Irans

Foreign minister says regional powers have been ‘far more effective’ than European countries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has derided the Munich Security Conference as a “circus”, accusing European powers of “paralysis and irrelevance” in efforts to revive nuclear negotiations with the United States.

Iranian officials were not invited to the annual security meeting in the German city.

“Sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran,” Araghchi wrote on X on Sunday.

“The paralysis and irrelevance of the EU/E3 is displayed in the dynamics surrounding the current talks over Iran’s nuclear program. … Once a key interlocutor, Europe is now nowhere to be seen. Instead, our friends in the region [the Gulf] are far more effective and helpful than an empty-handed and peripheral E3.”

The E3 – which included France, the United Kingdom and Germany – were key players in the previous round of nuclear negotiations between world powers and Iran. That process culminated in 2015 with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a landmark agreement aimed at limiting the scope of Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US under the first administration of President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and ramped up sanctions on Iran. Since then, the process has largely stalled. Still, the E3 maintained a role as a go-between with Tehran and Washington.

But since negotiations resumed last year, Gulf countries, such as Oman and Qatar, have taken the lead in facilitating talks between the US and Iran.

Araghchi made the remarks before leaving Tehran to lead a diplomatic and technical delegation to Geneva for a new round of nuclear talks with the US. The talks follow last week’s indirect negotiations in Oman, which is mediating the process, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During his visit, Araghchi is expected to meet his Swiss and Omani counterparts, as well as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, and other international officials.

Abas Aslani, a senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, said Araghchi’s comments “indicate a policy shift from the Iranian side that the E3 mechanism … is no longer a valid channel for resolution”.

“This nuclear mediation has moved from Europe to the region, and now the heavy lifting in diplomacy is done by regional players,” he said.

On Tuesday, Oman is to host talks between the US and Iran in Geneva after previous indirect negotiations in Muscat on February 6. Those talks were attended by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

US and Iranian officials previously held several rounds of talks in the Omani capital to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme last year. But that process was halted as Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June, which the US briefly joined by bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities.

The new rounds of negotiations come as tensions in the region remain high, with Trump moving more US military assets to the Middle East. On Friday, the US president said he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the region while openly talking about a change in Iran’s government.

Despite the new push for diplomacy, the two sides have maintained their positions. Iran has shown flexibility in discussing its nuclear programme, but the US wants to widen the talks to include Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for regional armed groups – two issues that Tehran says are nonnegotiable.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s authorities have ratcheted up the messaging and reciprocal threats against the United States during state-organised rallies and celebrations commemorating the Islamic revolution across the country, one month after deadly nationwide protests.

Chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” rang out on Wednesday in the state-run annual demonstrations, on a day of immense symbolic significance for the Islamic republic that consolidated its power during the 1979 revolution.

Near Enghelab (Islamic revolution) Square in downtown Tehran, authorities propped up five coffins for some of the top commanders in the US military.

The coffins had the US flag painted on them, and included the names and images of Central Command chief Brad Cooper, Chief of Staff Randy Alan George and others.

This year’s festivities are especially important to the theocratic establishment as they follow the 12-day war with Israel and the US in June, the nationwide protests starting in late December, and in defiance of a potentially looming war with the US.

Threatened with assassination by the US and Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not make an appearance in the events. He also missed a highly symbolic annual meeting with army and air force commanders for the first time in his 36-year rule.

The 86-year-old supreme leader released a video message calling on Iranians to “disappoint the enemy” by participating in the revolution anniversary. All other senior political, military and judicial authorities also released similar messages urging supporters to mobilise.

An 81-year-old private businessman who was arrested and had his assets confiscated for observing a strike during the nationwide protests also wrote in a confession letter released by state media this week that he would participate in the rallies.

The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), released a video of a “symbol of the devil” being burned during a state-organised event in the capital. The burned effigy appeared to depict a man with horns sitting on a pedestal marked with the US and Israeli flags.

People also burned and trampled on US and Israeli flags, while ballistic and cruise missiles capable of reaching Israel and the wreckage of Israeli drones shot down during last year’s war were displayed.

These are the types of missiles that Tehran has called its own red line, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tries to corral US President Donald Trump into following the Israeli narrative that Iran’s missile programme, as well as its nuclear one, should be on the negotiating table.

