Russia would side with Israel over Iran if forced to choose between the two, former Iranian ambassador to Moscow Nematollah Izadi said in remarks sharply critical of Tehran’s reliance on the Kremlin.
“Russia prioritizes its own interests and its relationships with other countries over its relationship with us,” Izadi said in an interview with the Iranian outlet Jamaran. “If Russia were to choose between supporting us or Israel, it would undoubtedly choose Israel.”
Izadi’s comments come as several Iranian officials express frustration with Moscow’s silence during recent Israeli strikes on Iranian targets, despite Tehran’s military cooperation with Russia.
“I don’t believe our military cooperation with Russia or our support in the Ukraine war was ever conditional on reciprocal support during times of crisis,” Izadi said. “Russia would never accept such terms. From their perspective, Iran is an unpredictable country, and naturally they would not commit to risking their own interests for us.”
The former diplomat also criticized Moscow’s lack of diplomatic engagement during the recent 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, comparing it with Russia’s past mediation efforts in Iraq during the US-led invasion.
“Even for the sake of preserving its international image or influencing the course of the conflict, Russia did not attempt any mediation between us and the Zionist regime,” Izadi added. “This is in stark contrast to the early 2000s, when Russia sent special envoys to Iraq via Iran multiple times. No such initiative was taken for Iran this time.”
"Over the 46 years since the Islamic Republic was established, our relationship with the United States has been effectively hostile, our ties with Europe have fluctuated, and our relations with regional and neighboring countries have been far from stable. These dynamics have gradually pushed us toward isolation," Izadi said.
Washington must maintain pressure to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, two US senators told Iran International, expressing support for further sanctions and potential military action against the Islamic Republic.
“I support making sure the Iranian regime never becomes a nuclear power,” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said.
“It’s unfortunate they continue to pursue a nuclear weapons program. I don’t think they’ve ever stopped.”
Speaking separately on Capitol Hill, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho said, “Obviously, the program has been decimated. People say it’s just a setback, but substantial damage has been done — much more than has been publicly reported.”
He was referring to the impacts of US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear infrastructure in recent months.
Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, added that any renewed effort by Tehran to produce a bomb would provoke further action.
“If the regime tries to build a nuclear weapon, the same thing is going to happen again,” he said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has said so. President Trump has said so. And they mean it.”
Both senators expressed confidence that continued Western pressure, especially from Israel and the United States, would keep Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.
Asked about recent reports that President Donald Trump’s campaign raised millions in donations following an alleged Iranian-linked plot to assassinate him, Risch underlined a distinction between Iran’s rulers and its people.
“Anything the regime does, we don’t ascribe to the Iranian people,” he said. “We know they’re good people who want to be free.”
Senator Johnson also welcomed reports that France and Germany are now backing a snapback of UN sanctions against Iran.
The snapback, created under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, lets any party to the 2015 nuclear deal restore UN sanctions if Iran is found non-compliant. If no resolution is passed within 30 days to extend sanctions relief, all previous measures return automatically.
Israeli air strikes and drone attacks during the 12-day war killed hundreds of Iranians including civilians, military personnel and nuclear scientists. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes also killed 27 Israelis.
On June 22, the United States joined the war by striking Iran’s nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow using long-range bombers and submarine-launched missiles.
A US-brokered ceasefire was announced on June 24 between Iran and Israel after Tehran launched a retaliatory airstrike against a US airbase in Qatar.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has cast doubt on the Green Movement leader's call for a referendum on Iran's political future, saying any vote under Iran’s current constitution cannot bring about democratic change.
“The precondition for any referendum is the removal of power from the Islamic Republic,” Ebadi wrote, rejecting Mir Hossein Mousavi’s recent call for a national vote to reform the state’s political structure.
Earlier this month, Mousavi said in a statement that the current structure of the Islamic Republic “does not represent all Iranians.”
“The twelve-day war (with Israel) showed that the only guarantee for the nation’s survival is respect for every citizen’s right to self-determination,” the former prime minister added.
