Former Iranian official sentenced to jail for criticizing Sinwar

Lawmakers approved Article 5 of the “Support for Iranians Abroad” bill in a public session on Wednesday, mandating that the ministry gather data on expatriates and establish communication mechanisms within six months of the law taking effect.

The ministry must also report annually to the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on progress.

The legislation does not specify what categories of personal data will be collected, how it will be gathered, or whether the consent of individuals will be required.

The measure follows President Masoud Pezeshkian’s public call earlier this month for Iranians abroad to return “without fear,” urging the judiciary and intelligence agencies to coordinate efforts to ensure their safety.

“These individuals are also assets of this land,” Pezeshkian said during a July 26 meeting at the foreign ministry.

He emphasized the need to “create a framework” that encourages comfortable returns, echoing comments by Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri, who said the country was “rolling out the red carpet.”

Yet the renewed outreach has been met with skepticism. In recent years, several dual and foreign-based nationals have been detained upon arrival or departure from Iran, often without transparent legal proceedings.

Earlier this week, Siamak Namazi, a former Iranian-American prisoner who was held in Iran for eight years, criticized Pezeshkian’s call, accusing the Islamic Republic of continuing a “heinous diplomacy of hostage-taking.”

Among the most recent cases was Nasrin Roshan, a British-Iranian dual citizen detained in November 2023 at Tehran’s airport and held for 550 days before her release in May. Similarly, Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh was arrested shortly after returning in early 2024 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Revolutionary Court.

The broader legislation, initially passed in outline form last week with support from 209 lawmakers, proposes easing bureaucratic barriers, offering consular services, and revisiting policies on dual citizenship, investment, and education for Iranians abroad.

Still, some lawmakers voiced doubt about its potential impact.

“Until domestic issues such as administrative corruption, a weak banking system, and lack of meritocracy are resolved, this bill will not encourage Iranians to return,” said MP Ahmad Fatemi of Babol earlier this month.

A December 2024 nationwide survey on migration found that while 19% of 12,000 respondents were living abroad, only one in five expressed interest in returning. The same study revealed that just 16% of Iranians were not considering emigration.

“In line with national cohesion and on the president’s directive, the cabinet today approved the withdrawal of the digital content bill,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani announced on X on Wednesday.

The bill, titled “Combating the Dissemination of False Content in Cyberspace,” had sparked fierce backlash since it was submitted to parliament on July 20 by President Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet.

It proposed prison terms, bans, and fines for online users. Penalties would be harsher for repeat violations, fake accounts, or posts during “crisis or wartime”.

“This bill is not an obstacle to free speech,” Mohajerani said earlier this month. “Its aim is to address fake and harmful news that damages public trust.”

Critics warned that its vague terms—such as “distorted, misleading, and harmful to public perception"—opened the door for arbitrary prosecutions.

“The bill is not designed to fight lies, but rather to eliminate independent narratives,” journalist Alireza Rajaei wrote last week.

Legal scholar Kambiz Norouzi and Reform Front chair Azar Mansouri both urged Pezeshkian to honor his constitutional commitments to civil liberties.

The proposal came just days after a fragile ceasefire was brokered with Israel. During the 12-day war, widespread internet blackouts across Iran had been attributed to issues of national security.

Over 2,000 citizens were also arrested during and after the war with Israel, accused of spreading false information online.

Though Pezeshkian had campaigned on promises of dialogue and press freedom, reformist figures accused him of enabling the very crackdowns he vowed to resist.

In October, rights watchdog Freedom House ranked Iran as having the world’s third most repressive internet environment and lambasted the Islamic Republic for criminalizing online criticism to boost voter turnout and legitimize its presidential elections.

“When the IAEA effectively plays the role of America and the Zionist regime’s eyes, Iran must firmly resolve to blind the eyes of Mossad and the CIA,” the paper said on Monday, citing espionage devices allegedly hidden in personal belongings.

Earlier this month, Mahmoud Nabavian, deputy chair of parliament’s National Security Committee, said that “suspicious espionage chips” had been discovered in the shoes of IAEA inspectors during visits to Iranian nuclear sites.

“Iran must now act decisively to neutralize these threats,” Kayhan added.

Parliament passed legislation in late June to suspend cooperation with the agency, accusing it of having given intelligence to the US and Israel which helped attacks on nuclear facilities, key personnel and sensitive sites in the country in last month's 12-day war.

Under the law, future inspections require approval from the Supreme National Security Council -- under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei -- and the agency must guarantee nuclear site security.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that a new framework for cooperation with the agency was under discussion.

“We remain a party to the safeguards agreements and a senior agency official will visit Iran within two weeks,” he said.

Last week, Grossi said that Iran has signaled readiness to resume technical-level discussions with the UN nuclear watchdog, though any planned visit would not yet involve inspectors.

kayhan warned, “This disgraceful record demands that all interactions with the agency be conducted with maximum caution and a thoroughly distrustful outlook."

Judicial official Ali Mozaffari said this month that Iran may try IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in absentia over his alleged role in facilitating attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Grossi has faced consistent criticism from Iranian outlets for political bias, including Kayhan’s earlier call for his arrest and execution.

Britain, France, and Germany condemned the threats and expressed full support for Grossi and the agency’s mandate.

Some users said that when requesting reasons for losing services from providers, they were advised to contact the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber Command or the Cybercrime Prosecution Office of the General Prosecutor's Office.

Upon contacting the offices, users received written instructions to verify their identity, sign a pledge not to criticize the state and post twenty messages of praise for the Islamic Republic on social media, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Tuesday.

The disconnection of SIM card services was implemented without prior warning or judicial order, it added.

One user shared a message from the Prosecutor’s Office identifying the service disruption and required actions.

“Your hostile and malicious activities on social media, contrary to the country's laws and interests, have been monitored and identified by the intelligent AI systems of the prosecutor's office. Accordingly, your internet account and SIM card services have been restricted or blocked,” the message to users read.

“To lift the restrictions and blocks, you are required to write the following pledge on a piece of paper, sign it, and provide your fingerprint. Additionally, you must publish at least twenty posts with positive content supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran on social media. These posts must not be shared simultaneously,” the message adds.

The pledge says that the "offending" individual accepts they will face legal prosecution if they repeat "malicious" activities, adding that all activities of such users will be under “constant AI monitoring,” HRANA said.

The report indicated the phenomenon was not new but appears to be becoming more widespread.

“They disconnect SIM cards with no due process, then force people to sign the pledge and remove content they don’t like," Iranian lawyer Mohsen Borhani warned this month on X. "Sadly, this is all illegal, but it’s becoming a common practice."

Though short-lived, the war inflicted deep symbolic and political damage on Tehran.

Strikes on strategic infrastructure, the killing of top commanders and damage to air defense systems raised serious doubts about the Islamic Republic’s capacity to provide security.

Far from healing old wounds, the war exposed and deepened the theocracy’s core weaknesses.

From water and power shortages to currency volatility, from political gridlock to widening social divides, nearly every facet of life in Iran bears the mark of dysfunction.

Instability is now normalized. It’s not the exception but the constant.

The new normal

Even before the war, Iran faced a web of interlocking crises: economic collapse, institutional decay, mass emigration, widespread social discontent, and deep political distrust.

Some political actors believed tactical flexibility or resource redistribution might restore order. Others foresaw collapse as inevitable. Both camps, in different ways, assumed that transformation—whether internal or external—was still possible.

The war has shifted that assumption.

Iran’s ruling establishment no longer appears capable of restoring legitimacy or reorganizing itself, but viable alternatives also seem more fractured than ever.

The opposition is scattered, the political class adrift, and grassroots movements are fragmented and organizationally thin.

Much of society is caught in a suspended state: disillusioned but not mobilized, angry but exhausted.

The Islamic Republic has tightened control—erecting checkpoints, increasing Revolutionary Guards and Basij presence and policing public spaces.

The message is blunt: We are still here. But this is not stability born of legitimacy. It is the visibility of power imposed on restless cities.

Today’s urban order rests not on consent, but on continuous police presence.

A collapsing narrative

The 12-day war exposed the hollowness of official narratives: deterrence, security and regional authority no longer carry weight.

Iran’s vulnerability wasn’t just military. It was discursive. The state’s security narrative took a direct hit.

Worse, the war ended without a lasting peace or credible guarantee against future conflict. Peace itself has become unstable. It’s more of an anxious interlude, not a resolution.

With explosions and air defense activity continuing in multiple regions, many expect a new, possibly more intense, confrontation.

Living With Crisis

The long-held notion that the Islamic Republic feeds on crisis is no longer sufficient.

In the past, crises were instrumental—tactics to manage society and consolidate power. Today, crisis is not just a means of rule but the system’s very foundation.

Crises are no longer resolved; they are extended, normalized, and embedded into daily life. The system doesn’t merely survive crisis—it is sustained by it.

This condition has been made possible by a combination of factors: the absence of a unifying alternative, the suppression of public discourse, the fragmentation of dissent, and the systematic blocking of political imagination.

The state has succeeded in minimizing mobilization through control—but it offers no vision for legitimacy in return.

Power has become form without content—a hollow repetition of authority sustained by imposed hopelessness.

Yet this persistence is not stability.

Chronic instability may appear contained—thanks to force and habituation—but the cracks are widening. The theocracy is more detached than ever from the economic, social and institutional foundations that once upheld it.

The drift into slow, grinding dysfunction leaves the country vulnerable to sudden shocks: social uprisings in neglected regions, systemic failures in water, health, or energy, or collective protests triggered by seemingly small sparks.

The Islamic Republic may still be standing—but the ground beneath it has never been shakier.