US envoy bound for Mideast to ramp up pressure on Iran

“The Iranian regime has an interest in a continuous conflict with Israel,” said Palestinian political analyst Khalil Sayegh. “The Palestinians have been used as pawns in this game very cynically."

US President Donald Trump’s administration is advancing a 21-point postwar framework for Gaza, unveiled earlier this month. The plan rules out any political or military future for Hamas — the Iranian-backed group that has ruled the enclave since 2007 — and proposes Arab-led reconstruction under international supervision.

The plan has been described by regional analysts as a potential turning point — one that could further erode Iran’s leverage after the fall of its key Arab ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sayegh's father died during the war due to what he described as medical neglect due to Israeli attacks on health facilities and lack of access to medical care. His sister too lost her life while en route to Egypt on a so-called safe route designated by Israel where he says were barred from entering.

Despite his loss, he co-founded the Agora Foundation for Middle East Peace, an initiative that aims to promote a lasting peace, equal rights and prosperity for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Tehran’s support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Sayegh said, has long played into the hands of Israeli hardliners.

“Since day one, the extremists in the region have been feeding each other,” he said. “The Israeli right-wing extremists are on the record saying that Hamas is good for us and therefore we have to support them and fund them. The existence of the Iranian regime has been weaponized and used by Benjamin Netanyahu for so long.”

Hamza Howidy, also a Gaza-born activist who was twice imprisoned by Hamas before fleeing the enclave in 2023, said resentment toward Iran is widespread among ordinary Gazans.

“There is a huge, huge hate for the Iranian regime inside Gaza because those people see the Iranian regime as number one, the financer and the reason why Hamas is still there,” he said.

Howidy recalled how Gazans reacted after the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May 2024, which led to the election of Masoud Pezeshkian.

“When the Hamas affiliated people tried to make a poster for him inside Gaza during the war, the civilians themselves decided to go to take down this poster,” he said.

A shifting regional context

Both Sayegh and Howidy said Israeli claims of an expanding Iranian role in the West Bank are often exaggerated.

Sayegh said Iran’s ability to move weapons or influence groups in the West Bank has sharply diminished. “They keep trying from what I know, but I don’t think they will succeed,” he said. “They lost Syria — that was their biggest front to claim they’re coming to liberate Palestine.”

Iran’s role in sustaining Palestinian divisions has undermined every path toward peace, Sayegh told Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran.

“Iran has maintained the Palestinian division between the West Bank and Gaza,” Sayegh said. “That has been used by the Israeli regime to argue that a two-state solution is not possible because of the Iranian funding to Hamas.”

Iran’s shrinking reach

Both men said Iran’s influence is diminishing as its proxy network weakens across the region — a further blow to Tehran’s ambitions after two years of devastating war which followed Hamas-led attacks into Israel on October 7, 2023.

The assault killed 1,200 Israelis and brought over 200 others back into Gaza as captives. Israel's devastating incursion into the enclave killed at least 67,000 people.

“I think (Iran) will be weakened tremendously because of the incidents that happened during the past two years,” Howidy said. “I’m talking about the end of the Syrian regime, the notorious Bashar al-Assad and his regime, and then to the defeat or deterrence of Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

The recent recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, France, Italy, and Britain, Sayegh said, would remove Tehran’s main ideological justification for interference.

“When a Palestinian state emerges," he said, "the Iranian regime would lose its biggest ideological weapon that they are using—the grievances of the Palestinian people and its weaponization to justify its neo-imperialism in the region and to justify its repression of the Iranian people."

You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on Youtube or listen on any podcast platform of your choosing.

Abdelatty conveyed the message in telephone calls to Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi, according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Friday.

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon but Western powers and Israel doubt its intentions.

Egypt's efforts aim "to support security and stability in the region by finding peaceful solutions to the Iranian nuclear file," it said, adding Abdelatty "stressed the importance of continuing the dialogue between the two sides and resuming and strengthening cooperation."

The two sides inked a deal in Cairo in September aimed at resuming full IAEA access but little progress appears to have been made.

Iran suspended cooperation with IAEA inspectors after a 12-day war in June against Israel and the United States in which they attacked Iranian nuclear sites, codified via a new law passed by parliament.