Mousavi, under house arrest since 2009, had urged the formation of a constitutional assembly through a public vote. His message was endorsed by over 800 civil and political figures who demanded the release of political prisoners and the drafting of a new constitution based on democracy and human rights.
But Ebadi, a prominent critic of the Islamic Republic, said such a process is legally unworkable within the current framework. She said Iran’s constitution explicitly bars changes to core principles such as clerical rule, Islamic law, and the system’s Islamic identity.
“Such a structure rules out the formation of a democratic and secular government,” she said.
She dismissed the latest wave of endorsements for Mousavi’s initiative as driven by sentiment rather than strategy.
“The recent statement signed by over 800 activists seems driven more by Mousavi’s political charisma than by any viable solution to Iran’s crisis."
Referendum seen as a trap
Ebadi also warned that a referendum sanctioned by the ruling establishment could become a tool to legitimize its hold on power.
“Any government is legally bound by its own constitution and cannot hold a referendum against its own existence. Therefore, such a request from the government is baseless,” she wrote.
Ebadi called instead for a UN-supervised referendum to manage a transition away from the Islamic Republic, citing a 2018 statement she co-authored with 14 other dissidents advocating for a full political break.
Along with cleric Mehdi Karroubi, Mousavi was a candidate in the disputed 2009 presidential election and challenged the results, leading large protests dubbed the Green Movement for months before he was arrested and placed under house arrest.
His wife Zahra Rahnavard and Karroubi were also accused of sedition against the Islamic Republic and remain under house arrest.
Existing narratives competing to shape Iran’s future after the war with Israel offer little clarity, calling for a sober reassessment that confronts the questions of power, leadership and a potential transition from the Islamic Republic.
Following the recent twelve-day war with Israel, many Iranians are asking: What truly happened? Where do we stand now? And what is the realistic path forward?
Prevailing narratives misdiagnose the crisis. They fall into three categories:
The government’s narrative casts Iran as victorious. Yet the facts suggest otherwise.
Iran suffered serious losses: senior military figures were killed, defense systems degraded, and critical parts of its nuclear and missile infrastructure were hit. In return, Iran’s retaliatory strikes did not shift the balance.
Misrepresenting this as triumph only reinforces poor decisions.
Regime-change advocates imagine foreign military pressure will fracture Iran’s security apparatus and cause collapse. But this view underestimates the cohesion of Iran’s coercive institutions and the self-interest of foreign powers, who are unlikely to commit to regime change.
The assumption that mass defections would yield democratic transition lacks grounding.
Structuralist perspectives also misplace blame.
One variant cites imperialism and calls for confrontation with the West. Another urges nuclear armament to balance power. But both ignore domestic dysfunction and corruption, and the risks of pursuing nuclear weapons now.
National strength requires more than deterrence—it needs capable, legitimate governance.
Understanding the crisis
The Islamic Republic has become a driver of national weakness. Two trends define this: a confrontational US posture and a disrupted power balance weakening Iran.
Decades of mistrust between Tehran and Washington—rooted in the 1953 coup and 1979 hostage crisis—have been worsened by missed diplomatic openings.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei consistently rejected efforts by moderate president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and others to improve ties, viewing diplomacy as infiltration.
Even after the 2015 nuclear deal, his stance blocked normalization. Similarly, Iran’s hardline stance on Israel has drained resources and diplomacy, disconnected from national interests.
Key missteps have weakened Iran's power since the theocracy's inception: from purging the military after the revolution to abandoning arms deals, and taking aggressive anti-Western positions.
The "Look East" strategy, replacing Western ties with China and Russia, has brought limited gains.
These ties emerged from isolation, not strategy. Russia withheld arms and reversed support for Iran’s enrichment rights. China has complied with sanctions and avoided defense ties.
These partnerships reflect weakness, not strength.
The core of the problem
Iran’s political structure is inseparable from the Supreme Leader.
Khamenei has shaped nearly all key decisions for over three decades. Velayat-e Faqih concentrates power in an unelected cleric, undermining accountability.
