Iran hikes natural gas tariffs, resumes use of dirty fuels

“Our current systems offer far superior capabilities compared to the S-400,” said Davood Sheikhian, deputy for operations of the IRGC Aerospace Force, in a video interview shared by state-controlled media.

He added that Iran is also actively using the Russian-made S-300 system and sees no need for the S-400.

Despite Sheikhian's assertion that Tehran never requested the S-400, reports in recent years have indicated that Iran sought to acquire advanced military technology from Russia, including Su-35 fighter jets and the S-400 air defense system, which Moscow has yet to deliver.

The S-400 system is widely regarded as one of Russia’s most advanced air defense systems, with capabilities to track and intercept various aerial targets, including ballistic missiles and stealth aircraft.

Multiple reports by Tehran's media outlets often spoke of negotiation to acquire the S-400 and there were even reports as recently as in August that Moscow had delivered the missiles.

Russia completed its delivery of the S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran in 2016, according to its state arms export agency, after years of delays due to international pressure. Moscow initially suspended the contract in 2010 under Western pressure, but President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban in 2016 following an interim agreement with Iran. The decision to proceed with the delivery at the time raised concerns in Israel, as the S-300 systems could significantly bolster Iran's air defense capabilities.

Sheikhian’s comments about Iran still using the S-300 contradict recent reports of Israeli airstrikes in late October that targeted and disabled Tehran's last three S-300 air defense systems, according to US and Israeli officials cited by Western media.

These S-300 systems were reportedly the final units in Tehran's arsenal, following the destruction of another battery in an April attack also attributed to Israel.

“The Iranian nation must equip itself with all the weapons that its terrorist enemies, namely the US and Israel, possess,” said Mahmoud Nabavian, a representative for Tehran in the parliament during Sunday’s parliamentary session.

On Saturday, Ahmad Naderi, another parliamentarian, echoed the sentiments in an interview with local media, saying, “Our adversaries possess extensive and ready-to-deploy arsenals of nuclear warheads, leaving Iran at a significant strategic disadvantage.”

He criticized the economic and strategic costs of Iran’s existing nuclear program, adding that the absence of nuclear deterrence has rendered it ineffective.

The statements align with a broader push by 39 lawmakers urging Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to reassess its current approach.

Iranian officials have long maintained that their nuclear program is peaceful, citing a fatwa from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prohibiting weapons of mass destruction. However, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Khamenei, recently hinted that the decree could be reconsidered.

Kharrazi also suggested that Iran might soon abandon its self-imposed limit on missile range, signaling a potential shift toward developing intercontinental capabilities. “If the Islamic Republic of Iran faces an existential threat, we may have no choice but to adjust our military doctrine,” he said earlier this month.

Regional tensions underpin the debates. Israel’s intensified military actions, including a recent airstrike on Iran which destroyed swathes of Iran's air defences in addition to damaging a nuclear research facility, have heightened Tehran’s sense of vulnerability. This escalation followed Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel, prompting retaliatory strikes by Israel that killed four Iranian soldiers.

Tehran's uranium stockpile, enriched to 60%, could be further refined to weapons-grade 90% within approximately two weeks. Such a doctrinal shift would likely signal Iran's readiness to pursue nuclear weapons if Israeli military actions jeopardize its vital interests.

The denial has widely been interpreted as a reaction to hardline Kayhan newspaper’s Saturday attack on the foreign policy apparatus for the meeting.

In an article titled “Secret Meeting with Trump’s Representative: Naivety or Treason,” Kayhan accused Iran’s reformists and “agents of the West’s war against Iran” of laying the groundwork for negotiations with the United States, which it referred to as the “terrorist regime,” through such actions.

The newspaper is financed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office and overseen by ultra-hardliner Hossein Shariatmadari, a Khamenei appointee whom reformists consider their sworn enemy. 

“Dear Mr. Araghchi, [the Iranian] people’s stances should be your yardstick not Kayhan newspaper’s headlines,” Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a former reformist vice president, tweeted Sunday.

