Iran signs $4bn deal with Russian firms to develop oil fields, minister says

“The recent assault took place in a location with a history of similar crimes,” said Hamed Ali Sadeghi, Khajeh Nasir University’s deputy for student and cultural affairs. “These two were targeted by a specific gang,” he added.

Just days earlier, a female student from Shahid Beheshti University was attacked 50 meters from her dormitory in the capital’s northern Velenjak neighborhood. The robbers broke her teeth and stole her phone.

In February, 19-year-old Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a business student at the University of Tehran, was stabbed to death by robbers near his dormitory.

Student associations warned afterward that the threat extended to dormitories across the country and criticized authorities for ignoring repeated calls to secure the surroundings of student housing.

Protests erupted following Khaleghi’s death, but attacks have continued. About a month later, two students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences were robbed at knifepoint.

According to the student council, the victims sought help from campus security after being threatened with cold weapons.

The pattern is not limited to student areas. On April 20, video circulated of a motorcyclist snatching a necklace from a woman carrying a child in southern Tehran, knocking both to the ground.

Last week, a surveillance camera recorded a thief tearing off a man’s gold chain as he sat at a café in Saadatabad, northern Tehran.

In Meybod, Yazd province, other footage showed a phone being violently stolen from a 16-year-old girl in broad daylight.

Iranian authorities have announced arrests in a few high-profile cases but have yet to introduce broad preventive measures.

Instead, universities have advised students to use better-lit, alternative routes — guidance viewed by many as an admission of official inaction.

The uptick in street crime comes as Iran’s economy remains in crisis. Inflation is estimated to have reached nearly 50 percent, while the rial has suffered a steep depreciation.

The exchange rate briefly hit 1,060,000 rials to the US dollar during recent weeks before temporarily falling to 800,000 following the resumption of indirect talks with the United States.

Over one third of Iranians now live below the poverty line and unemployment sits at around 20% for the country's young population and 7-8% overall, according to official data, although actual numbers are believed to be far higher.

Earlier this month, Ham-Mihan daily reported that food theft from stores in Iran has increased, with rising prices and growing hunger among the population cited as major reasons.

In September, Ali Valipour Goudarzi, head of Tehran’s Criminal Investigation Police, said that some thieves resort to theft solely due to economic conditions, and that if the situation improves, their numbers will decrease.

Amani had initially declined an earlier summons but attended Thursday’s meeting following a backlash over a post last week in which he warned of a conspiracy threatening regional stability—widely seen as a reference to efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

Iran's embassy in Beirut said the post was general in nature and “applied to all countries without exception, including Iran,” and that the visit aimed to prevent “any misunderstanding or misinterpretation” between the two countries.

"Amani emphasized the need to prevent enemies from sowing discord between Iran and Lebanon, believing that vigilance and cooperation are the guarantees for warding off such attempts," the embassy said on its official X account.

The Lebanese foreign ministry confirmed the meeting and said senior official Hani Shmaytelli reminded Amani of “the need to adhere to diplomatic protocols … on the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.”

Last week Amani warned against what he called a disarmament conspiracy, saying on X: “We in the Islamic Republic of Iran understand the danger of this conspiracy and its threat to the security of the region’s peoples."

"We warn others against falling into the enemy's trap. Preserving deterrent capability is the first line of defense for sovereignty and independence and must not be compromised.”

In a televised interview earlier this week, Amani struck a more conciliatory tone, saying the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons was for the Lebanese government to decide. “We are committed to what the Lebanese agree upon,” he said.

Iran, the embassy quoted Amani as saying, maintains its "unwavering commitment to supporting the independence, sovereignty, stability and security of the Lebanese Republic."

The diplomatic exchange comes amid renewed pressure in Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun recently said the group should be brought under state control following losses in recent clashes with Israel. A US- and France-brokered ceasefire remains in place, though both sides have reported violations.

It is likely that Iran ordered the attempted assassination of an Iranian activist Siamak Tahmasbi in Haarlem, Netherlands, in the summer of 2023, the agency’s annual report on Thursday of the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said.

An attempted assassination in Madrid of former Spanish lawmaker Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic, at the end of 2023 was also attributed to Iran, Dutch news outlet Nieuwsuur added citing the report.

"Iran used a tried and tested method in both cases: using criminal networks to silence opponents of the regime," Nieuwsuur's report said citing AIVD in reference to the alleged assassination attemp against Tahmasebi and Vidal-Quadras.

"This makes it difficult to prove under criminal law that the order actually came from Tehran," it added.

Last June, French daily Le Monde reported of the assassination attempt against Tahmasbi.

The report said that on June 6 2023, Tahmasebi noticed two men attempting to enter his home. Tahmasebi alerted the police, who arrived in time to arrest the armed intruders. The northern Netherlands prosecutor's office confirmed the arrests and the possession of firearms by the intruders.

