Iran prosecutor calls drug and alcohol crackdown a national security priority

Baghaei cited the Lavon Affair, which took place in Egypt in 1954, as an example. “The Zionist regime, exploiting Egyptian Jews, carried out a series of bombings and sabotage operations against non-civilian targets linked to the United States and Britain in Alexandria and Cairo, including libraries and post offices. This is a very clear case of a false-flag operation,” he said.

Without directly mentioning last week’s shooting in Australia, he added that “these actions are entirely precedented. The most effective way to counter such behavior is to expose it and inform public opinion about the conduct and crimes of the Zionist regime, which spares no inhumane means to advance its objectives.”

Earlier this month, a mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney killed 15 people, including a child. Australian police and intelligence agencies said the attack was linked to Islamic State, and authorities and world leaders said it was motivated by antisemitism.

Following the attack, some Israeli officials and media outlets raised the possibility of Iran’s involvement in the attack, saying the matter was under review. Israel Hayom reported, citing an Israeli official, that in recent months Iran’s activities to target Israeli and Jewish interests worldwide had increased.

Iranian officials and state-linked media, meanwhile, rejected accusations of structural antisemitism or plots to attack Jewish targets, instead seeking to cast Israel as responsible for the Sydney incident.

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Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said last week that what he called Israeli officials’ “hasty” remarks about the attack could point to their own role, while lawmaker Esmail Kowsari said: “Enemies have always tried, by hiring agents, to pin responsibility for their actions on the Islamic Republic and the IRGC.”

Separately, a senior Iranian military commander accused Israel on Sunday of carrying out killings abroad for its own political ends.

“The Zionist regime has resorted to self-harm and, in an effort to prevent reverse migration and escape internal turmoil, is assassinating members of the Jewish community and individuals linked to it in other countries,” said Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic.

“Israel is playing the victim. This is not the first time; they have repeatedly committed such crimes,” he added.

Mousavi or other Iranian officials provided no evidence for the allegation.

In August, Australia accused Iran of involvement in two antisemitic arson attacks and ordered its ambassador to leave the country within seven days.

No access to Qatar-held funds

Turning to Iran’s frozen assets held in Qatar, Baghaei said Tehran still does not have effective access to billions of dollars transferred under a US-mediated prisoner swap arrangement.

“This issue is one of hundreds of examples of the United States’ failure to honor its commitments. Under the understanding that had been reached, assets belonging to the Iranian people were supposed to be made accessible to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Unfortunately, the American side did not fulfil its obligations, and this breach of commitment continues to this day.”

The funds, previously blocked in South Korean banks after US sanctions in 2018 and later transferred to Qatari banks under a 2023 agreement, remain inaccessible despite assurances they could be used under defined conditions, he said.

Iran has previously said it gained access to funds released from South Korea and transferred to Qatar, following an agreement mediated by Washington.

The $6 billion in Iranian funds was released under a US sanctions waiver as part of a prisoner exchange deal that saw Iran agree to free five Americans, while five Iranians detained in the United States were also released.

US officials said the money, transferred from South Korea to Qatar, could be used only for tightly monitored humanitarian purposes and was not directly accessible to Tehran.

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Missile program pressure

Responding to a question about Israeli and US media reports suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may urge US president Donald Trump to back renewed military action against Iran over its ballistic missile program, Baghaei said Iran’s missile program was purely defensive and not open to negotiation.

“Iran’s missile program has been developed solely for the defense of the country and is fundamentally not a matter for negotiation,” he said.

“The media hype is also part of a hybrid war that the Zionist regime, with the help of the United States and affiliated media networks, has long designed and pursued against the Islamic Republic of Iran... The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran know well how to defend the country if necessary.”

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Ukraine accusations

Baghaei also rejected comments by the Council of Europe that Iran has provided military assistance to Russia in the Ukraine war, calling the comments repetitive.

“From the very beginning of the conflict, we have said disputes must be resolved through dialogue, and that we have had no involvement in this war,” he said, adding that maintaining relations with Russia did not amount to military intervention.

“European countries should genuinely focus on their own responsibilities and act on them, instead of repeatedly levelling accusations against others. European parties need to look at their own track record and examine why the Ukraine conflict emerged in the first place.”