Why should governance belong to clerics? Democracies allow voters to remove failed leaders. In Iran, the Supreme Leader claims divine legitimacy beyond electoral scrutiny.
The 1989 constitutional revision gave him unchecked power, while the Assembly of Experts is functionally powerless.
Khamenei has deepened internal divisions—between loyalists and critics, and between state-enforced norms (like forced hijab) and citizens who reject them.
The state spends resources policing women and dissent rather than addressing threats. The result: emigration of skilled professionals, unqualified loyalists in office, and decisions made by an isolated circle.
This erodes Iran’s capacity and sovereignty.
A path forward?
Recent gestures in Tehran—nationalistic concerts and reformist figures, recently reappearing on state TV after years of exclusion—don’t address the crisis’s roots. Iran needs internal transformation and rebuilding of national power through institutional change.
Change must come from within—via elite and popular pressure—not foreign intervention, which would prolong the crisis and invite geopolitical rivalry.
One path is sustained pressure compelling Khamenei to step down and transfer power to a transitional authority.
During this interim period, a constituent assembly could draft a democratic constitution. That authority could then oversee a national referendum and free elections.
Institutions that block broad participation—like the Guardian Council—should be dissolved. Only fully open elections, inclusive of all political currents, can restore national sovereignty.
Democratic governance—paired with efforts to rebuild military, economic, and institutional capacity—offers a viable path.
A legitimate, inclusive state can deter threats, foster cohesion, and let Iranians shape their future.
Iran doesn’t need another myth. It needs a transformation grounded in realism, responsibility, and renewed commitment to national power through democratic means.
Thirty-one years after the bombing of AMIA, Argentina’s main Jewish community center, victims mourned the dead and officials pointed an accusing hand at Iran just as Tehran's policies are in focus after a war with Israel last month.
At a virtual event hosted by CIJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, diplomats, lawmakers and rights advocates marked the anniversary and criticized Tehran.
“That morning I lost three friends of mine... Nunca lo voy a olvidar. I will never forget them,” said Nico Slobinsky, a Jewish Argentine Canadian and survivor of the attack.
“I still remember... and I shake a little bit when I talk about this,” he added.
The 1994 AMIA bombing, which killed 85 and wounded more than 300, remains the deadliest attack in the country's history. An Argentinian prosecutor ordered ten people including several Iranians to stand trial for the attack last month.
Argentinian, US and Israeli authorities have long accused Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of organizing the attack - charges they deny. Iran on Friday again rejected accusations it was involved and urged a search for the real killers.
Former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird called the Iranian establishment's presence in Canada a “direct and urgent” threat.
“The life of a past elected official is under threat here in Canada today,” Baird said, referring to fellow panelist Irwin Cotler, Canada’s former Justice Minister.
Cotler was recently placed under police protection after Canadian authorities foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate him on Canadian soil—an example, he said, of Iran’s broader campaign of transnational repression targeting dissidents, human rights defenders, and diaspora communities.
A 2023 Global News investigation uncovered more than 700 Islamic Republic-linked associates operating on Canadian soil.
In June 2024, the Canadian government designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist group—a move some critics say came too late, especially after the IRGC shot down a passenger plane over Tehran in January 2020, killing dozens of Canadians with two surface-to-air missiles.
“We cannot forget as we remember tragedy ... we cannot ignore today the massive domestic repression in Iran, which is intensifying as we meet, and which conflates with the transnational repression and assassination,” Cotler said.
"They're not separate issues. There is a nexus between the two, and both regrettably mandate us to combat the culture of impunity.”
'No refuge'
Josefina Martinez Gramuglia, Argentina’s Ambassador to Canada, reaffirmed Argentina’s position that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the bombing and outlined the country’s new efforts to pursue justice—including trials in absentia.
“Those who commit acts of terror will find no refuge,” said Ambassador Gramuglia.
Just weeks earlier, on June 26, Argentine federal judge Daniel Rafecas formally ordered that ten people—including several former senior Iranian officials—stand trial in absentia for their alleged roles in the bombing.
Among those charged are Iran’s former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee, former ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour, and additional Iranian embassy staff.