State television flew helicopters over designated areas in Tehran and other cities where demonstrations were being held and described another “epic saga”, using a term favoured by Iranian authorities to talk about the annual demonstrations.

Those attending the rallies were hailed as “the dear people of Islamic Iran” who were marching to bolster the security of the country.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called for national unity in the face of external threats while insisting that his government is willing to negotiate over its nuclear programme.

Addressing the crowds in Tehran’s Azadi Square, Pezeshkian called for solidarity among Iranians in the face of “conspiracies from imperial powers”.

Competing chants

Huge fireworks exploding around the iconic Milad Tower on Tuesday night to celebrate the revolution anniversary were so loud that they alarmed some residents and hearkened back to the bombing runs of Israeli fighter jets during the 12-day war.

Translation: I was driving when suddenly there was the sound of an explosion and the sky lit up, I thought only that it was war and that I had to be beside my parents. I lifted my head again and saw that it was fireworks – as if they were shooting into people’s hearts to prove it wasn’t war. It was worse, because the elites were celebrating while we’re in mourning for those fallen [during the protests]. In Tehran and across the country, the authorities called on supporters of the establishment to shout “Allahu Akbar” in the streets and from their homes at 9pm local time on Tuesday night. Numerous videos circulating online show some people shouting those words, only to be met by competing shouts of “Death to the dictator” or cursing from their neighbours.

The authorities also discussed the nationwide protests during Wednesday’s events, and celebrated what they described as a triumph over “enemies”.

Ahmad Vahidi, the deputy head of the IRGC, told a state-organised event in Shiraz that Wednesday’s rallies marked a third “great defeat” for the US and Israel over recent months.

He said the 12-day war was the first one, and the second was the state-organised counterdemonstrations held on January 12, days after most of the protest killings were carried out on the nights of January 8 and 9.

Like Vahidi, police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan called the protests another “sedition” and said they were “a great project by the global arrogance” that was quashed.

The Iranian government claims that 3,117 people lost their lives during the unprecedented protest killings, all of them at the hands of “terrorists” and “rioters” armed and funded from abroad.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says it has confirmed about 7,000 deaths so far and is investigating nearly 12,000 other cases. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran Mai Sato said more than 20,000 civilians may have been killed but information remains limited amid heavy internet filtering by the state.

The UN and international human rights organisations have accused state security forces of being behind the killings. The UN Human Rights Council last month issued a resolution condemning the killings and calling on the Islamic republic to “prevent extrajudicial killing, other forms of arbitrary deprivation of life, enforced disappearance, sexual and gender-based violence” and other actions violating its human rights obligations.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke out against intervention by ‘alien Westerners’ during a rally to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Celebrations have been taking place after weeks of US threats of military action.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the double standard allowing Israel to expand its military while other countries in the region are demanded to reduce their defensive capabilities. Araghchi spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, a three-day event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

Tehran, Iran – Several of Iran’s former leaders, including some who are currently imprisoned or under house arrest, have released damning statements over the killing of thousands during nationwide protests, garnering threats from hardliners.

The Iranian government claims that 3,117 people were killed during the antiestablishment protests. The government has rejected claims by the United Nations and international human rights organisations that state forces were behind the killings, which were mostly carried out on the nights of January 8 and 9.

The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified 6,854 deaths and is investigating 11,280 other cases.

“After years of ever-escalating repression, this is a catastrophe that will be remembered for decades, if not for centuries,” wrote Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former reformist presidential candidate who has been under house arrest since the aftermath of the Green Movement of 2009.

“How many ways must people say that they do not want this system and do not believe your lies? Enough. The game is over.”

Mousavi told state forces to “put down your guns and step aside from power so that the nation itself can bring this land to freedom and prosperity”, and stressed that this must be done without foreign intervention amid the shadow of another war with the US and Israel.

He said that Iran is need of a constitutional referendum and a peaceful, democratic transition of power.

A group of 400 activists, including figures from inside and outside the country, backed Mousavi’s statement.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a prominent jailed former reformist politician, said that he wants Iran to “move beyond the wretched conditions that the guardianship of Islamic jurists and the failed rule of the clergy have imposed on the Iranian nation”.