Western governments say Tehran has provided Moscow with Shahed-series drones, which Russia has used extensively to strike Ukrainian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities and urban areas.

Iran has denied direct involvement in the war but has acknowledged supplying drones to Russia before the conflict, a remark disputed by Kyiv and its allies, who say cooperation has expanded since the invasion.

PJAK and regional security

Asked about remarks by Turkey’s defense minister suggesting the Kurdish armed group PJAK had prepared to act against Iran during Tehran's June conflict with Israel, Baghaei said he could not comment officially but described the broader context as indicative of coordinated pressure.

“One point is entirely clear: Israel and the United States had designed a very comprehensive plan to strike at the foundations of Iran,” he said, adding that Iran resisted efforts to undermine its territorial integrity.

Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Israel and its allies had pursued a dual strategy during the conflict: direct military confrontation alongside efforts to destabilize Iran from within.

“The enemy’s defeat in the 12-day war was precisely here,” Naini said. “They tried to drag the war inside the country, but that project failed.”

Naini was speaking at a meeting to organize commemorations for December 30, a state-marked anniversary tied to mass rallies that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election and the suppression of the Green Movement protests – one of the largest episodes of unrest in Iran’s recent history.

The Green Movement is often cited alongside the 2019 Bloody November protests and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations as the most significant challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding.

Naini said Iran’s adversaries had assumed that air strikes would be followed by protests, riots or internal collapse, repeating what he described as a long-standing “illusion of chaos” rooted in past episodes of unrest.

“They sat in their war rooms with a wrong calculation, waiting for disorder, riots and the breakdown of the country from within,” he said.

Instead, Naini said the attacks were followed by large public reactions that included anti-Israel rallies and funerals for those killed, which he portrayed as demonstrations of national unity.

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He said Israel underestimated what he described as a “fortress-like” popular cohesion and that attempts at what Iranian officials often call soft war or cognitive war aimed at weakening society from within were completely unsuccessful.

“The enemy shifted from military war to cognitive war, using pessimism, division and exaggerating social dissatisfaction to weaken the unity that was formed,” Naini said.

The remarks come as regional tensions remain high and as Israel weighs next steps.

NBC News reported over the weekend that Israeli officials are preparing to brief US President Donald Trump on options for possible new military strikes on Iran, citing concerns that Tehran is rebuilding facilities linked to ballistic missile production and repairing air defenses damaged in earlier attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to raise the issue during an upcoming meeting with Trump, including options for US support or participation in any future action, according to the report.

Trump has repeatedly said US strikes in June destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities and has warned Tehran against trying to rebuild them. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its military and nuclear programs are defensive.

Naini said Iran continues to monitor what he described as hostile plans closely, adding that the lesson Iranian officials draw from both past unrest and the recent war is that internal cohesion remains decisive in confronting external threats.

“Today, one gram of gold is equal to a full month’s minimum wage for a worker,” said Habib Sadeghzadeh Tabrizi, an inspector with the country’s High Council of Islamic Labor Councils.

He added the collapse in real wages has reached a point where the traditional phrase “shrinking dinner table” no longer applies, adding that many workers effectively have no table left.

With gold trading at around 135.5 million rials per gram – roughly $104 at current exchange rates, and the dollar near 1.3 million rials, he said the gap between official wages and real living costs has become untenable.

He said runaway inflation has stripped Article 41 of Iran’s labor law – meant to link wages to inflation and living costs – of any practical meaning, adding that salaries now lose value even before they are paid.

Sadeghzadeh said wages for the current year were set when the dollar stood near 850,000 rials, but have since been overtaken by a sharp currency slide, leaving workers unable to plan even basic daily expenses.

“If this trend continues, it will not only destroy workers’ livelihoods but also undermine production and the wider economy,” he said, adding that fair tax exemptions and wage adjustments in line with real inflation are now a national necessity, not a sectoral demand.

In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev stunned the communist world by denouncing Joseph Stalin’s crimes in a closed-door speech at the Communist Party Congress.

The address, later leaked, raised expectations that the Soviet system might be capable of reform from within. Instead, it exposed pressures the leadership struggled to contain, contributing to unrest at home and rebellion abroad—notably in Hungary—and ultimately reinforcing the limits of permissible change.

