Iran’s dam reserves fall sharply as drought reshapes central villages

The Financial Trend Analysis (FTA) released by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) outlines how Iran used foreign companies and exchange houses to skirt sanctions and fund overseas operations, including oil sales and weapons procurement.

“Identifying Iran’s complex financial lifelines and shadow networks is an essential part of cutting off the funding for their military, weapons programs, and terrorist proxies,” FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said. “By issuing this public analysis, we hope to draw attention to Iran’s shadow banking activity and encourage financial institutions to be vigilant,” she said.

The FTA forms part of US president Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign announced in February, aimed at denying Iran nuclear weapons and missile capabilities and curbing its regional influence.

FinCEN’s report is based on financial institution filings covering transactions made before the campaign’s launch, supplementing a June advisory on Iranian oil smuggling and procurement efforts. It highlights that shell companies outside the United States appear to play the largest role in the shadow banking network, accounting for roughly $5 billion of activity in 2024.

The report also found that Iran-linked oil companies, primarily based in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, moved about $4 billion that year—likely tied to concealed oil sales. Meanwhile, entities suspected of technology procurement handled approximately $413 million in transactions linked to Iranian networks.

According to FinCEN, the network spans the UAE, Hong Kong, and Singapore, with Iranian front companies in sectors from shipping to investment. The findings stress how Tehran’s financial system relies on layers of intermediaries to maintain access to global markets despite sanctions.

The new analysis, the Treasury said, would assist US and foreign banks in tracing suspicious transfers and reinforcing compliance efforts.

“We're all in the same boat shaped by the sacrifices of the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution, and it would be a shame if our differences created weaknesses", he said in an interview with state media

It sounded, at first, like an appeal for unity. But in the opaque language of the Islamic Republic, moral parables are rarely innocent.

Beneath the call for calm was a political warning: a message to rival factions inside the regime to stop leaking, stop exposing, stop fighting, before their infighting sinks the whole ship.

When Shamkhani urged everyone not to “puncture the boat,” he invited an obvious question: whose boat? Was he speaking of the Iranian nation or of the VIP mariners like himself who have captained it for nearly five decades?

In one reading, the “boat” is the state itself, a vessel battered by sanctions, protests and crises. From that vantage point, Shamkhani’s warning was a familiar one: security men urging unity to preserve the ship of state.

But there’s another interpretation, and it’s the one most Iranians heard. This wasn’t a plea for national survival.

It was a coded SOS from the elite, a reminder to fellow insiders that the leaks threatening to sink them were coming from within their own cabin. Their “boat” isn’t the Islamic Republic; it's the luxury vessel of privilege, patronage and power that keeps them afloat while the rest of the country treads water.

History has shown that when Iran’s political ship hits rough waters, it’s not the captains who drown, it’s the crew.

Economic collapse, inflation, repression, all of it falls hardest on those already half-submerged: workers, teachers, pensioners and the youth. Meanwhile, those steering the ship have lifeboats waiting: foreign bank accounts, Dominica passports, villas on Private Islands or even in London.

So when Shamkhani warns that “we’ll all sink together,” he isn’t speaking to the street vendors or nurses who can’t afford rent. He’s speaking to his peers, the sanctioned oligarchs and security bosses who know that too much sunlight might burn their privilege.

The crumbling myth of piety

The scandal’s power lies not in the wedding itself, but in what it reveals: the erosion of the ruling system's last claim to legitimacy and moral authority.

For decades, the Islamic Republic justified its rule through an ethic of sacrifice and piety. The message was simple: we may be strict, but we are righteous. Now, its ruling class lives like exiled royalty and curses its critics.

Every leaked image of over-indulgence, every glimpse behind the velvet curtain, peels away another layer of the revolution’s moral armor.

Corruption is not a crack in the hull; it is the hull. And the public knows it. Outrage has given way to a colder recognition: the ship has been taking on water for years.

The Iranian people no longer expect reform from within. They have learned that the system cannot self-correct because it was never built to share accountability, only to protect those who built it.

And so, Shamkhani’s metaphor holds, but not in the way he intended.

