Iran hardliners reject IAEA deal, but IRGC outlet voices support

The signatories warn that current policies only embolden Tehran, which they describe as a menace to foreign powers and its people alike which survives solely through violence.

“The people of Iran have shed blood and stood firm. Now it is time for the international community to act for its own security. The struggle of the Iranian nation will be remembered in history as a sacrifice not only for freedom but also for the security of the world,” the letter states.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in September 2022 after being arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police.

Her death sparked widespread outrage and ignited the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement which was quashed with deadly force.

In their letter, the families and victims demanded governments formally designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, cut diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran, and impose sanctions on the IRGC’s financial, military and cyber networks.

"The people of Iran have shed blood and stood firm. Now it is time for the international community to act for its own security. The struggle of the Iranian nation will be remembered in history as a sacrifice not only for freedom but also for the security of the world," it read.

The families portray the Islamic Republic as weakened at home and increasingly isolated abroad. They point to the twelve-day war in June, during which the United States and Israel jointly struck nuclear sites and targeted senior IRGC officials, as a punishing blow.

Meanwhile, Iran’s economy continues to collapse. The rial has lost more than 90 percent of its value since US President Donald Trump imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions in 2018.

Coupled with widespread drought, empty taps and persistent electricity shortages, the instability is fueling fears of mass migration that could destabilize neighboring countries already struggling with refugee challenges.

The letter is signed by more than 100 victims and families of those killed or injured during nationwide uprisings in 2017, 2019, and 2022.

Among the public signatories are the families of people killed during the 2022 protests including Majid Kazemi, Mino Majidi, Pouya Bakhtiari and Aida Rostami, along with dozens of survivors who suffered severe injuries.

“On the third anniversary of her savage murder, we honor the memory of Mahsa Zhina Amini, whose young life was cut short by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Thomas “Tommy” Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson at US State Department said in a statement on Monday.

“Her murder, along with so many others, is a damning indictment of the Islamic Republic’s crimes against humanity. The United States will continue to work with allies and partners around the world to ensure that the regime’s atrocities are met with accountability, justice, and resolve,” Pigott added.

Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022, after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating mandatory hijab rules. Her death sparked months of protests dubbed Woman Life Freedom uprising during which at least 551 protesters, including 68 children, were killed, according to rights groups, and thousands detained.

Iran has executed 12 detainees linked to the 2022 protests, with eight others sentenced to death and awaiting execution, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Pigott accused Iran of ruling “through torture and execution,” neglecting its own people while funding regional militias.

“The United States stands with the people of Iran in their calls for dignity and a better life. We will continue to apply maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic, ensuring it is held accountable for actions against its people and against its neighbors,” Pigott said.

"It is now time to implement the agreement ... A return of IAEA inspectors and the resumption of safeguards implementation in Iran would serve as a good sign that agreements and understandings are possible," Grossi said at the IAEA General Conference in Vienna on Monday.

Grossi's remarks come a week after Iran and the IAEA signed a new agreement in Cairo on the practical modalities to resume inspection activities in Iran. He described the new arrangement as a framework to resume technical work and rebuild trust.

“Now it’s up to us together, Iran and the agency to implement it, restore confidence, and move forward,” he said.

The deal appeared to break an impasse between the UN nuclear watchdog and Tehran after the latter refused to let inspectors resume their work following surprise US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to swiftly add a note of caution following its inking, saying details and restored relations must yet be explored.

Peace in peril

Grossi said that when the agency can fully carry out its mandate and answer all outstanding questions, “there will be no doubt and peace is guaranteed.”

“When that ability is compromised or limited, or when we cannot do what we are supposed to do, then international peace and security are indeed at risk,” Grossi added.

Grossi warned that history had shown the dangers of restricting the agency’s work, saying, “We have seen this throughout history, particularly though not only in the Middle East, and dramatically last June in Iran."

Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, including senior commanders and nuclear officials in a conflict that lasted 12 days.