That pattern—tactical relaxation under pressure, followed by retrenchment—offers a useful lens for understanding Iran’s current moment.

Since June’s 12-day war with Israel and the United States, the Islamic Republic has been navigating what officials privately describe as a convergence of external threat and internal fragility.

Internationally, Tehran faces deepening isolation and a US administration that has shown a willingness to use force. Domestically, the aftershocks of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising continue to shape public behavior and elite anxiety.

Lifeline: patriotism

Against that backdrop, the state has adopted a dual strategy.

On one track, it has sought to soften flashpoints—particularly hijab enforcement—that could reignite street unrest. Police patrols have become less visible, enforcement more uneven, and officials have emphasized “cultural” rather than coercive methods.

On another track, the leadership has leaned into a form of state-sponsored nationalism that draws selectively on Iran’s pre-Islamic past.

Last month, authorities unveiled a statue in Tehran depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before the Sassanid king Shapur I, commemorating a third-century Persian victory over Rome. The accompanying slogan—“You will kneel before Iran again”—was echoed in imagery portraying Israel’s prime minister in a similar posture.

Such symbolism would have been unthinkable for much of the theocracy’s history, when pre-Islamic iconography was treated with suspicion or outright hostility.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reinforced this shift in July when, in his first public appearance after the war, he asked a religious eulogist to perform “Ey Iran,” a nationalist song associated with the pre-revolutionary era.

The gesture was widely read, both inside Iran and abroad, as an attempt to blur the line between religious authority and national identity—and by some, as a signal of potential recalibration.

‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’

History suggests caution. Authoritarian systems have often reached for controlled liberalization or symbolic inclusion during moments of acute stress, only to reverse course once the immediate danger recedes.

Mao Zedong’s 1957 “Hundred Flowers” campaign—launched in part to manage the fallout from Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization—famously invited criticism before giving way to a sweeping crackdown when dissent exceeded official expectations.

Iran’s trajectory over recent months has followed a similar arc.

Even as officials spoke of unity and restraint, legislation advanced to tighten restrictions on speech, expand capital punishment for acts of dissent, and broaden the security services’ remit online.

Arrests and executions have continued at a steady pace, and pressure on journalists, activists and minority communities has intensified.

Earlier this month, Khamenei dismissed criticism of hijab laws as part of a Western ideological campaign, warning domestic media against amplifying such views. The judiciary chief swiftly followed suit, announcing a more coordinated effort involving police and prosecutors—a signal less of retreat than of reorganization.

The episode underscores a recurring dynamic in the Islamic Republic’s history: moments of apparent opening that generate speculation about reform, followed by moves that reassert control once the boundaries of dissent become clearer.

As with Khrushchev’s speech nearly seven decades ago, the significance may lie less in the promise of change than in what the response reveals about the system’s underlying anxieties—and the limits it is ultimately prepared to enforce.

“They are preparing to make the case during an upcoming meeting with Trump that it poses a new threat,” NBC News said, citing a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former US officials briefed on the matter.

Israeli officials believe Iran is rebuilding facilities linked to ballistic missile production and repairing air defenses damaged in earlier strikes, which they view as more urgent than nuclear enrichment efforts, NBC reported.

“The nuclear weapons program is very concerning. There’s an attempt to reconstitute. It’s not that immediate,” one person familiar with the plans told NBC, referring to Iran’s nuclear activities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to raise the issue when he meets Trump later this month, including options for US support or participation in any future action, the report said.

Trump's warning

Trump has repeatedly said US strikes in June destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities and warned Tehran against trying to rebuild.

“If they do want to come back without a deal, then we’re going to obliterate that one, too,” Trump said earlier this month. “We can knock out their missiles very quickly.”

A White House spokesperson said the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran had corroborated the US assessment that the strikes “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

June strikes and inspections dispute

Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 13, targeting nuclear facilities, senior military figures and scientists, accusing Tehran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program. The US followed with strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22.

Iran, which denied the accusations, responded with missile attacks including on a US base in Qatar.

The episode comes as the IAEA presses Iran for access to damaged nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, saying it must decide whether the sites are inaccessible, a demand Tehran has rejected as unreasonable.