Iran is a boat, yes. But it’s one where a few dine under chandeliers while others take on water in the dark. The waves are rising. And this time, the passengers in steerage are no longer willing to go down quietly.

“The international community must urge the Iranian regime to give up its false hope of revolution, forego its ambitions toward its neighbors, and stop meddling in the politics of other countries in the region,” Michael Waltz said in a speech at the UN.

“Instead, Iran should engage in direct and good-faith dialogue with the United States for the benefit of the Iranian people and the security of the region,” Waltz added.

Iran's relations with Washington appear to be deteriorating as an impasse over Iran's disputed nuclear program festers and European countries triggered the so-called snapback of international sanctions on Tehran last month.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Monday that Washington sought to bully Iran by making it concede defense capabilities, appearing to reject a peace overture the previous week by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking on the Gaza peace plan, Waltz praised the Trump administration for its achievement and called for greater pressure on Iran to ensure full implementation.

“Because of tough action against Iranian proxies, we are seeing historic opportunities in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and across the region. In this spirit, the United States supports the reimposition of UN snapback sanctions on the Iranian regime,” he said.

The sanctions have further strained Iran's economy after a punishing 12-day war with Israel and the United States in June.

“The regime will continue to face consequences as long as it remains on its path of destruction,” Waltz said.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, rejected the remarks, saying Iran’s foreign policy is based on “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference and good neighborliness,” and that it “has always been ready for fair and genuine dialogue.”

Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and that repeated US accusations were aimed at justifying what it calls its aggression.

Western countries have called for Tehran to engage in renewed diplomacy with Washington and restored access to international nuclear inspectors.

Alinejad said the hearing would take place in Manhattan on Wednesday and that she planned to appear in person.

She said she would come “face-to-face with the two Russian hitmen sent by Iran’s regime,” adding that she has survived one kidnapping and two assassination plots on US soil.

“I lost my Brooklyn home, my garden, my peace, but not my voice,” she wrote. “Transnational repression is dictatorship without borders. It must end.”

In March, a US jury found Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov guilty on all charges related to a plot to assassinate Alinejad.

The charges against them included murder for hire, firearms possession and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were members of the Russian mob. Their lawyers argued that they were innocent and evidence presented at trial was flawed.

Khalid Mehdiyev, a member of the Thieves in Law gang, said he received orders from the two to kill the journalist who uses her platform to expose the Islamic Republic’s repression.

As a government witness, who has made a deal with prosecutors, Mehdiyev pleaded guilty to attempted murder and gun charges, but Omarav and Amirov stood trial.

Alinejad, who has long criticized Iran’s compulsory hijab laws and its treatment of women, said she will speak at the sentencing not just for herself, but "for every woman who refuses to be afraid.”

“Despite all the efforts made, this bank could not be placed on the path of reforms as desired by the central bank,” official media cited Central Bank Governor Mohammadreza Farzin as saying.

Farzin said that the bank had 5.5 quadrillion rials ($5.1 billion) in accumulated losses, 3.13 quadrillion rials ($2.9 billion) in overdrafts, and a negative 600 percent capital adequacy ratio.

Iran’s economy minister said all customer deposits will be transferred to state-owned Bank Melli Iran, with branches rebranded and funds accessible from October 25.

“Serious measures for banks that did not comply with regulations were necessary, but in the past, legal shortcomings prevented decisive action,” Ali Madanizadeh said.

Madanizadeh said the accumulated losses of Ayandeh Bank would be covered by the bank’s main shareholders, without providing further details.

The collapse underscores Iran’s deepening banking crisis, worsened by sanctions and mismanagement. Earlier this year, the Central Bank warned that eight other banks risk dissolution without reforms.

The Central Bank of Iran has not publicly disclosed the names of the eight banks at risk of dissolution due to financial instability.

Ayandeh Bank was established in 2013 following the merger of several smaller financial institutions, most notably Tat Bank, Saman Bank’s credit institutions, and Ansar Financial and Credit Institute.

Iran’s banking system has been one of the hardest-hit sectors under decades of United States and international sanctions, which have crippled access to global finance, cut off dollar transactions, and eroded confidence in the rial.