Abtahi criticized the foreign policy apparatus for staying silent for nearly three days about the meeting—a topic widely discussed with interest and seen by some as a potential step toward easing US sanctions. He noted that officials only issued a denial after Kayhan launched its attack on the move.

“Stay true to being Pezeshkian’s and the people’s foreign minister,” Abtahi wrote, urging Araghchi not to shape his positions based on reactions from ultra-hardliners. He argued that the public voted for Masoud Pezeshkian, not his ultra-hardliner rival Saeed Jalili.

“There is nothing more pathetic than a government adjusting and announcing its positions, confirmations, and denials based on the threats and attacks of pulp media and pressure groups,” Hossein Selahvarzi, a former president of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, protested in a tweet Sunday.

The report of the rare meeting was welcomed not only by reformist media—one outlet even dubbing it “the Elon channel [for talks]”—but also by some moderate conservatives.

“The meeting could mark the beginning of a new path in our country’s foreign policy,” the conservative Jomhouri Eslami newspaper wrote on Saturday.

In a live interview broadcast on state television Saturday evening, Araghchi denied reports of a meeting between Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani and Trump advisor Elon Musk. The meeting was first reported by The New York Times on Thursday and later corroborated, with minor variations, by the Associated Press and CBS News.

The Iranian foreign minister called the report a fabricated scenario possibly aimed at testing Iran's reaction. After the denial, Shariatmadari thanked Araghchi on Sunday, but insisted that the denial of what he called "devastating news" came too late.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei had “categorically” denied the meeting in what appeared to be a brief exclusive interview with the official news agency IRNA earlier Saturday.

Neither Musk nor President-elect Donald Trump's team have commented on the meeting. Skeptical critics from across the political spectrum argue, that this is proof the meeting had really taken place and the foreign ministry’s “categorical” denial could not be trusted.

“The public has every right to suspect that the meeting did take place but was intended to remain confidential, and that our Foreign Ministry spokesperson denied it only because the American side complained about the leak,” tweeted Mehdi Ghasemzadeh, a hardliner commentator and social media activist, on Saturday.

He also argued that the delay in refuting the New York Times report had helped establish the “American media’s narrative” on the matter. 

A former official of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, Mohammad-Javad Mohammadzadeh, also suggested in a tweet that the foreign ministry’s denial of the meeting was false and cited Araghchi’s “correction” of a Pezeshkian remark about Iran's preparedness to reduce tensions with Israel during his UNGA visit in New York in September as another example of false denials of Pezeshkian’s government.

Others have noted that false denials by Iran's foreign policy apparatus are not unprecedented, citing several instances in recent years. These include the denial of Israel’s removal of a massive cache of nuclear documents from a facility near Tehran in 2018, the refutation of reports about secret talks in Oman in 2013 between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser Ali-Akbar Velayati and the US, and the denial of the Revolutionary Guards’ active involvement in the Syrian war alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces in 2011.

The head of Iran-Syria chamber of commerce, Saeed Aref announced that Saipa, the sole Iranian automaker active in Syria, has ceased production, and no other Iranian factories in the country have become operational, citing unresolved issues between the two countries.

"Iranian companies are still active in providing infrastructure for Syrian industries, exporting technical and engineering services, and carrying out essential and specialized infrastructure repairs," he added.

The announcement comes as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s special representative, Ali Larijani, visited Damascus and Beirut, signaling ongoing efforts to strengthen Iran’s regional influence. However, Iran’s economic footprint in Syria remains disproportionately small despite its costly military involvement during the civil war.

The story of Saipa’s factory in Syria began during the Mohammad Khatami administration in 2004, with construction initiated as part of an ambitious bilateral project.

By 2007, the Pride model’s production line was inaugurated in Homs in the presence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The project, dubbed Siveco, saw Saipa owning 80% of the company while the Syrian government held a 20% stake.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, Saipa’s Syrian operations became emblematic of the Islamic Republic’s broader industrial ambitions abroad, with plans to produce up to 15,000 vehicles annually.

A similar initiative by Iran Khodro aimed to establish a factory in Syria in 2009. Yet, these ventures struggled to achieve success as civil war began in 2011, and repeated attempts to reach profitability largely faltered.

