Friday prayer leader vows to destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa
Iran will destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if attacked and said defiance is the nation’s chosen path, Tehran Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami said.
“They tell us not to enrich and not to have long- and medium-range missiles so that if they attack they can plough Iran; these fools do not know that we will plough Tel Aviv and Haifa,” Khatami added.
He told the United States and three European states that "activating the snapback will achieve nothing after 47 years of failure."
The exchange rate in Iran’s informal market is driven up by psychological operations but falls with political calm, central bank governor Mohammadreza Farzin said on Friday.
Farzin warned of inflationary effects from raising the official exchange rate. “Our goal is to control both the official and unofficial currency markets together under current conditions,” Farzin said.
The price of the dollar is ultimately controllable despite multiple factors driving it, Mojtaba Yousefi, a member of the parliament, said in remarks published on Friday.
Yousefi described the reactivation of snapback sanctions as proof of “Western noncompliance with international rules,” adding that the real solution lies in trusting the people and youth.
Thanks for clarifying. Here’s a corrected neutral caption: A passenger bus seen in a valley after crashing on the Damavand–Firouzkouh road northeast of Tehran, October 3, 2025.
At least four people were killed and about 20 injured when a passenger bus plunged into a valley on the Damavand–Firouzkouh road in the Alborz mountains northeast of Tehran, Red Crescent chief Shahin Fathi said on Friday, according to Iranian media.
Fathi said the accident happened around 8 a.m. near the Dehkadeh Sibland complex. He said rescue teams were immediately sent to the site and that the number of victims could rise.
The road links Tehran to Mazandaran province through mountain passes and is one of the busiest intercity routes in northern Iran.
Police road chief Ahmad Karami Asad said the Scania bus, carrying 33 passengers from Qazvin to Mazandaran, overturned in the Aminabad area. He said preliminary checks suggested the driver had been tired and drowsy.
Emergency officials said two of the injured were taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in Firouzkouh, three to Som’e Shaban hospital in Damavand and three were flown by helicopter to Tehran. Other passengers were treated on site. Several of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency said some passengers were trapped inside the bus before being freed by rescuers.
Road crashes have become a major public concern in Iran. The Legal Medicine Organization said in May that nearly 19,500 people died in traffic accidents in the last Iranian year, most of them on intercity highways. Official data show more than 20,000 deaths were recorded the year before, the highest toll in 12 years.
At least 26 students have died in 13 accidents involving university buses across Iran over the past decade, the daily Ham-Mihan reported this week, reviving concerns about road safety and vehicle standards.
Khamenei should not insist on rejecting direct talks with the United States and must expect greater anger from oppressed Iranians, political activist Abdollah Naseri wrote on Friday.
“The despotic leader will get nowhere,” Naseri wrote.
“This misguided policy, with the 1,200,000 rial dollar as one of its bitter fruits, means he must expect greater anger from oppressed Iranians.”
“I believe no fundamental reform should be expected from the government except its removal by the people overpowering the Islamic Republic and its main chief,” Naseri wrote.
He said the salvation of Iran lies in nonviolent civil disobedience.
International law must not be turned into a tool for Washington following the return of UN sanctions on Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a letter to his counterparts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
“We must defend international law. This issue is not only about Iran but about the dignity of international law,” Araghchi wrote.
