Green Movement leader Mousavi calls for referendum in Iran

“A strange phenomenon,” declared Abdollah Ganji, former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated daily Javan, to his 150,000 followers on X on July 9.

“After the recent war, several pieces of paper were found on the streets of Tehran containing talismans with Jewish symbols," he added. "A few years ago, the Supreme Leader said that hostile countries and Western and Hebrew intelligence services use occult sciences and jinn beings for espionage."

In March 2020, supreme leader Ali Khamenei alleged in a televised address that “enemies from among both jinn and human beings” were arrayed against Iran.

The quote was later removed from some official transcripts.

What Are Jinn?

Ganji—now an advisor to the mayor of Tehran—was echoing a broader pattern of supernatural claims pervading Iran’s official political narrative.

In Islamic tradition, jinn are supernatural beings made from fire, distinct from humans, who are created from soil.

Mentioned frequently in the Quran and rooted in pre-Islamic mythology, jinn are believed by some to have the ability to shapeshift, influence human thoughts, and act as agents of harm or espionage.

References to them remain common in Iranian political and religious rhetoric, particularly when discussing Israel and Western powers. Clerics on Iranian television and radio have repeatedly discussed Israel’s alleged use of jinn.

“Given the Zionists’ history of controlling jinn, many of their missions are carried out through them,” said Hojatoleslam Mehdi Karami in an October 2024 program.

In March 2023, state TV aired remarks by Quranic scholar Hojjat ol-Eslam Valiyollah Naghipourfar, who claimed Iran’s intelligence services had thwarted Israeli infiltration efforts conducted via jinn.

Scapegoating failure?

While many clerics view jinn as real and spiritually potent, others—particularly among Iran’s modernist theologians—interpret them metaphorically.

Ganji’s comment on X renewed the debate, with moderate voices pushing back.

“Talking about Jewish talismans and the role of jinn and fairies in Israel’s aggression against Iran is an attempt to downplay the role of infiltrators and to overlook the enemy’s tactics,” former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said on X.

Desert totems

Ganji’s post—and the ensuing debate—wasn’t missed in Israel.

“Consuming drugs and conversing with jinn are not desirable traits in someone leading a country,” an X account purporting to represent Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, posted in Persian.

To make the debate even more intriguing, Ganji’s post coincided with the circulation of a satellite image showing geometric patterns—including Stars of David and triangles—etched into a desert near a missile base in central Iran.

The origin of the shapes remains unclear, but some social media users linked them to occult or symbolic efforts aimed at Iran’s military.

Iranian authorities have since removed the markings but Israeli diplomat Waleed Gadban reposted an image of the desert patterns with a mocking caption: “We are closer to you than your jugular vein.”

"One Iranian ballistic missile impacted Al Udeid Air Base June 23 while the remainder of the missiles were intercepted by U.S. and Qatari air defense systems," Department of Defense Spokesman Sean Parnell told Iran International in response to an emailed request for comment.

"The impact did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base. There were no injuries. Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region," Parnell added.

The imagery obtained by Iran International provided the most concrete indication yet of physical harm to the Al Udeid Air Base, the biggest US military facility in the Middle East and the forward headquarters of US Central Command (CENTCOM).

Iran attacked Al Udeid in retaliation for US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites the previous day, a surprise operation which capped off a 12-day war between Iran and Israel which US President Donald Trump said "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.

"US forces, alongside our Qatari partners, successfully defended against an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar," CENTCOM said the day of the attack.

President Trump at the time dismissed the Iranian response as "very weak" in a post on Truth Social.

"13 (missiles) were knocked down, and 1 was ‘set free,’ because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction,” Trump added. “I am pleased to report that NO Americans were harmed, and hardly any damage was done."

The United States did not retaliate following the attack and Trump swiftly promulgated a ceasefire which remains in place.

Open-source satellite imagery of the sprawling base encompassing runways, roads dozens of structures shows one distinctive site toward the center of the facility: a white geodesic dome.

A June 24 satellite picture from geospatial analytics company Satellogic obtained by Iran International appeared to show the area reduced to a blackened smear.

No apparent damage appears visible elsewhere.

The site is likely a radome, or weatherproof enclosure, housing a roughly satellite dish-shaped modernization enterprise terminal (MET) whose installation at Al Udeid was described in a 2016 press release on the US Air Force's official website.

