US accuses Iran of violating international law over tanker seizure

“The US president must accept that peace is not achieved by force,” Kamal Kharrazi, head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said during a speech at a conference in Tehran.

“As your predecessors tested Iran and saw that Iran cannot be destroyed through force and stands firm in defending its rights, you should study their experience. Come and hold real negotiations with Iran based on mutual respect,” Kharrazi said in comments directed at Trump.

"Of course, you should know that we will not abandon enrichment, nor will we give up our military power," he added.

Kharrazi said Iran began producing weapons and missiles during the Iran–Iraq war in the 1980s and has since become a major missile power.

US talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program began earlier this year with a 60-day ultimatum. On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has called the attacks illegal.

The United States has demanded Iran renounce domestic uranium enrichment while Tehran maintains its nuclear program is an international right.

Kharrazi argued that United Nations failed to protect Iran’s rights during the June war. “You saw that the United Nations did not help Iran, and the secretary general only called for restraint,” he said.

He said the United States and Israel bear responsibility for the June strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, calling them illegal.

“Attacking nuclear facilities is essentially illegal, especially facilities that are under the supervision of the Agency (the International Atomic Energy Agency),” he said, adding that Washington must accept accountability.

Kharrazi’s comments came as Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also addressed the conference in Tehran.

Araghchi said Iran is prepared for another round of conflict, warning that foreign powers must choose the path forward between diplomacy and war after the twelve-day conflict in June.

“Those who want to engage with Iran must decide which experience they want to base their approach on. We are ready for both,” Araghchi said.

The Energy Ministry’s atmospheric water technologies organization said the first flight of the 2024–25 water year was conducted on Saturday over northwestern Iran, where Lake Urmia – once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake – has largely dried into a salt plain after years of drought, over-extraction and extreme heat. 

Mohammad-Mehdi Javadianzadeh, who heads the state body, said a specialized aircraft equipped for cloud seeding was deployed as a suitable weather system passed over the region.

He said teams plan to conduct operations “on all incoming systems that are technically viable” and are assessing conditions over Tehran and other provinces to determine whether additional flights can be launched in the coming days.

He said the aim is to maintain continuous operational capacity in the northwest, with authorities planning to base a dedicated aircraft in Tabriz to service both East and West Azarbaijan provinces. 

The program is expected to run until mid-May using both aircraft and drones. Cloud seeding, Javadianzadeh added, is internationally recognized as a cost-effective tool for atmospheric water harvesting.

“Cloud seeding has been shown to increase precipitation and is used around the world not only to enhance rainfall but also to suppress hail, disperse fog and increase hydropower reserves,” he said.

But he warned that the technology has limits and requires clear public messaging: “If the issue is not explained properly, expectations beyond the capacity of the technology or disappointment with it may emerge among society and decision-makers.”

Cloud seeding widely used, but not a cure-all

Cloud seeding is used in more than 50 countries, including the United States, China, Australia and several Middle Eastern states. Scientific reviews suggest that under favorable atmospheric conditions the process can boost precipitation by 5 to 15 percent, though results vary widely and remain difficult to measure precisely.

Iran’s neighbors – especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – have expanded large-scale seeding programs, with the UAE carrying out more than 200 missions a year and investing in drone-based techniques similar to those Iran has begun deploying. 

Experts say that while cloud seeding can marginally increase rainfall, it cannot compensate for decades of overuse, aquifer depletion and climate-driven aridity across the region. 

Prayers for rain held nationwide

The new operations come as Iran faces what water specialists describe as a nationwide emergency. Reservoirs supplying Tehran are at or near historic lows, and authorities warn the capital could face extensive rationing if winter rains fail. Some neighborhoods have already reported intermittent cuts.

This week, cities across Iran held rain-seeking prayers as clerics urged the faithful to perform the traditional salat al-istisqa amid the worsening drought. 

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  Senior Iranian cleric calls for rain prayers as water crisis deepens

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  Salt storms drive migration as Iran’s Lake Urmia turns to dust

In Tehran, worshippers gathered at the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in the north of the capital on Friday. Similar ceremonies were held in Mashhad, Qom and Qazvin.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli said the prayer is “asking for water in all forms, not just rain,” calling it a moment for repentance and unity as water shortages deepen nationwide.

Experts say Iran is experiencing “water bankruptcy,” a condition in which consumption has exceeded renewable supply after decades of over-pumping, large-scale basin transfers and agricultural expansion. 

Northwestern Iran has been among the hardest-hit regions. Lake Urmia’s collapse has triggered expanding salt storms that have damaged farmland and forced some residents to leave nearby villages, according to local media and environmental researchers. 

Officials say unauthorized wells and heavy irrigation remain major drivers of groundwater decline.

Meteorological officials say rainfall so far this autumn is nearly 90% below long-term averages, making it the driest season in half a century.