On June 22, the United States joined the campaign, striking nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Washington brokered a ceasefire on June 24.

In response, Iran’s parliament passed legislation suspending all cooperation with the IAEA, but international pressure has grown for Tehran to restore ties with the agency.

Last month, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the UN snapback sanctions mechanism, leaving a 30-day window for diplomacy before sanctions are due to take effect on October 18.

One of the demands of the three European countries is the immediate resumption of full work between Iran and IAEA.

However, ultraconservative lawmaker Hamid Rasaee said Sunday that the deal with the IAEA contains no clause preventing the reimposition of UN sanctions on Tehran under the snapback mechanism.

"When a rootless child-killing criminal like @Netanyahu calls himself 'the frontline of American civilization', you can’t blame Americans if they feel like suicide," Ali Larijani wrote on X.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Netanyahu on Monday and both hailed the unity of their two nations in confronting threats they say Iran poses.

Larijani is a relative moderate and veteran insider who was elevated to lead Iran's Supreme National Security Council following a 12-day war in which Israel and the United States pounded Iranian nuclear and military sites, leaving hundreds dead.

It was unclear what Larijani meant by the assertions. "Rootless cosmopolitan" was a slur deployed in the Soviet Union directed at intellectual figures and particularly Jews, and the descriptor has been consistently deployed by anti-Semitic polemicists.

Critics of Israel have frequently scorned the relatively recent arrival of its leaders or their families from other countries in the twentieth century.

The Israeli premier's father, who was born in Poland as Benzion Mileikowsky, later adopted the Biblical surname Netanyahu and became a preeminent scholar or early modern Spain.

Larijani's assertion on the United States was less direct and could have been a reference to a fraught moment in American politics as political polarization deepens in the wake of the assassination of prominent political commentator Charlie Kirk.

Holding a PhD in philosophy and the rank of brigadier general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani has long plied a deft course around public debates which have divided Iran's ruling factions.

Larijani also serves as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's personal representative to the key decision-making SNSC, an apparent key endorsement by Tehran's top authority.

His new mandate is widely seen as righting Iran's security tack after lapses allowing Israeli attacks to kill nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians.

In the sensitive new role, Larijani has stepped up the frequency and edge of his social media criticism of Israel and the United States, especially following the 12-day war in June.

"There should be no doubt that last week’s attacks on Doha were pure terrorism; proof that the Tel Aviv regime has cast aside every moral and legal restraint," Pezeshkian told an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders in Doha on Monday.

The Iranian president said the strike was a pre-planned attempt to destroy diplomatic efforts to end the war in Gaza.

“This aggression against diplomacy is more than a crime; it is an open and shameless declaration that now military power, and not law, is decisive,” he added.

Israeli warplanes bombed a Hamas office in Doha on Tuesday, in what Israel described as ac targeted attack against the group’s senior leadership.

They missed their intended targets, killing a Qatari security official and five lower-ranking Hamas personnel.

Qatar denounced the attack as “criminal and cowardly,” while Iran called it an “extremely dangerous” violation of sovereignty and international law.

Pezeshkian accused the United States and Western powers of giving Israel decades of impunity through vetoes, trade and diplomatic protection.

“When a rogue regime receives weapons, financing and diplomatic support under any circumstances, it learns that there are no limits. History will remember the guilt of those who supported this aggression,” he said.

“The Zionist regime has declared war against our sovereignty, dignity and future. We will not be intimidated, we will not be divided, and we will not remain silent. From the ashes of Gaza, justice will rise. From the rubble of destroyed buildings in Doha, Beirut, Tehran, Damascus and Sanaa, a new order will emerge,” Pezeshkian said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said on Monday he would not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders “wherever they are.”

The September 9 strike in Doha marked a sharp escalation of Israel’s campaign, in a region already convulsed by conflict since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks that ignited an ongoing war in Gaza.

It appeared to push a negotiated solution to the Gaza conflict further away and left in doubt the next chapter of a regional confrontation pitting Iran against Israel and the United States.