In a short statement from prison last week, he said this would be contingent upon the “resistance, wisdom, and responsible action of all citizens and political actors” and called for an independent fact-finding mission to uncover the true aspects of “atrocities” committed against protesters last month.

‘Major reforms’

Other former heavyweights have heavily criticised Iran’s current course, but have avoided calling for the effective removal of the Islamic Republic from power.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, who many believe is eyeing a potential future return to power, last week gathered his ex-ministers and insiders for a recorded speech, and called for “major reforms, not small reforms”.

He acknowledged that Iranians have been protesting for a variety of reasons over the past four decades, and insisted the state must listen to them if it wants to survive, but did not mention the internet blackout and killing of protesters during his tenure in November 2019.

Rouhani added that the establishment must hold public votes on major topics, including foreign policy and the ailing economy, in order to avoid further nationwide protests and prevent the population from looking to foreign powers for help.

Mohammad Khatami, the reformist cleric who was president from 1997 to 2005, adopted a softer tone and said violence derailed protests that could have helped “expand dialogue to improve the country’s affairs”.

He wrote in a statement that Iran must “return to a forgotten republicanism, and an Islamism that embraces republicanism in all its dimensions and requirements, placing development together with justice at the core of both foreign and domestic policy”.

Mehdi Karroubi, another senior reformist cleric who had his house arrest lifted less than a year ago after 15 years, called the protest killings “a crime whose dimensions language and pen are incapable of conveying” and said the establishment is responsible.

“The wretched state of Iran today is the direct result of Mr. Khamenei’s destructive domestic and international interventions and policies,” he wrote, in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in absolute power for nearly 37 years.

Karroubi noted one prominent example as the 86-year-old leader’s “insistence on the costly and futile nuclear project and the heavy consequences of sanctions over the past two decades for the country and its people”.

Political prisoners rearrested

Three prominent Iranian former political prisoners were arrested and taken to prison by security forces once again last week.

The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said the reason for the arrests of Mehdi Mahmoudian, Abdollah Momeni, and Vida Rabbani was that they had sneaked out Mir Hossein Mousavi’s statement from his house arrest.

Mahmoudian is a journalist and activist, and co-writer of the Oscar-nominated political drama movie, It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Momeni and Rabani are also political activists who have previously been arrested by the Iranian establishment multiple times.

The three were among 17 human rights defenders, filmmakers and civil society activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and internationally recognised lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who co-signed a statement last week that put the blame for the protest killings on the supreme leader and the theocratic establishment.

“The mass killing of justice seekers who courageously protested this illegitimate system was an organised state crime against humanity,” they wrote, condemning the firing on civilians, the attacks on the wounded, and the denial of medical care as “acts against Iran’s security and betrayal of the homeland”.

The activists called for holding a referendum and constituent assembly to allow Iranians to democratically decide their political future.

Hardliners incensed

In hardline-dominated circles and among their affiliated media, the mood has been entirely different.

On Sunday, lawmakers in parliament donned the uniforms of the IRGC, which was last week designated a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union.

They chanted “Death to America” and promised they would seek out European military attaches working at embassies in Tehran to expel them as “terrorists”.

Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a cleric who represents northeast Mashhad in the parliament, told a public session of parliament on Sunday that former President Rouhani must be hanged for favouring engagement with the West, echoing a demand also made by other hardline peers in recent years.

“Today is the time for the ‘major reform’, which is arresting and executing you,” he said, addressing Rouhani.

Amirhossein Sabeti, another firebrand lawmaker, condemned the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian – but not Khamenei or the establishment – for proceeding with mediated talks with the US.

“Today, the people of Iran are waiting for a pre-emptive attack on Israel and US bases in the region, not talks from a position of weakness,” he claimed.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s economic outlook appears increasingly grim more than three weeks after the start of what became one of the most comprehensive and prolonged state-imposed internet blackouts in history, impacting a population of more than 90 million people.

Iranian authorities abruptly cut off all communications across the country on the night of January 8, at the height of nationwide protests that the United Nations and international human rights organisations say were suppressed with the use of deadly force.

