All posts tagged: Irans

‘Iran’s Deadline Expires Today’: Tehran Threatens Renewed Attacks As Blockade Bites, Rial Collapses

‘Iran’s Deadline Expires Today’: Tehran Threatens Renewed Attacks As Blockade Bites, Rial Collapses

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Iran conflict is currently in an all too familiar stalemate, and many of the same statements are being regurgitated from each side – but this does indicate that negotiations have not yet entirely collapsed. Tehran is still apparently reviewing a Trump administration counterproposal to last week’s Iranian seven day ceasefire pitch (which Trump had promptly rejected). Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had confirmed Wednesday the reception of an official US response through mediators. President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday proclaimed Iran “has never avoided” dialogue with the United States despite being attacked three times when negotiations were happening. Still, the Iranians have frequently emphasized they do not trust President Trump. Pezeshkian told a meeting of entrepreneurs that the government is “seriously seeking to resolve all issues and problems related to the business sector,” as cited in Tasnim news. This comes as the Iranian rial has hit new record lows this week against the dollar. “We have never avoided dialogue and will not do so, although the United States targeted our country three times. There is good coordination …

US slaps new sanctions on networks aiding Iran’s proxies in Middle East

US slaps new sanctions on networks aiding Iran’s proxies in Middle East

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON: The US government announced new sanctions on Thursday (Sep 10) against firms and individuals that it says are aiding Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in the Middle East as it intensified its campaign to isolate Iran economically. The latest sanctions are part of the Treasury Department’s “Operation Economic Outcast,” first announced Aug 24, which aim to cut off the revenues that Tehran is using to fund the war, build missiles, conduct cyberattacks and support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. Thursday’s actions by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit entities and individuals in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey that Washington said supported Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group under the command of the IRGC, and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia party, Treasury said in a statement. Treasury also announced a settlement with a US citizen who agreed to pay US$1.43 million to settle their potential civil liability for 39 apparent violations of sanctions on Iran, and issued a broad whistleblower appeal for tips on any sanctions evasion or money laundering by Iran. Source …

Two arrested in London on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service | UK News

Two arrested in London on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service, the Metropolitan Police said. A 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were detained at addresses in London by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing London, as part of an investigation into suspected National Security Act (NSA) offences. It follows searches of addresses in north-west London on 24 June, with a third property in the area also searched on 9 September. Both were held on suspicion of an offence under section 3 of the NSA, 2023 – assisting a foreign intelligence service. The suspects were taken to a London police station, and were subsequently released on bail with strict conditions until a date in late October. Read more:At least 20 people killed after fire on cargo shipRemembering 9/11: A son’s final call Police said the investigation was not connected to any of the incidents or attacks earlier this year that have been targeted at various venues and buildings linked to Jewish and Iranian communities across London. Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London …

Iran’s Ghalibaf Declares Persian Gulf Oil Flows For ‘All Or None’

Iran’s Ghalibaf Declares Persian Gulf Oil Flows For ‘All Or None’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Via The Cradle Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared on 28 August that either all Persian Gulf countries will be allowed to export oil freely or none will, adding that the security of West Asia depends on the withdrawal of US forces. “The equation of this war is clear: either all or none!” Ghalibaf said, adding, “In a region where we don’t sell oil, no one else will sell oil either.” The speaker emphasized further, “If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe.” “Security of the strait depends on the absence of US forces. We have said many times that the situation in the strait will not return to what it was before the war.” The comments came in response to claims by US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper that US forces had seized full control of the Strait of Hormuz and halted Iranian oil exports.  Iran’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued the same day, urged all states to refuse to enforce a new US sanctions package the …

Iran’s strategy to simply outlast Trump’s presidency

Iran’s strategy to simply outlast Trump’s presidency

Published by Sam Flores

A version of this essay first appeared in Crash Course, Salon’s free morning newsletter. Sign up for early access to articles like this, plus more of Salon’s bold journalism on how policies, movements and culture wars affect real people. By now most of us have heard the acronym TACO, for Trump Always Chickens Out, but I was recently introduced to NACHO, which means Not a Chance Hormuz Opens. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about these cutesy insults — Donald Trump surely enjoys them, given his apparent enthusiasm for Mexican food — but appropriate or not, the labels seem accurate.  On Monday, Iran announced the strait will remain closed until Trump gives in to their demands, which include, according to the New York Times, “the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.” Trump is so eager to claim victory in the war …

Iran’s Long Shadow – The Atlantic

Iran’s Long Shadow – The Atlantic

Published by Sam Flores

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said that the U.S. could maintain a blockade of Iran “indefinitely.” On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss the political consequences of the continued conflict, and more. The president has made “a total miscalculation” with Iran, Elisabeth Bumiller, a writer at large at The New York Times, argued last night. What has unfolded since the conflict began reflects “the reason that previous presidents did not do what Donald Trump did, because of the inevitable consequences” of “igniting a regional war in the Middle East and closing the Strait of Hormuz.” Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Bumiller; Adam Harris, the host of Radio Atlantic; Dan Lamothe, a national-security reporter at The Washington Post; Liz Landers, a White House correspondent at PBS News Hour. Watch the full episode here. Source link

U.K. to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group

U.K. to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON ― Britain will declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group and place sanctions on the elite paramilitary organization that is expanding control of the country. The designation comes after U.K. authorities linked the IRGC and its proxies to a wave of violent plots on British soil, including bombing and assassination attempts targeting Iranian journalists and activists in Britain. Source link

Iran’s environmental catastrophe has also wrecked its economy

Iran’s environmental catastrophe has also wrecked its economy

Published by Miika Tikkanen

For several decades, Iran has devoted substantial financial, institutional and political resources to military expansion. It has invested heavily in supporting its regional partners, as well as in pursuing geopolitical influence across the Middle East. Previously, the Islamic Republic has shown few signs of swivelling its resources toward fixing its ever expanding environmental problems. And those problems are considerable. Around 11% of deaths and 52% of the burden of diseases across the country are attributable to environmental risk factors, according to the World Health Organization. Excessive groundwater extraction has caused buildings and roads to crack and sometimes collapse. Iran’s capital Tehran is often ranked as having the worst levels of air pollution in the world. In 2025 local media reported 350 deaths caused by poor air quality within a ten-day period. Hospitals at the time reported rising numbers of cases of respiratory and cardiac complications across Iran. Lake Urmia – once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake – has dried out, leaving salt-laden dust plumes were capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres and even crossing …

Mourners throng funeral procession for Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei

Mourners throng funeral procession for Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei

Published by Sam Flores

Flower petals are thrown on the coffins of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his family members along a street during their funeral procession in Tehran on Monday. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images ISTANBUL — Huge crowds of people joined the funeral procession of Iran’s late supreme leader as it made its way through the capital, Tehran, on Monday. Iranian state media showed the caskets of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and four family members — killed the first day of Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 — draped with the Iranian flag and placed on a large semitrailer adorned with white paneling. It moved slowly as people wearing black wailed and swarmed the truck, some throwing flowers at the caskets, others waving red flags symbolizing revenge. But not everyone is mourning. “Why should we spend so much on the mourning ceremony of the leader who ordered the killing of thousands of people?” says 32-year-old Mona. She asked NPR only to use her first name because …