters.

But after some hardliners doubled down on their opposition, Khamenei expressly rejected the idea, saying talks "would not be wise, intelligent or honorable".

His criticism of talks set the stage for a renewed political battle within Iran, pitting hardliners against Pezeshkian’s government and its reform-minded allies who see dialogue with the US as the key to lift sanctions which have marred Iran's economy.

The tough stance of the Supreme Leader, the ultimate decision-maker on matters of state, was echoed by hardline media outlets linked to the clerical-military establishment who saw in the president's reticence an endorsement of Khamenei.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the firebrand editor of Kayhan newspaper, praised a similarly non-committal speech by Pezeshkian at a rally earlier this week commemorating Iran's Islamic Revolution.

"One of the outstanding features of this year's rallies was the intelligent and defiant speech by Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, our esteemed President."

An editorial in Javan praised the address, highlighting not only his nearly 20 references to Khamenei’s leadership and his words as the final authority but also his clarification that “the US is not truly seeking negotiations in the first place, making the debate over whether to negotiate with Trump irrelevant.”

But Jomhouri-e Eslami, a conservative Iranian newspaper, ran an editorial criticizing the silencing of those who opposed Khamenei’s stance on negotiations.

According to the Constitution, the paper argued, individuals have the right to express opinions freely even if they disagree with the Supreme Leader.

"The people's right to express their opinions does not contradict the rights of the Leader, and it should not be assumed that just because the Leader holds a view on a particular issue, no one else has the right to express their own opinion on the matter," wrote Masih Mohajeri, the editor.

Opponents of talks, he continued, “allow themselves to deny the most fundamental Islamic and human rights of the people and label those who seek to express their opinions on various issues as traitors, ignorant, or agents of foreign powers.”