Most of Iran’s internet bandwidth, local and international phone calls and SMS text messages have been restored over recent days. But most of the country is still unable to freely connect to the global internet amid heavy filtering by the state.

The increased bandwidth allows more people to circumvent state restrictions using a variety of proxies and virtual private networks (VPNs), but solutions are often costly and temporary.

Last week, Information and Communications Technology Minister Sattar Hashemi told reporters his ministry estimates that the Iranian economy suffered at least 50 trillion rials (about $33m at the current exchange rate) in damages on a daily basis during the blackout.

But the minister admitted that the true toll is likely much higher, and said that other ministers and economic officials have privately offered heftier estimates that he did not expand upon.

‘Can’t do anything without the internet’

The government of President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the decision to fully block connectivity was taken outside of its control by the Supreme National Security Council.

Pezeshkian, who had made scaling back internet filtering a main campaign promise, has refrained from talking about Iran’s largest internet blackout to date, instead focusing on economic reforms and cash subsidies.

The administration has promised to offer online businesses financial support, but the losses have already been sudden, acute, and too heavy to bear for many.

Simin Siami, a travel agent working in Tehran, told Al Jazeera that her company lost most of its income and had to lay off a number of employees.

“Most international flights were cancelled, and there was no way to purchase tickets or compare existing flights,” she said, adding that her company was also unable to book hotels for customers, who were initially even unable to renew their passports.

“Unfortunately, that limited our services to selling tickets for local flights and booking local hotels, and cancelled all our previous international tickets and bookings.”

Saeed Mirzaei, who works at an immigration agency in the capital, said 46 employees at his company had to go on mandatory leave for weeks amid the shutdown.

He told Al Jazeera that they suddenly lost all contact with foreign counterparts, were unable to get updated information from embassies, and missed deadlines to apply for universities on behalf of their customers wishing to leave a heavily sanctioned Iran for better opportunities.

“We can’t do anything without the internet because our work deals directly with it,” Mirzaei said.

National internet a ‘bitter joke’

During the blackout, Iran’s theocratic establishment even struggled to sustain basic services using the so-called National Information Network, a limited nationalised intranet.

The connection to the intranet was slow and patchy, many companies remained disconnected from it, and those that were allowed to connect retained only a fraction of their customer base amid general economic stagnation across the country.

Hashemi, the communications minister, said a demand by hardliners within the establishment to move away from using the international web in favour of a domestic connection was a “bitter joke” that is not feasible to enforce.

He said his ministry estimates that the country’s online businesses could survive under a blackout for roughly 20 days, signalling that the state had no choice this week but to gradually restore internet bandwidth.

Figures for economic damages incurred by the blackout published by officials reflect only the visible costs and do not account for hidden losses, according to Abazar Barari, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce.

“In the import and export sector, processes are heavily dependent on the internet from the very initial stages – such as price negotiations, issuance of pro forma and other invoices – to coordination with transportation companies and the verification of documents. As a result, the internet shutdown effectively disrupted foreign trade,” he told Al Jazeera.

“During this period, customer attrition also occurred, with the damage being particularly severe in certain food commodities, as many countries are unwilling to tie their food security to unstable supply conditions.”

‘They have no right to do this’

In a tumultuous country with one of the highest inflation rates in the world, numerous Iranians who tried to make money online to stay afloat are now deeply anxious as well.

From owners of small online businesses to teachers, chefs, crypto traders, gamers and streamers, people are taking to social media to ask others for extra support after the gradual reconnect this week.

Mehrnaz, a young video editor in Tehran, said she only went back to work this week after her company put her on forced leave without pay from the start of the protests in the city’s business district in late December.

“I was on the verge of having to move back to my parents’ house in another city. I’m only 25, and I hit near-zero for the second time this year. There might not be another time,” she said, pointing out that the first time was during the 12-day war with Israel and the United States in June.

Iran’s National Post Company announced on Sunday that postal deliveries experienced a 60-percent fall at the height of the blackout, mainly damaging small and home-based businesses that depended on mailing their products.

But beyond livelihoods, many in Iran are also angered by the fact that the state can cut off communications on command, violating the people’s right to benefit from the internet.

