All posts tagged: Irans

This May Be Iran’s First Misstep – And Proof Leverage Isn’t Total

This May Be Iran’s First Misstep – And Proof Leverage Isn’t Total

Published by Jenni Sidey

Brent and WTI futures extended declines on Tuesday morning as momentum continued toward an end to the US-Iran conflict. The latest signs of de-escalation include a U.S. waiver allowing some crude and fuel sales from Iran, while Tehran said $12 billion in frozen funds had been released as part of ongoing talks with U.S. negotiators. Both sides have signaled progress so far this week, further eroding the war premium in crude markets as traders begin to price in the flood of Iranian barrels hitting global markets, normalization of the Hormuz chokepoint, and a broader easing of geopolitical risk across the Persian Gulf. Strait of Hormuz, this morning. • 04:03 UTC: a cluster of commercial vessels holding convoy formation ahead of transit.• 06:45 UTC: the same vessels underway and crossing south of Larak. pic.twitter.com/F1Yj9e0l7Q — Windward (@WindwardAI) June 23, 2026 Brent fell to $77 a barrel after sliding 3.3% on Monday, while WTI traded around $73 a barrel. On the Hormuz front, ship traffic continued to normalize as an increasing number of tankers and cargo ships …

Interior Department compares Reflecting Pool algae to Iran’s navy

Interior Department compares Reflecting Pool algae to Iran’s navy

Published by Sam Flores

The Interior Department on Thursday touted the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool by comparing algae to the Iranian navy. “The advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening—most infamously [former President] Obama’s reopening—since 1922,” the department’s press team wrote on social platform X.  “The Reflecting… Source link

The Betrayal of Iran’s People

The Betrayal of Iran’s People

Published by Daniella Wilson

On the night of January 8, in the low-slung, industrial city of Karaj, just northwest of Tehran, a 17-year-old boy named Sam Afshari was killed by Iran’s security services. He and his friends were peacefully protesting when the streetlights suddenly went dark. Witnesses saw members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij militia on the beds of trucks charge up behind demonstrators, firing .50-caliber machine guns indiscriminately into the crowd. Sam was shot in the back, just below his kidneys, and brought to a hospital alive for surgery. He had a breathing tube in his mouth when, the family believes, IRGC agents visited the hospital and administered Sam a “finishing shot” to the back of the head. I wish I could tell you that this was the end of the story of his family’s torment. It was not. Sam’s mother and uncle located his remains in the overflowing morgue of Behesht-e Sakineh, Karaj’s primary public cemetery. Sam’s face was mutilated beyond recognition; his mother identified him by a tattoo on his chest that read …

Iran’s manager, striker pledge to play for all Iranians despite protests

Iran’s manager, striker pledge to play for all Iranians despite protests

Published by Sam Flores

INGLEWOOD, California, June 14 : Iran’s coach and their key player said the national team will strive to bring joy and unity to Iranian people around the world, despite war and other tensions making their World Cup adventure uniquely challenging. “We respect all Iranians,” both within Iran and in its worldwide diaspora, said forward Mehdi Taremi through a translator at a press conference on the eve of their opening Group G game against New Zealand in Los Angeles. He was speaking after arriving with the Iran squad in the U.S. soon after news broke that a peace deal between the two nations is expected to be signed imminently. “For many years the civilized country of Iran has been a united nation. We want to showcase that unity. And we are here at the World Cup to bring joy to Iranians wherever they are,” Taremi added. Protests by some members of the Iranian American community against its government have taken place this week in the Los Angeles area, including midday Sunday near the stadium in which …

The Crisis Iran’s Leaders Can’t Ignore

The Crisis Iran’s Leaders Can’t Ignore

Published by Sam Flores

The war between Iran and Israel and the United States has been an economic catastrophe for Iranians. Their country has lost at least 1 million jobs—possibly 2 million—since the war began. In the same period, almost 300,000 eligible Iranians have signed up for unemployment insurance, and job-seeking websites are so inundated with new applications that they keep crashing. U.S. and Israeli strikes over the winter degraded Iran’s industrial capacity. At the same time, the blockade that the U.S. imposed on the Strait of Hormuz, in response to Iran’s seizure of control of the waterway, has made life difficult for businesses that rely on imports. So has the continued fall of the Iranian currency: A U.S. dollar now sells for 1.75 million Iranian rials. The regime compounded these effects with its total shutdown of the internet, first during the mass protests in January and then during the war. Access is now mostly restored, but for many Iranians who relied on the internet for their work, the damage is already done. Iran might end up experiencing a …