Iran’s economic struggles in Syria are accentuated by its massive financial outlays during the civil war. In 2020, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a former member of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, estimated that Iran spent $20 to $30 billion supporting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

"We may have given $20 to $30 billion to Syria, and we need to get it back. This nation’s money was spent there," he said. Others have put the figure at more than $50 billion.

Despite this significant investment, Iran’s share in Syria’s post-war economy remains minimal. Mohammad Amirzadeh, Vice President of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, lamented in 2021 that weak economic diplomacy had reduced Iran’s share in the Syrian market to just 3%, compared to Turkey’s dominant 30%.

But the real reasons might be economic, as Syrians prefer to deal with free-market economies with competitive quality and price, rather than Iran's government-controlled and isolated economy.

The shuttering of Saipa’s factory epitomizes the Islamic Republic’s inability to capitalize on its investments in Syria. While Turkey and other players secure substantial shares of the Syrian economy, Iran faces diminishing returns despite its critical role in supporting Assad during the war.

Norway-based Iranian rights group Hengaw on Saturday said 13 of the 711 executions the group has documented this year were political prisoners. The group also documented 21 fatalities in Iran’s prisons in 2024, including four deaths of political detainees and eight deaths attributed to torture.

“What we are experiencing is a tsunami of executions; it’s shocking and horrifying,” women’s rights activist Mina Khani from Hengaw told Iran International English on Saturday.

Khani expressed concern that, if executions continue at this rate, Iran’s death toll could approach 1,000 by year’s end.

“People at the height of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement could never have imagined that, in the shadow of a regional war partly driven by the Islamic Republic, there would be such killings,” Khani said.

Female prisoners urge end to death sentences

Death sentences continue to provoke resistance from political prisoners and activists. On Saturday, a group of female detainees in Tehran’s Evin Prison issued a letter calling on the public to prevent the Islamic Republic from “sacrificing lives in its vendetta against freedom and equality movements.”

Last week, Iran’s judiciary issued death sentences for six protestors accused of allegedly killing a government Basij militia member during the 2022 protests—a conviction that rights groups, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), have condemned for due process violations, torture-induced confessions, and insufficient evidence.

Rights groups say there are currently 42 political prisoners at risk of execution across Iran's prisons.

Student jailed for opposing dissident rapper's death sentence

In a further sign of Iran’s crackdown on dissent, student activist Khashayar Sefidi was transferred to Evin Prison on Saturday to serve a one-year sentence. Sefidi, who had opposed the death sentence of dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, was charged with “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” In a video before his transfer on Saturday he said, "I felt it was my duty, as a member of the community and a citizen, to protest against Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence and not remain silent in the face of this injustice."

Salehi, detained in September 2021 for releasing his protest song “Mouse Hole,” was arrested again in October 2022 during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Although his death sentence was overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court in June, Salehi remains imprisoned.

Sefidi’s case reflects a broader pattern of repression, as Iran’s judiciary continues to punish those protesting against executions. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was recently given an additional six-month prison sentence after she protested the execution of another political prisoner in Evin's women’s ward, according to the Free Narges Coalition. The group reported that Mohammadi, already serving a lengthy sentence, was charged on October 19 with “disobeying and resisting orders” after her August protest.

Iran hangs 12 in one day amid rise in drug-related executions

Iran’s execution spree intensified on Wednesday as at least ten individuals, including a woman, an Afghan national, and two Kurdish citizens, were hanged at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on drug and murder charges, Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported. The executions took place amid protests by family members and opponents outside the prison, which were met with a crackdown by security forces.

IHR warned that drug-related executions have surged in recent years, with 2023 alone showing an 84 percent increase compared to 2022, rising from 256 to 471 cases.

According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out 853 executions in 2023, marking the highest number in eight years. Amnesty International noted that 64 percent of the executions in 2023 were for crimes that did not warrant the death penalty under international law, including drug-related offences, robbery, and espionage​.

Globally, a total of 1,153 executions were recorded last year, with Iran responsible for 74% of these and Saudi Arabia for 15%, according to rights group Amnesty International.