Tehran may run out of water before summer's end, Pezeshkian says

Tejarat News wrote officials last summer “imposed power outages on citizens under the pretext of ending fuel oil use,” though the practice continued behind the scenes.

“Now it’s clear that mazut never left the government’s agenda—not even last year,” it added.

All major power plants ran on mazut in 2024, Saeed Tavakoli, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company confirmed Tuesday.

“All power plants across the country used fuel oil at full capacity last year,” he told reporters.

“Despite the president’s emphasis on environmental concerns, this was one of his administration’s adopted strategies.”

“Though the president and his deputy stress environmental protection, when there is an energy imbalance in the country, fuel oil is one of the available sources. In last year’s exceptional conditions, all mazut-fired plants were operational,” Tavakoli added.

“People must now endure pollution, blackouts, and disease at the same time,” Tejarat News warned.

Sanctions, age and mismanagement have taxed Iran's energy infrastructure, and the country has long faced blackouts especially in summer months when water and electricity demand surge.

The economic daily criticized the Pezeshkian administration for what it called a retreat from earlier pledges, adding: “Officials speak of environmental protection and renewable energy, but these same officials chose one of the most harmful fuels for humans and nature last winter.”

In November 2024, the government had ordered a halt to fuel oil use in cities including Arak, Isfahan, and Karaj due to worsening air pollution. That ban has since been quietly revoked.

“The state has now paved the way again for fuel oil use,” Tejarat News said. “But even this return failed to stop the blackouts.”

“Fuel oil burning is no longer an emergency fix—it is now a systematic, institutionalized policy that symbolizes the collapse of energy planning and the state’s neglect of public health and the environment,” it added.

"The geography of the response and the battlefield may change, and Iran's reactions will be more crushing than previously observed," state media outlet Mehr news cited the spokesman of the sprawling military organization as saying.

“If the Zionist regime launches a new attack on the powerful and resilient Iran, the initiative to end the conflict will be in our hands,’ Ali Mohammad Naeini said.

Israel's surprise 12-day military campaign against Iran last month killed hundreds of military personnel and civilians in air strikes and drone attacks. Missile salvos by Iran killed 28 Israeli civilians.

Iranian military leaders had made similar threats against Israel before the conflict, and official declarations of victory following the war have yet to substantively grapple with the lopsided toll and Tehran's intelligence lapses.

“We will not allow the sirens in the occupied territories to fall silent, and the enemy must not have the opportunity to leave its shelters,” Naeini said. “They will experience more fleeing and displacement than they did during the 12-day war.”

Iran's armed allies in the region have been degraded by nearly two years of Israeli attacks, but an Emirati news outlet reported on Wednesday that a top IRGC general traveled to Iraq to shore up support for Tehran-backed militias there.

Citing Iraqi political sources close to the Shi'ite-run political establishment, al-Ain al-Ekhbariya reported that the commander of the IRGC's elite Quds Force Esmail Qaani made an unannounced visit to Iran's neighbor.

The visit, the outlet said, involved meetings with senior Shi'ite political and militia leaders and aimed at shoring up unity and coordination as parliamentary elections loom.

Mysterious attacks hit Western-run oil facilities in Iraq's Kurdish region this month, in strikes blamed by local officials on Iran-backed militias. The sources cited by al-Ain al-Ekhbariya alleged Qaani described the events as not authorized by Tehran.

Meanwhile Iran-backed Houthi forces resumed attacks on maritime shipping without explanation following the Iran-Israel ceasefire.

Following a US-brokered ceasefire on June 25, Israel and Iran have repeatedly exchanged threats.

Israel 'wiped off the face of the earth'

Iran’s interim chief of staff, Habibollah Sayyari, praised the Islamic Republic’s wartime performance on Wednesday, saying the conflict extended beyond just Israel.

“People must understand that we did not fight just one regime, we fought the world. That means we fought NATO, Europe and the United States. This is very important, yet we emerged from it with our heads held high,” Sayyari said.

Former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaei added to the uptick of official military rhetoric on Wednesday, threatening to eradicate Israel.

“A day will come when great revenge and severe punishment will be carried out, and Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth forever,” Rezaei said on Wednesday.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman were recently moved to the Gharchak Women’s Prison and the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, added the source familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

The couple had been held by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for the past seven months.

According to the source, the couple were subjected to torture including sleep depravation, beating and threats of execution by security agents seeking to extract confessions but have maintained their innocence.

The couple, both in their 50s, entered Iran from Armenia during a motorcycle world tour. After visiting Tabriz, Tehran and Isfahan, they planned to travel to Kerman.

On January 4, 2025, they were arrested on their way to city of Kerman and charged with spying. Britain has rejected the charges and demanded their release.

The UK foreign office said the couple was receiving consular assistance in response to a request for comment by Iran International.

“We are deeply concerned by reports that two British nationals have been charged with espionage in Iran. We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities," it said in a statement.

“We are providing them with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”

Iran has long detained and convicted foreign nationals in a bid for to gain financial or political concessions from foreign powers.

Tehran has consistently denied that the detentions are politically motivated.

More than 50 individuals and entities were designated, and over 50 vessels identified, in what the US Treasury called its largest Iran-related action since 2018.

“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

According to the Treasury, Hossein Shamkhani—who uses false identities including “H,” “Hector,” and “Hugo Hayek,” the name on his Dominican passport—built the network by exploiting his father’s political reach.

“This network transports oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia, as well as other cargo, to buyers around the world, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit,” the Treasury press release said.

'Targeting elite not people'

The agency added that the network’s containership fleet also carries cargo in and out of Iran, employing tactics similar to those used by sanctioned oil tankers—frequent changes in operators and management firms to obscure ties to the Shamkhani family and avoid blacklisting.

The sweeping sanctions freeze any US-based assets and prohibit Americans from doing business with the named entities.

The Shamkhani family has also been accused of using its illicit wealth to obtain foreign passports and luxury properties abroad—privileges far removed from the daily struggles of ordinary Iranians.

“These sanctions target the regime’s elite inner circle,” Bessent said, “not the people of Iran.”

Ali Shamkhani, a former defense minister and former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was sanctioned by the US in 2020. Thursday’s action suggests Washington sees his family as central to Tehran’s efforts to evade international economic pressure.

Though enforcement depends on cooperation from third parties, the move signals Washington’s intent to escalate pressure on Iran’s ruling elite amid stalled nuclear diplomacy and deepening ties between Tehran and Moscow.

On July 26, security forces raided Unit 4 of Ghezel Hesar prison in the town of Karaj, which houses political prisoners, to suppress detainees involved in a campaign against the death penalty.

Since the raid, families of about 20 prisoners have raised concerns about their whereabouts and filed petitions and requests for information.

A source familiar with the situation who declined to be named for security reasons told Iran International that the prisoners were beaten before being placed in solitary confinement. In protest, they launched a collective hunger strike.

The raid targeted approximately 25 prisoners who had participated in a campaign known as “No to Execution Tuesdays.”

The campaign began on January last year, when political prisoners in the women’s ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison started holding weekly hunger strikes every Tuesday to protest the rising number of executions.

Two men accused of belonging to the outlawed Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group were executed on July 26.

The executions of Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamlou and Mehdi Hassani were carried out in Evin Prison, where they had been held since their arrest. Both were convicted in September 2024 by a Tehran revolutionary court on a range of national security charges.