Iran’s World Cup Squad Belatedly Granted US Visas But Some Staff Blocked

Iran’s World Cup Squad Belatedly Granted US Visas But Some Staff Blocked

Published by Jenni Sidey

Via Middle East Eye Members of Iran’s World Cup 2026 administrative staff have not been given visas to enter the United States, Iranian media reported on Saturday. According to US officials, while Iranian footballers have been granted visas for the tournament, which begins on Thursday in Mexico, some support staff are reportedly not being allowed to join the squad. On Friday, a White House official told Reuters that the players had received their visas, after Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said on Thursday that they had not. Iran plays its first match on June 16 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, California. Its participation in the tournament has been the subject of much speculation after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February. Negotiations between the US and Iran are continuing, but both sides have continued to fire on enemy targets. Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that the Iranian staff not granted visas include Mehdi Kharati, the executive director; Hedayat Mombini, the secretary general of the football federation; and Mohsen Motamedkia, media director. …

Iran’s Khamenei warns against divisions after ‘enemy’s defeat on battlefield’

Iran’s Khamenei warns against divisions after ‘enemy’s defeat on battlefield’

Published by Sam Flores

Iran’s Supreme ​Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said ​in a message on Thursday that Iran’s enemies, having ​been ‌defeated on ⁠the battlefield, were now ‌seeking to undermine public resilience ⁠and sow internal divisions. Khamenei called for national ​unity in ‌the face of those threats and said any action ‌that created pessimism or frustration ​among the public amounted to helping the enemy. Source link

Iran’s Next Internet Blackout Is Inevitable

Iran’s Next Internet Blackout Is Inevitable

Published by Sam Flores

Starting May 26, a tsunami of posts flooded social media from Iranians, who had largely not been heard from since the war began on February 28. Video calls reunited diaspora families who had spent three months staring at a single checkmark on WhatsApp—the app’s signal that a message has been sent but not yet received. One Iranian user captured what many felt: “Hello from Iran’s prison after three months. We came from solitary confinement to the general ward.” Internet blackouts have become routine in Iran, imposed during anti-regime uprisings and now two wars. But this one—Iran’s fifth—was the world’s longest, according to NetBlocks, the global internet monitor. Some online connection is now restored, but for many Iranians, the partial reopening feels like the removal of a few bricks from the digital wall the Islamic Republic has built: Enough for Iranians to glimpse the outside world, but not enough for them to enter it, and the opening comes with the knowledge that the regime can brick the wall back up at any time. This is a …

Where Is Iran’s Highly Enriched Uranium?

Where Is Iran’s Highly Enriched Uranium?

Published by Sam Flores

President Trump has vowed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — and central to that pledge is the fate of its highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build at least 10 bombs. Much of the uranium is believed to be stored so far underground that even powerful U.S. bunker-buster bombs may not be able to destroy it. A raid by U.S. forces to retrieve the uranium would carry enormous risks, including from the material itself, which could become highly toxic if it were to leak and be exposed to moisture. The Trump administration is now focusing on diplomatic efforts by trying to convince Iran to turn over the material in return for incentives. “Iran is being sanctioned because they have highly enriched uranium, Iran is being sanctioned because of their nuclear activities,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while testifying Tuesday at a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “If they agree to give up those things, there will be sanctions relief associated with their commitment and compliance with those agreements.” …

‘They beat me until I lost consciousness’: growing reports of brutal arrests, torture and deaths in Iran’s prisons

‘They beat me until I lost consciousness’: growing reports of brutal arrests, torture and deaths in Iran’s prisons

Published by Sam Flores

Iranian writer Hamid Asefi wasn’t home on the afternoon of 5 March when armed intelligence agents stormed his Tehran apartment, breaking down the door with a sledgehammer and axe. After going unit to unit looking for him, they finally encountered him as he returned to the building. One of the agents “drew his handgun, shouted at me to stop, and before I had time to respond, struck me forcefully on the back of the neck and spine with the butt of his weapon, dragging me into the apartment,” Asefi told the Guardian in a written interview. When he requested an arrest warrant, the beating intensified. “Heavy blows were directed at my ribs, kidneys, temples and the back of my head. The beating was so severe that I lost consciousness once. When I regained consciousness, the assault continued,” he says. The assault on the 63-year-old continued after he was brought blindfolded to a detention centre, where an interrogator accused him of signing a statement condemning the regime’s January crackdown on protesters and being in contact with …