“They had the nerve to create a tiered internet and decide which type of use is ‘essential’,” said a woman who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

“My child wants to search about his favourite animation movies, my mom wants to read news on Telegram, and my dad wants to download books. I want to go online and write that they have no right to do this.”

Local fire official says gas leak likely caused blast that ripped through residential building in Iranian port city.

An explosion that rocked a residential building in the Iranian port city Bandar Abbas was likely caused by a gas leak, the local head of the fire department told Iranian media.

The Bandar Abbas fire chief said residents were evacuated from the building in the city’s Moallem Boulevard area, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

“The initial cause of the building accident in Bandar Abbas was a gas leak and buildup, leading to an explosion. This is the initial theory,” fire chief Mohammad Amin Lyaghat said in comments broadcast on state television later.

The exact number of casualties was also not immediately clear.

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of crisis management in Hormozgan province, where Bandar Abbas is located, was quoted by the IRNA news agency as saying wounded people were being transferred to hospital, without reporting any deaths.

The Reuters news agency reported that a local official told Iranian news agencies that at least one person was killed and 14 others wounded. Al Jazeera could not independently verify that information.

State television said the explosion occurred at an eight-storey building, “destroying two floors, several vehicles, and shops” in the area.

Images carried by Press TV showed the building’s facade blown out, exposing parts of its interior, with debris scattered around.

The explosion took place amid soaring tensions between Iran and the United States and fears of a military confrontation between the two countries.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over a recent crackdown on antigovernment protests and Washington’s push to curtail the Iranian nuclear programme.

After rumours circulated online about the Bandar Abbas explosion, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces in the province had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s most important container port, lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman that handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.

The port suffered a major explosion in April of last year that killed dozens of people and injured more than 1,000 others.

Separately on Saturday, four people were killed in a gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, according to the state-run Tehran Times.

Crews had begun clearing the debris from that blast to rescue those trapped under the rubble, Press TV reported.

Foreign minister announces apparent reversal of France’s stance, saying Iran protest crackdown ‘cannot go unanswered’.

France has said it supports the European Union’s push to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist organisation”, reversing earlier opposition to the move.

In a statement shared on social media on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot appeared to link the planned designation to the Iranian authorities’ recent crackdown on antigovernment protests across the country.

“The unbearable repression of the Iranian people’s peaceful uprising cannot go unanswered. Their extraordinary courage in the face of the violence that has been unleashed upon them cannot be in vain,” Barrot wrote on X.

“With our European partners, we will take action tomorrow in Brussels against those responsible for these atrocities. They will be banned from European territory and their assets will be frozen,” he said.

“France will support the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European list of terrorist organisations.”

EU foreign ministers are meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where they are expected to sign off on the new sanctions against the IRGC.

The move, being led by Italy, is likely to be approved politically, although it needs unanimity among the bloc’s 27 member-states.

Established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the IRGC is a branch of the country’s military that answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It oversees the Iranian missile and nuclear programmes and plays a central role in Iran’s defence as well as its foreign operations and influence in the wider region.

While some EU member countries have previously pushed for the IRGC to be added to the EU’s “terrorist” list, others, led by France, have been more cautious.

They feared such a move could lead to a complete break in ties with Iran, impacting diplomatic missions, and also hurting negotiations to release European citizens held in Iranian prisons.

Paris has been especially worried about the fate of two of its citizens currently living at the embassy in Tehran after being released from prison last year.

The push by the EU to sanction the IRGC comes amid global criticism of a crackdown on a wave of demonstrations in Iran, which broke out last month in response to soaring inflation and an economic crisis.

The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it confirmed at least 6,221 deaths, including at least 5,858 protesters, linked to the weeks-long protest movement while it is investigating 12,904 others.

Iran’s government has put the death toll at 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and members of the country’s security forces and labelling the rest as “terrorists”.

Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify these figures.

The protests also spurred renewed tensions between Iran and the US, as US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to launch an attack against the country in recent weeks.

Trump designated the IRGC as a “terrorist” group in 2019 during his first term in office.

Canada and Australia did the same in 2024 and in November of last year, respectively.

Iran has warned of “destructive consequences” if the EU goes ahead with plans to list the IRGC, and it summoned the Italian ambassador over Rome’s spearheading of the move.