Twenty US Senators urge Europe to trigger snapback sanctions on Iran

"In the absence of a deal, the United States continues to impose maximum diplomatic and economic pressure to constrain any activities, like the pursuit of a nuclear weapon that would threaten the security of US citizens, personnel, and partners in the region," acting US Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Shea said Tehran must choose between continuing to block international oversight while supporting it's regional allied groups, or engaging in “meaningful, time-bound diplomacy” that could pave the way for peace and reintegration into the global economy.

“Iran can continue its current path of defying the NPT(Non-Proliferation Treaty)-mandated safeguards obligations in a bid to reconstitute its nuclear program in secrecy,” she said.

Iran passed the law suspending cooperation with the IAEA following last month's US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said this week that Tehran has not ended cooperation with the agency. Instead, he said future coordination with inspectors would now be managed by the country’s Supreme National Security Council.

“Already, Iran's law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has obscured international visibility into its program.”

Snapback looms

Shea's warning comes amid growing pressure from the US and its European allies, who have set an end-of-August deadline for Iran to reach a nuclear deal or face the reimposition of full UN sanctions under the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism.

The snapback mechanism, created under UN Security Council Resolution 2231—which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal—allows any party to the agreement to reimpose sanctions if Iran is found non-compliant.

If no resolution is passed within 30 days to continue sanctions relief, all prior UN measures automatically come back into force.

Iran is set to hold nuclear talks with European powers including Germany, France and the United Kingdom on Friday in Istanbul. However, talks with the United States remain stalled after a planned sixth round in Muscat was cancelled on the eve of the Israel's June 13 strikes on Iran.

"The Supreme Leader’s misguided strategies and miscalculations have placed the Islamic Republic in its weakest and most fragile state ever,” Mostafa Tajzadeh said in the statement released on his official Telegram channel.

"In this critical situation, Mr. Khamenei has no option but to apologize to the Iranian people and accept fundamental reforms in line with national demands, including by forming a constituent assembly based on completely free and fair elections," he added, "or to resign and step down."

Mostafa Tajzadeh is a reformist politician who served as deputy interior minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005.

He is closely aligned with Iran’s reformist political faction and has been imprisoned for 10 of the last 16 years, currently on charges including acting against the state, spreading falsehoods and propaganda.

Critical of Khamenei’s handling of tensions with the United States and Israel, Tajzadeh outlined a series of steps the Supreme Leader should take.

Tajzadeh said the change ought to resemble the 1905-1911 Constitutional Revolution which transformed the Qajar monarchy into a modern government through the establishment of a parliament.

Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks during a 12-day war last month killed hundreds of Iranians including civilians, military personnel and nuclear scientists. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes killed 27 Israeli civilians.

"It must be admitted with great sadness that the result of unnecessary and costly anti-Americanism, as well as the conflict with the will of the majority of the people, has been nothing but a bankrupt economy (and) a bleak outlook," Tajzadeh added.

Iran is currently facing water shortages and electricity outages across the country as decades of sanctions and mismanagement deepens economic hardship.

“The issue with Trump and Netanyahu is not assassination, but the implementation of justice,” Kayhan wrote Wednesday, also referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic does not seek to kill anybody abroad.

"This is not our policy to kill anybody outside Iran, let alone the president of another country," he said, though clerics have issued fatwas calling for his death.

A hardline Iranian cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader called on Muslims to kill US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June in response to their threats against Khamenei.

The call came days after Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani issued separate fatwas against Trump and Netanyahu.

Shirazi said in his statement: “Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah (nation) and acting on those threats qualifies as a mohareb.”

Kayhan described both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as corruptors on earth and mohareb (enemy of God), terms which if invoked in fatwas or decrees under Shi'ite jurisprudence make it religiously obligatory for devout Shi'ite Muslims to act.

The penalty for the crimes in the Islamic Republic's theocratic system is death.

Kayhan also denounced Araghchi’s comment that “this has never been Iran’s policy to wipe out Israel from the map,” calling the comment “against the country’s official and strategic positions.”

The paper cited statements by the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, who said Israel “must vanish from the page of time,” as well as Khamenei’s 2015 vow that “Israel will not see the next 25 years.”

The backlash follows criticism from the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars News Agency, which said Araghchi’s recent remarks admitting damage to the country's nuclear facilities and enrichment risked projecting weakness in the wake of the war with Israel.

“Our facilities have been damaged – seriously damaged,” Araghchi said in his interview after US strikes on the country's three main facilities were said to have "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program, according to Trump. “The extent of which is now under evaluation … enrichment has currently ceased."

Fars also faulted him for dismissing clerical fatwas targeting Trump, saying that to deny it undermines national resolve.

In January, Iran's President, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that Iran “never attempted” to kill Trump, “and we never will.”

The launch is scheduled for 9:54 a.m. Tehran time from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome and will carry two primary satellites, Ionosfera-M 3 and 4, alongside 18 smaller payloads, including the unnamed Iranian satellite. Russian media did not mention Iran but said 17 of the small satellites are Russian-made CubeSats, and one is being launched “for the benefit of a foreign customer.”

On Monday, Iran also carried out a suborbital test of its Qased satellite launcher, which Tasnim described as part of ongoing efforts to develop space technologies. Experts say the test, led by the IRGC, also signaled defiance after the 12-day war with Israel and served as a platform for refining ballistic missile capabilities.

“The same rocket that launches satellites can launch missiles; it's the identical technology,” said Fatima Al-Asrar, a Yemeni-American policy analyst. Iran insists its space program is peaceful, but analysts warn that each test advances dual-use military know-how.

“The timing shows Iran wants to project strength despite its recent setbacks,” said Middle East analyst Sina Azodi. Other observers say the launches may be calibrated to stop short of triggering military retaliation while keeping pressure on Western powers.

Such tests have drawn Western concern due to their dual-use potential — the same technology used to launch satellites can also deliver ballistic missiles. In January 2024, the European Troika, Britain, France, and Germany, condemned Iran’s launch of the Soraya satellite aboard the Qaem 100 rocket, warning it used the same base as long-range missile systems.

“In our law, anyone who cooperates with a hostile state during wartime must be arrested and prosecuted,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said in an interview with state TV.

“Some of these individuals face severe punishments, including the death penalty, while others may receive lighter sentences,” he added.

The country's chief justice added that many of those detained were released shortly after investigations found no evidence of espionage or cooperation with Israel. Others were released on bail despite lingering suspicions.

Some detainees have been accused of direct ties to Israel and are being interrogated to identify potential co-conspirators, Ejei said.

Ejei said the judiciary has ordered expedited handling of these cases under wartime legal procedures. Indictments have been issued for some cases and trial dates set, while others are still under investigation.

Iran’s parliament has passed an emergency bill to increase penalties for espionage and collaboration with “hostile states.”

Last month, UN experts which included UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mai Sato, urged Iran to stop what they described as "post-ceasefire crackdown."

The experts cited the arrests of hundreds of people, including journalists, human rights defenders, social media users, foreign nationals — particularly Afghans — and members of ethnic and religious minorities such as Baha’is, Kurds, Baluchis and Ahwazi Arabs.