Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the UN Security, doubted "whether the E3 have the right to invoke the snapback mechanism," speaking before China lost a vote on whether to permanently lift international sanctions on Tehran.
"China maintains that under such circumstances, hastily pushing for a vote on the draft resolution might exacerbate confrontation further and is not conducive to the resolution of the issue."
Moderates in Tehran—often accused by rivals of weakening the system—are now accusing the hardliners of undermining the supreme leader's authority through escalating factional battles.
The charge came from prominent politician Hossein Marashi, head of the centrist Construction Party, who on Wednesday accused ultraconservatives of striking a discordant note on matters of foreign policy and national security.
“(They) cannot bring themselves to act within the overall framework of the political system,” Marashi told the centrist outlet Khabar Online.
“Either their level of understanding is very low, or they fail to grasp that the president, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and the foreign minister do not speak, decide, or act without careful calculation and coordination with the system’s general policies.”
The “system,” in official parlance, refers to the supreme leader.
When asked if hardliners’ attacks on the moderate administration should be seen as an indirect challenge to Khamenei himself, Marashi said: “I think those in parliament are capable of slighting the Leader even.”
Araghchi under fire
Since Israeli and US strikes on Iran in June, Tehran moderates inside and outside president Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration have been advocating direct negotiations with Washington.
Yet some have also begun questioning the chief protagonist of diplomacy, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, urging that he be replaced by former nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi.
Replacing Araghchi, however, appears unrealistic.
On September 18, Hadi Borhani, an expert on Israeli affairs, suggested instead that the president appoint Salehi as his plenipotentiary envoy for regional affairs.
But it is unclear what Salehi could do that Araghchi cannot: decisions are made by the SNSC and ultimately by the supreme leader.
Moderates appear to be playing the same game they accuse hardliners of—shooting the messenger when the author of the message is untouchable.
'MPs abusing powers'
That may explain some of their broader criticisms of the foreign ministry.
Prominent centrist and former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi argued on Thursday that the ministry remains dominated by hardliners from the previous administration.
“Only two or three individuals from Amir-Abdollahian and Raisi’s team have been replaced in the current government,” he told Khabar Online, referring to the late foreign minister and president killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024.
The harshest attacks, however, are reserved for rival hardliners in parliament.
“What these lawmakers do to government officials is beyond their official mandate and amounts to abuse,” Karbaschi said, accusing MPs of putting factional feuds above national interests with their impeachment threats.
The ultraconservatives summoned Araghchi over his Cairo agreement with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, a move Karbaschi likened to stretching oversight powers to the point of undermining national security.
“He hasn’t done badly, but his efforts haven’t led to any breakthrough,” Karbaschi said of Araghchi’s record.
Britain, France and Germany "grossly violated the procedure for the consideration of disputed situations we have under JCPOA in particular," Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council Vasily Nebenzya said before the body voted not to permanently lift sanctions on Iran.
"Their only goal now is to use the council as a tool for their bad faith play, as a lever to exert pressure on ... a state which is trying to defend its sovereign interests," he continued.
"Here you have a very good illustration of the fact that our European colleagues do, in essence, reject diplomacy. They prefer the language of blackmail and intimidation."
The UN Security Council convened on Friday morning to discuss a draft resolution concerning the snapback of sanctions on Iran, a process initiated after European governments declared the country in significant non-performance of the 2015 nuclear deal.
South Korea, as Council president this month, placed the text in blue earlier in September. It contains a single operative paragraph affirming that past sanctions remain terminated, meaning adoption would preserve relief measures under resolution 2231.
European ministers said in an August 28 letter that Iran’s actions left no credible alternative to triggering the mechanism. They pointed to more than 8,400 kilograms of enriched uranium—forty times the agreed limit—including several hundred kilograms enriched to 60 percent. “Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to reach an extension of resolution 2231,” the German Foreign Office said Wednesday.
A video circulating on social media shows security guards clashing with visitors at the Marble Palace in Ramsar, after a hijab warning escalated into physical confrontation and police intervention.
The palace is a historic Pahlavi-era building built in 1937 by Reza Shah Pahlavi as a royal summer residence.
Iranian outlets reported the incident took place about a week ago. In the footage, a man with blood on his face lies on the ground while a guard holds a pepper spray canister. Eyewitnesses said guards used pepper spray against young women, creating panic among visitors.
The visitors were from the religious city of Mashhad, according to Entekhab News, citing a local journalist. A guard confronted one of the women at the entrance, and when her headscarf slipped inside the museum, he pushed her, sparking a fight that drew in police, the report said.
Social media users noted the recording date as September 11, days before the third anniversary of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, detained in 2022 for alleged hijab violations.
Journalist and activist Masih Alinejad reacted on Instagram, writing: “This is the same government that stages concerts at night, executes by day, and assaults women over a few strands of hair.”
Wider crackdown
The video has renewed focus on violent enforcement of compulsory hijab, with calls for accountability and protection of women in public spaces. Confrontations have been documented before, with security forces, plainclothes agents, and civilians policing women’s dress. Rights advocates warn such practices intrude on privacy and fuel social violence.
Recent weeks have seen a wave of closures targeting businesses, cafés, hotels, and bookstores over alleged defiance of hijab rules. Rights group HRANA previously reported more than 30,000 women were stopped last year for non-compliance, and at least 536 commercial units were sealed.
Despite intensified state pressure, women’s acts of defiance persist. A video obtained by Iran International on September 16 showed a woman in Karaj standing unveiled atop a garbage container and shouting, “You have turned Iran into a prison.”
The Foreign Policy Committee of the Flemish Parliament in Belgium has called on Iran’s ambassador to clarify the fate of Ahmadreza Djalali, the jailed Iranian-Swedish academic whose whereabouts have been unknown since June.
“After three months without any news, concern about the condition of Prof. Ahmadreza Djalali is greater than ever. The MPs therefore want to obtain more information from the Iranian ambassador,” parliament chair Freya Van den Bossche and committee chair Bogdan Vanden Berghe said in a joint statement on Thursday.
Djalali, a disaster medicine specialist affiliated with the Free University of Brussels, was detained in April 2016 during a professional visit to Iran. In 2017 he was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and complicity in the killing of two Iranian nuclear scientists, accusations he and his family have consistently denied.
Earlier this year, he suffered a heart attack while held in Tehran’s Evin prison. After the Israeli bombing of that facility, he was transferred with other detainees to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. From there, according to accounts shared by his family, he was taken away separately. Since June 23, there has been no trace of him.
Pressure builds in Belgium
Last week, the committee and parliament speaker Van den Bossche met Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, to discuss his situation. Following that meeting, MPs unanimously agreed to summon the Iranian envoy.
Djalali’s case has drawn international concern, with European institutions and human rights organizations urging Tehran to halt his death sentence and release him on humanitarian grounds.
For Belgian lawmakers, his disappearance has heightened alarm not only about his health but also about the Iranian authorities’ treatment of dual nationals, many of whom remain imprisoned under contested charges.