One of the two suspects, Mehrez Ayari, is a 38-year-old Tunisian criminal from Villejuif, Val-de-Marne, France. Ayari had been sought by French police since August 2022 and is accused of murdering a cannabis dealer.

Nieuwsuur reported that the two detained were in contact by phone with a third man, who sent them instructions. The report added that the third person who allegedly directed them by telephone on behalf of Iran remains at large.

Rawa Majid received funds from Iran’s embassy in Denmark to help coordinate attacks against Israeli diplomatic facilities in Copenhagen and Stockholm, according to a source familiar with the matter inside the IRGC.

The source also said the gang leader travels between Iran and Afghanistan for operations overseen by the IRGC.

Majid leads a criminal group, Foxtrot, recently sanctioned by the UK and the US for its alleged role in orchestrating attacks on Israeli interests. Both governments accused the group of working as a proxy force for Iran in Europe. Tehran has denied the charges.

"Iran’s brazen use of transnational criminal organizations and narcotics traffickers underscores the regime’s attempts to achieve its aims through any means, with no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement in March as the US sanctioned Majid and Foxtrot.

The US Treasury said the group has carried out operations targeting Israeli and Jewish institutions, including an attempted bombing outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm and grenade attacks near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in October 2024.

The attacks are part of an apparent broader strategy that has alarmed European security services. In a December 2024 report, Bloomberg detailed how Iran-affiliated groups have increasingly recruited local criminals — including minors — to carry out assaults on Jewish and Israeli institutions across Europe.

Iran’s expanding covert footprint in Europe is linked to the broader regional conflict between Israel and Iranian proxy forces, Bloomberg reported, and the strategy may be aimed at fueling social tensions in countries already divided over immigration and integration.

Sweden’s Security Service (Säpo) and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad have both identified the Foxtrot criminal network as one of the groups recruited by Tehran for sabotage operations in Europe.

While Iranian officials deny using criminal organizations abroad, leaders of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly praised attacks on Israeli interests globally.

“They have taken many job opportunities,” Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said during a meeting of provincial governors on Monday, addressing public concerns that foreign nationals were crowding Iranians out of the job market.

Momeni added that more than 1.2 million undocumented immigrants were repatriated in the past Iranian calendar year ending on March 20.

At the same meeting, the head of the Foreign Nationals and Immigrants Affairs Center at the ministry Nader Yarahmadi said 6.1 million Afghans currently reside in Iran. The actual number may be far higher, or up to 15 million, according to unofficial tallies by Iranian lawmakers and media outlets.

Iranian officials and media outlets frequently use the term foreign nationals as a euphemism specifically referring to Afghan citizens.

Afghans began arriving in Iran as refugees in the early 1980s, later joined by economic migrants. Until the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, their numbers rarely exceeded two million.

Around 780,000 Afghans hold official refugee status and are not considered undocumented. A small minority of non-refugees are wealthier Afghans who fled after the Taliban’s takeover, while the majority are undocumented economic migrants who provide low-cost labor in sectors such as agriculture and construction and live with or without their families.

Anti-Afghan sentiment has grown significantly in recent years, especially on Persian-language social media, where hashtags such as “Expulsion of Afghans is a national demand” frequently trend.

Advocates for the expulsion of Afghan nationals accuse the government of allowing them to benefit from billions of dollars in subsidies for food, fuel, and other essential services, including healthcare and education.

In addition to monthly cash payments to nearly 90 million Iranians, the government heavily subsidizes basic goods such as bread and fuel. The current fiscal year’s budget allocates 2,500 trillion rials out of 64,000 trillion rials to bread subsidies alone.

No official data quantifying the subsidies specifically received by Afghan immigrants exists.

However, Hamidreza Azizi, a lawmaker representing Eghlid in southwestern Fars Province, said in a recent parliamentary speech that the government spends approximately 7,000 trillion rials on subsidies for energy, food, medicine, and education for Afghan children. “In my constituency, Afghan nationals have taken over the entire job market from Iranians,” Azizi told Parliament.

Iran’s official unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent, but many believe the real figure is significantly higher, as the government considers anyone working at least one hour per week as employed.

Meanwhile, at least one-third of Iranians live below the poverty line, and workers’ strikes over unpaid wages continue in various sectors.

During his campaign, President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged to tighten border controls, register undocumented immigrants and seek support from European countries—either by encouraging them to accept some refugees or to provide financial assistance.

The relatively moderate President argued that Western policies in Afghanistan have driven millions of Afghans to Iran and that those responsible should share the burden.

“There is no reason the Iranian people should bear the costs of others’ failed policies,” Pezeshkian wrote in a series of tweets prior to the election.