The defendants are considered fugitives, many since 2003, and will be tried under a new law passed in February allowing long-term fugitives to face justice even if absent from court.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei has been a vocal diplomatic and rhetorical ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump—both of whom have long clashed with Iran, a feud that has sharply intensified since the 12- day-war.
Argentina, home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, has seen its case complicated over the years by allegations of cover-ups, shifting judicial leadership, and even political interference.
Israel’s official Farsi-language X account on Friday posted a photo of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei embracing Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah whom Israel assassinated late last year over what appeared to be the ruins of the AMIA site.
"The perpetrators of this crime: one has been dispatched to hell, and the other is hiding in an underground hell," the post said, referring to reports that Iran's Supreme Leader was transferred to a bunker during the Israeli attacks.
Iran, however, has rejected the accusations as baseless.
In a statement released on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the charges against its citizens lack credibility and accused Argentina of politicizing the case under pressure from Israel and third-party actors.
“Iran has called for the real masterminds and perpetrators of the explosion to be identified,” the statement read, adding that the Islamic Republic reserves the right to respond to “any inappropriate and unreasonable action” taken against its citizens.
Iran's ministry also criticized what it called a “show trial,” and urged Argentina to uphold principles of transparency, fairness, and independence in its judicial proceedings.
While Tehran continues to deny involvement, the panelists at the CIJA event argued that justice—though delayed—must not be denied.
For them, the AMIA bombing is more than a tragic memory. It is a warning about the enduring threat posed by the Iranian government—one they say must be confronted, in courtrooms, in policy, and in public awareness.
A festival organized by Iran's US-sanctioned stated broadcaster has brought American, European and other international journalists and activists to Iran where they expressed solidarity with the Islamic Republic following a 12-day war with Israel.
The four-day event, held from July 17 to 21 under the slogan "Condemnation of Terrorism Against Media," is hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), whose headquarters was bombed by Israel during its military assault on Iran.
American journalists and activists including Calla Walsh and Jennifer Koonings appear in videos and photos shared on the festival’s official X account, in which they voice support for Iran and criticize US foreign policy.
“Living in the United States, we’re constantly fed negative propaganda about places like Iran, portraying them as evil. But it’s so ridiculous that if you have two functioning brain cells, you know none of it is true," said New York-based journalist Koonings, speaking in front of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drone.
"The US empire is the most criminal and evil entity on the planet,” she added.
Both IRIB and the IRGC are on the United States sanctions list.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran right now, at this moment, while it is under genocidal siege by the United States and the Zionist entity,” said Boston-based activist Calla Walsh, standing at the IRGC aerospace expo, with missiles in the background.
Iran's outreach to radical influencers
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the US-based advocacy group UANI, says the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence services "have experience using conferences or junkets as a recruitment lure for Americans on the far left and right."
Entities like Sobh Festival are "trying to make inroads with radical US-based influencers and those individuals... with whom Iran's regime feels an ideological comradery," Brodsky said on X, urging the US policymakers and law enforcement to be vigilant.
The US state department this week launched a campaign urging US citizens not to visit Iran. Nationals from Britain, France and Germany among others are currently in Iranian detention, in moves condemned by their governments.
Other festival participants include activists, filmmakers, and journalists from the UK, Spain, Germany, Canada, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Attendees have been taken to locations attacked during Israel’s 12-day campaign.
In another video posted on X, German filmmaker Andreas Landeck is shown speaking through a translator. A male voice asks in Persian, “What are you seeing through your lens about these crimes?" to which Landeck responds: “I tried to find the personal belongings.”
Iran continues to be ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom.
According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, with journalists and independent media constantly persecuted through arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences handed down after unfair trials before revolutionary courts.”
In June, the IRGC detained the family member of an Iran International anchor in Tehran to pressure the journalist to stop working with the network, in a move condemned by the network.
Two female journalists who covered the 2022 death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini in morality police custody spent 17 months in prison.
Amini’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran and drew international condemnation. The unrest and media coverage of them was violently quashed.