Under the post-war law, inspections proceed via Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) approval for limited IAEA access at non-stricken sites, maintaining safeguards obligations under conditional cooperation while excluding full reporting and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) oversight.

Iran had warned the any concessions on inspections would be void if Western sanctions return. Since the re-imposition of UN sanctions last month, the agreement's fate with the agency remains unclear.

"We are trying to build it back, and we are inspecting in Iran," Grossi said on Wednesday. "Not at every site where we should be doing it—but we are gradually coming back."

Grossi added there was no indication of any suspicious activity at the sites attacked by Iran's foes.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported Tuesday, citing satellite imagery, that Iran has continued construction at a major underground nuclear site near Natanz.

Marziya Hosseini lost part of her short-term memory after the stroke and remains hospitalized, they added.

Despite her condition, judicial authorities issued a new summons dated October 26, giving her five days to report to the Qeshm Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office on a Persian Gulf island that was the subject of her investigations.

Charges include "slander, spreading falsehoods, satire and insult to officials and agents."

Hosseini, who has faced prior restrictions from Iran’s security officials, was summoned in June after criticizing President Masoud Pezeshkian's support for Qeshm Free Trade Zone CEO Adel Pighami.

In an X post then, she wrote: "Mr. President, see the result of your support for the corrupt CEO of the Qeshm Free Trade Zone."

She accused Pighami of embezzling public funds and holding back progress at the Qeshm free zone, adding that exposing corruption prompted complaints and threats against her rather than accountability for the issues she rasied.

The Qeshm Free Trade Zone, a key economic hub in southern Iran, has long been plagued by corruption allegations including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) linked monopolies and tax evasion through shell companies.

In 2015, the Iranian government confiscated Qeshm Airlines from its owner Babak Zanjani over bribery charges and unpaid oil debts.

Hosseini's ordeal highlights an intensifying crackdown on press freedom under President Pezeshkian.

A November 2024 report by the watchdog group Defending Free Flow of Information Organization documented 78 judicial and security actions against media outlets and journalists in his first 100 days, marking an uptick in efforts to squelch free media.

“Iranian judicial and security officials directed Kaufman to submit a conditional release request. He was removed from prison and fully released on Thursday,” Ghafouri told Iran International on Friday.

Ghafouri, a veteran investigative journalist who has reported previously on undisclosed developments within Iran's security establishment and who broke the news via a post on X, said Kaufman remained in Iran.

No official Iranian media has reported the release, and the German Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to an Iran International request for comment.

Iranian media reported in June that Kaufman had been arrested on alleged spying charges near restricted nuclear and military sites in Markazi province.

State news agency Mehr released a video they say showed Kaufman, describing him as a Jewish-German dual national tourist cycling through the region, speaking after his arrest.

In the footage, Kaufman says he was aware he was near a military area and that taking photos or videos was not allowed. He adds that he sent his location to a friend. The video is heavily edited and does not include a clear confession.

Iranian officials accuse Kaufman of gathering intelligence on sensitive military sites, including missile silos, drone routes and airbases.

Mehr said he was detained by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence operatives in an area marked with warning signs.

The 1994 attack on the Jewish community center Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) killed 85 people. Prosecutors in 2006 accused Iran of orchestrating the attack and its Lebanese affiliate Hezbollah of carrying it out.

At the time, Vahidi was the head of the Quds Force, the external operations branch of Iran's sprawling paramilitary organization the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Following an international arrest warrant issued by Argentine judicial authorities in 2006, Interpol placed him on its wanted list the following year.

Although no official decree has been published, several state-linked outlets, including Tasnim News and Defa Press, referred to him by the new title.

The move, first flagged by the Telegram channel Sabrin News, reflects another quiet reshuffle within Iran’s top ranks after a Israeli military campaign assassinated hundreds of military personnel in June, along with hundreds of civilians.

Vahidi succeeds Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani, the former defense minister, and returns to a prominent military position less than three months after leaving the Interior Ministry.

He had served as defense minister from 2009 to 2013 and as interior minister from 2021 to 2024, overseeing a deadly crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement in 2022. The US Treasury sanctioned him in October 2022 for human rights abuses and restricting internet access during the demonstrations.

Vahidi’s appointment signals the continued rise of hardline Revolutionary Guards veterans within Iran’s top command and a preference for loyal security figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.