“Combating nudity and improper hijab is a special priority for the judiciary and judicial officers, and those who issue permits or organize events that violate the law and Sharia will be prosecuted,” Mizan said in a report on Sunday.

Mizan added that agencies authorized to issue permits for ceremonies, celebrations, or gatherings “must obtain serious commitments from applicants to observe social norms before issuing permits and maintain continuous on-site monitoring during events to ensure these commitments are upheld.”

Mizan said prosecutors should supervise how permit-issuing bodies enforce these requirements and act against any negligence.

The outlet cited earlier remarks by Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, who has repeatedly warned that authorities view what they call social “abnormalities” as part of an organized effort.

Ejei has said he instructed prosecutors “to ask security and law enforcement agencies to identify organized and foreign-linked groups involved in social abnormalities and refer them to the judiciary.”

Ejei has argued that the promotion of improper hijab and related behavior is one of the “enemy’s” tools to undermine religious and social values, telling officials in recent speeches that security, intelligence, and judicial bodies must act against groups the state considers coordinated or foreign-influenced.

He has also said event organizers, venue operators, and permit-issuing bodies share legal responsibility for any violation that occurs at their gatherings and will be prosecuted as accomplices if they fail to prevent acts deemed contrary to law or Sharia.

He urged prosecutors to demand strict oversight from judicial officers across public venues such as restaurants, cafés, and entertainment spaces.

Mizan's report comes as authorities in Iran are increasingly targeting businesses rather than individuals who refuse to observe the theocracy’s strict social laws around veiling and gender mixing.

Last month, authorities in Tehran shut down two cafe-restaurants over alleged violations including “serving alcohol, nudity, and mixed-gender dancing.”

Since August, at least 20 cafes, garden restaurants, and wedding halls have been closed in Tehran, Dezful, Hamedan, Kashan and Maragh in Isfahan province over alleged hijab violations, according to a report by reformist daily Ham Mihan.

The event had turned the university “into a venue for inappropriate entertainment,” according to the Basij group statement. Fars reported that music with political themes had been played over images showing unveiled participants.

Tehran Design Week, which began on November 10, brought together designers presenting creative works across multiple venues in the city.

Images of women attending without the compulsory hijab had already drawn wide attention on social media, where videos shared from the event showed strong turnout from young people.

“The movement promoting moral corruption not only rejects any boundaries, but shows a clear determination to push the situation further and make it worse. This trend – with new examples emerging every day – is intolerable for the religious majority of society and will eventually lead to a social and cultural explosion,” Fars added.

Some government-aligned social media accounts criticized the festival and directed their criticism at university officials and the science minister.

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  New Tehran Fashion Week set to test Iran's morality limits

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  Iranian prosecutors set to target anti-hijab groups

The shutdown comes as Iran shows selective signs of easing social controls while deepening its political clampdown.

A Reuters analysis last week said while signs of looser social restrictions have appeared in several Iranian cities, the government has simultaneously expanded the scope of political repression – a trend that activists and some former Iranian officials say has intensified to an unprecedented degree in recent months.

At an official ceremony unveiling a new statue in Tehran’s Enghelab Square earlier in November, participants faced no mandatory hijab restrictions.

Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, based in Washington DC, told Reuters that the strategy shows “tactical management” but the government's red lines remain firm.

The hijab, which became a central fault line after the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, is now being enforced unevenly.

With public anger simmering and officials wary of another wave of nationwide unrest, President Masoud Pezeshkian has declined to put into effect the hardline-supported “Hijab and Chastity” law passed last year.

“That contradiction is deliberate: a release valve for the public, coupled with a hard ceiling on genuine dissent,” Vatanka added.

“The Houthis are currently facing a crisis of options and priorities, pressing internal challenges, and a complex regional landscape that does not allow them much, especially after indications of a shift in some of Tehran’s approaches towards the countries of the region,” the outlet wrote on Thursday.

Quds Force commander Abdolreza Shahlaei returned to Sanaa after previously being recalled to Iran, the report said.

“The Revolutionary Guards and experts who are present as jihadist assistants to the Houthis do not fill this strategic void. They are essentially an extension and reflection of the confusion that exists in Tehran… The Iranians were forced to return the prominent leader, Abdolreza Shahlaei, to Sana’a after October 7.”

Shahlaei is one of the Revolutionary Guard’s most enigmatic commanders, and Iran International reported in March that the Islamic Republic had neither confirmed nor denied his existence.

The United States has imposed sanctions on Shahlaei and set a $15 million reward for information on his network and activities. US officials say he survived a drone strike the same night former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad and remains central to Iran’s Yemen operations.

A separate report on Friday in the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat quoted senior Yemeni political sources as saying that Iran is increasing military and security support to compensate for what they called its setbacks elsewhere.

Recent Israeli strikes exposed major security failures within the Houthis, damaging the group’s standing, according to source speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat.