Russian Foreign Minister to visit Iran on Tuesday, Tehran says

“He had a performance at a café in western Tehran in Janatabad when plainclothes officers and the police arrived, arrested him and his composer, and detained several people there,” one source said, requesting to remain anonymous for security reasons.

A video obtained by Iran International shows the moment the officers storm the venue and detain the underground rapper. A masked man can be seen in the footage, who the source said was one of those who detained Eycin.

“They came with a van and took everyone away. The venue was also sealed off,” the source added, "Eycin had scheduled several performances in cafes, on a tour, in Qeshm in recent weeks."

The fans were later released but two sources told Iran International that Eycin and his composer remained in detention.

A source said that both Eysin and Sohrabi appeared in court on Friday morning, however the charges against them remain unknown.

“Lately, rappers have been organizing a lot of underground performances through various methods. It seems like they want to crack down before it spreads,” the source said.

International human rights organizations have condemned Iran's suppression of artistic expression in recent years.

In the aftermath of Iran's nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, at least two rappers - Toomaj Salehi and Saman Yasin - were sentenced to death in connection with their music. Following an international outcry, their death sentences were revoked.

The trial began this month of Hadi Matar in the 2022 attack on Rushdie, the irreverent author whose death was called for by Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in an infamous fatwa, or Islamic decree.

Matar, a 27-year-old American of Lebanese Shi'ite extraction, had pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault.

Rushdie was among the first to testify, calmly describing the assault and removing spectacles blacked out in one lens to reveal his wounded eye.

Jurors in the Mayville, New York courtroom heard how the knife attack at a New York lecture unfolded in a matter of seconds, leaving Rushdie half blind and fighting for his life in hospital.

Moments before 77-year-old Rushdie was stabbed on stage, a poet was introducing the book event on the topic of keeping writers safe from harm.

The defendant was accused of running on stage and stabbing Rushdie up to 10 times. The attack also damaged Rushdie’s liver and paralyzed one hand.

Matar's lawyers had argued prosecutors had not proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

In July 2024, two years after the incident, an unsealed indictment charged the defendant with providing material support to Iran-backed Hezbollah sometime between September 2022 and August 2022.

The indictment did not specify how Matar is linked to the group and his trial is due to be held separately in Buffalo, New York.

Rushdie is an atheist born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family. He was forced to spend about 10 years in hiding throughout the United Kingdom and United States for much of the 1990s after Khomeini's fatwa.

Khomeini had called in 1988 on “the proud Muslim people of the world” to kill the author of “The Satanic Verses,” which centered on the life of the Prophet Mohammad.

The independent film about a widow's quest for companionship defied strict censorship laws in Iran to gain international acclaim, sparking outcry over the persecution of its creators.

The petition launched on Change.org calls for the immediate and unconditional dismissal of charges against the two filmmakers Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who face trial in Tehran’s revolutionary court on March 1.

The charges include propaganda against the system, producing and distributing a film with obscene content, violating public morality and decency, and screening the film without a distribution license.

The petition has garnered widespread support from the global film community, with signatories including Pedro Almodóvar, Juliette Binoche, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Agnieszka Holland, Joachim Trier, Céline Sciamma, Arthur Harari, Dominik Moll and the directors of the Venice, Berlin, and Rotterdam film festivals.

The statement signed by the filmmakers condemns the prosecution of Moghaddam and Sanaeeha, describing it as part of a broader crackdown on artistic expression in Iran.

It highlights that the directors have faced "months of interrogation and two years of continuous travel bans" for making the film, which portrays the life of a middle-aged woman in Tehran struggling with loneliness and societal expectations.

The film, which received critical acclaim internationally, screened in competition at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, winning the FIPRESCI Jury Award, and later received the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival.

The agenda "will span Tehran’s support for Russia, its nuclear advances, its arrest of European citizens among other issues," the reporter said.

"First @kajakallas move to tighten EU stance on Iran," he added, referring to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Norman cited the EU diplomat as saying the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be one of five key topics discussed.

Last week, US lawmakers urged European leaders to reinstate strict United Nations sanctions on Iran, citing what they called Tehran’s continued violations of the 2015 nuclear deal.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said US President Donald Trump favors diplomacy over war but is determined to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Last month, the European Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution condemning Iran’s detention of European Union citizens, labelling the practice as “hostage diplomacy.”

The motion also called on the EU Council to take decisive action, including designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

Earlier this week, Iran said it charged a British couple on a road trip with espionage, in the latest detention of Western citizens by Tehran.

The United Kingdom is one of the so-called E3 European countries involved in ongoing talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. Another, France, has protested Iran's continued detention of three of its nationals.

Iran said on Tuesday it seeks to more talks with Europe, according to foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, even as the prospect for negotiations with the United States dimmed.

“The president’s a peacemaker,” Rubio told independent journalist Catherine Herridge. “He’d prefer to avoid (war) and avoid those circumstances," adding that the United States under Trump “is not going to allow a nuclear Iran.”

Rubio did not discuss specific strategies but said that if Washington decided to act, “it could bring about the end of the Iranian regime,” in some of the most hawkish comments yet on Tehran from a senior member of the Trump administration.

Trump’s focus, Rubio said, remains on avoiding conflict.

As the world watches whether the US can achieve a deal with Moscow over the war in Ukraine, Rubio suggested the two countries may have a common interest in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

“There are things we could cooperate on geopolitically,” he said. “I’m not sure the Russians are fans of the Iranian regime having nuclear weapons.”

His comments come as US and Russian officials held their first discussions this week in Saudi Arabia on ending the three-year conflict.

Iran, which has sought stronger ties with Russia and China under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s “Look East” policy, has faced economic strain due to US sanctions.

But Iranian media has warned that Moscow may not be a reliable partner and has raised concern that Russia could shift its stance.

Trump has criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for being too lenient on Iran and has reinstated the “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign from his first term.

While Trump has expressed reluctance to support an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear program, he has also said he prefers a diplomatic agreement, a proposal that Khamenei has publicly rejected.

US intelligence reports cited by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post indicate that Israel sees Iran as vulnerable after October 26 airstrikes, which reportedly US and Israeli leaders say crippled Iran’s air defenses.

Israel, the newspapers reported, perceives the US as more open to military action against Iran under Trump’s leadership.