Archive

Tehran is prepared to step in to protect Iraq’s political system from collapse if formally requested, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq said on Friday.

Iran’s handwoven carpet industry has fallen to its lowest level on record, hit by US sanctions, restrictive foreign-currency rules and regional instability that have driven exports close to collapse, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Comments by Iran’s foreign minister describing international sanctions as having blessings have sparked a wave of criticism from economists and social media users, many accusing senior officials of being detached from the economic hardship faced by ordinary citizens.

Afghan refugees deported from Iran have faced arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial killings after returning to Afghanistan, according to an investigation by Afghanistan International.

Cafés—and the social life that has grown around them—have become the latest battleground for Iran’s hardliners, who increasingly see their control over everyday behavior slipping out of reach.

Iranian psychiatrists are warning of a sharp rise in acute psychiatric emergencies linked to drug use, particularly among adolescents, raising concerns that the country may face a wave of long-term psychotic disorders if the trend continues.

A network of tunnels formed by illegal underground excavations beneath Tehran’s Grand Bazaar has triggered official warnings over serious safety risks, while raising questions about their purpose and those behind the digging.

An Iranian photographer who travelled to Russia in search of work says he was coerced into joining the Russian army and sent to fight in Ukraine, pro-Kyiv media outlet UNITED24 Media reported, citing an interview with the 34-year-old man.

Sweden is investigating suspected aggravated corporate espionage at a sensitive healthcare-related company involving two brothers of Iranian origin, with TV4 reporting police are examining whether unique medical technology was intended to be taken to Iran.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it killed a senior operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in a joint operation with the country's intelligence agency in northeast Lebanon.

Iran on Thursday began pilot sales of imported super gasoline through mobile fuel trucks, offering the high-octane fuel at market prices far above the country’s newly introduced three-tier subsidized system, state media reported.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Thursday of what he called a new attempt to destabilize the country through economic pressure, urging national unity.

A second former Afghan security commander opposed to the Taliban has been killed in Iran in under four months, raising concerns among Afghan ex-military figures living in the country.

Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of spying for Iran, including photographing the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, in what authorities described as part of stepped-up Iranian intelligence activity.

Israel lacks the capacity to fight a prolonged war with Iran, an Iranian daily affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps wrote, saying that any renewed conflict would be far costlier and longer than a previous 12-day confrontation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President George W. Bush in 2001 that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons but that Moscow would not assist Tehran in acquiring sensitive technologies, according to a newly released memorandum of their first face-to-face meeting.

Iran’s proposed budget for next year contains serious flaws and unexplained spending lines, a lawmaker said on Thursday, criticizing pay rises that lag inflation and new allocations linked to the president’s office.

A cluster of former officials and pundits in Tehran has sought to downplay the likelihood of a US-backed Israeli strike on Iran, arguing that Washington has little appetite for such military action.

Iran would be destroyed if the Islamic Republic is overthrown, former president Mohammad Khatami said, arguing that reform was the only viable path for change and warning against radical movements.

There is a cruel ritual in Iranian opposition politics: some voices abroad constantly interrogate the “purity” of activists inside—why they did not speak more sharply or endorse maximalist slogans, why survival itself looks insufficiently heroic.

Tehran’s newly announced fuel price changes have been presented as a long-overdue reform of an unsustainable subsidy system, but they amount to an undeclared form of austerity aimed at rolling back subsidies with minimal political exposure.