Costing $15 million, the MET "provides secure communication capabilities including voice, video and data services, linking service members in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility with military leaders around the world," the Air Force wrote.

The MET in Qatar was the first outside the United States and features anti-jamming technology, it added.

"Two US Army Patriot systems and several more operated by Qatar were responsible for defending the base," Farzin Nadimi, a defense and security analyst at the Washington Institute, told Iran International. "From the moment the Iranian missiles were detected, they had just about two minutes to respond."

An Iranian drone, he added, could have formed an as-yet undisclosed part of the attack, Nadimi said. "It may have slipped through while the Patriot batteries were busy intercepting incoming missiles."

"They want to develop the means of mass death, atomic bombs and the means to
deliver them to every theater near you. That's what they're trying to do. And we stopped it. We rolled back this grave means to our survival," Netanyahu told Newsmax on Thursday.

"We haven't finished the job, but I can tell you that America started something. We'll finish it," Netanyahu said, alleging Tehran ultimately sought intercontinental ballistic missiles enabling it to strike the United States and even President Donald Trump's Florida manse Mar-a-Lago.

Israel worsted Iran in a shock military campaign lasting 12 days which was capped off with an American attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. A fragile ceasefire now persists.

Trump said the attack "obliterated" Tehran's nuclear program, in a conclusion Netanyahu's remarks may have been addressing. The US President has suggested Tehran was vanquished and has not appeared eager for hostilities to resume.

The Israeli premier said once again that Israeli blows had paved the way for regime change within Iran, adding that it could be achieved with minimal military commitment from outside.

"We hit them right on the nose, in the groin ... it creates a possibility inside Iran, because the people who belong tyrannized now say they have hope," he said.

"If there'll be a regime change, it won't come from 1000s and 1000s of Israeli soldiers and Americans with boots on the ground ... No, it will come from the people inside Iran themselves, and I see the cracks."

The blast, which occurred Thursday afternoon at the Pamchal 9 complex in Tehran’s Chitgar area, injured at least seven people, according to emergency officials. State media and the judiciary initially blamed the explosion on a gas leak due to “owner negligence.”

But multiple sources told Iran International that the building was not connected to the municipal gas network at the time of the blast. “There is gas in the area, but the Pamchal 9 and 10 towers are still not connected,” a resident said Friday. “We use gas cylinders for now.”

Another resident added that about 70% of units in the tower were unoccupied and described extensive interior damage across multiple floors, inconsistent with a typical domestic gas explosion. “An ordinary gas blast might damage one unit, but this destroyed an entire floor and the two below it,” the source said.

The Pamchal towers are reportedly affiliated with Iran’s Armed Forces Judiciary Organization.

Witnesses also described a heavy security presence at the site, with plainclothes agents preventing residents from filming or photographing the damage. The identity of those injured or hospitalized has not been disclosed.

The judiciary-affiliated outlet Mizan has denied any deliberate attack, calling the blast a result of gas accumulation. Residents and at least two eyewitnesses interviewed by Iran International rejected that account. One said the explosion reminded them of past drone strikes attributed to Israel.

Since the end of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, a string of unexplained blasts have been reported in various parts of the country.

Mohammadi told committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes in an urgent phone call that the threats had come “both through her lawyers and through indirect channels.”

“I have been directly and indirectly threatened with ‘physical elimination’ by agents of the regime,” she said, according to the committee.

The warnings demanded that she cease all public activity inside Iran and end international advocacy and media engagement, the committee said.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee is deeply concerned about the threats against Narges Mohammadi and, more broadly, all Iranian citizens with a critical voice,” Frydnes said. He urged Iranian authorities to respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression.

Facing prison return, Mohammadi defies order

Mohammadi, who is currently on medical furlough from Tehran’s Evin Prison, has refused two official orders to return and said she would not go back voluntarily. “If they want me, they should pay the price and arrest me themselves — I will not go to prison quietly,” she said in a statement on July 7, describing her stance as civil disobedience.

She is serving a combined 13-year, 9-month sentence on charges including “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic. While temporarily released, she has continued to speak out in interviews and online events with human rights groups.

Last week, she told ABC News the Iranian establishment was using the aftermath of its 12-day war with Israel to escalate repression against political and civil activists.