Conservative Khamenei confidante Larijani set to lead top security body

Over the past six weeks, the Iranian authorities have intimidated and threatened 45 journalists and 315 of their family members with death unless they stop working for Iran International by specific deadlines, Iran International said in a statement.

All of those deadlines given by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security have now passed, it added.

Iran International is a London-based Persian-language broadcaster and multilingual digital news operation that is a key source of news in Iran amid a closely policed media environment inside the country.

Iran International’s legal team has filed an urgent appeal over what it called an “alarming and unprecedented escalation” in risk to Iran International journalists and their families with five UN Special Rapporteurs.

These include experts Irene Khan responsible for freedom of expression; Morris Tidball-Binz for extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Professor Ben Saul for counter-terrorism; Dr. Alice Edwards for torture and Mai Sato for Iran.

Call for urgent action

"Iran International journalists, their families in Iran and their families outside Iran are being threatened and harassed as never before in an unprecedented and concerted campaign to force them off air," Iran International’s General Manager Mahmoud Enayat said in the statement.

"I ask the UN experts to urgently investigate and take action. Iran International will continue to stand by our journalists, targeted for their important work reporting on Iran - which is needed now more than ever."

Since its formation in 2017, Iran International journalists have been targeted by the Iranian authorities for their reporting. This has included threats of assassination, assault and abduction against staff based in Britain, the United States and Europe.

The journalists have also long faced online abuse, harassment and hacking as well as asset sequestration and attacks via Iranian State media amid Tehran's designation of Iran International as a terrorist organization.

Postwar escalation

But since the start of a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in mid-June, Iran International says the situation has deteriorated rapidly and there is now a real risk to the lives of multiple Iran International staff and to their family members.

The network added its urgent appeal comes as it faces “an alarming and unprecedented escalation” in which Iranian authorities systematically began to falsely accuse Iran International journalists of being spies for Israel responsible for providing information about Iranian infrastructure to Israeli intelligence.

Iran International journalists in seven countries - the UK, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Turkey and Belgium - have been subject to threats, the network said.

Iran International is an independent Persian-language satellite TV news channel broadcasting live 24/7 from London and Washington DC.

It started in 2017 and has become the most watched Persian-language TV channel within and outside Iran on both satellite and online platforms. With bureaux in 14 countries, its journalists are drawn from a wide background in TV, radio, news agencies and newspapers within Iran and in other countries.

"I have been banned from activity on social media for three months. Turns out that in addition to spreading ‘falsehoods and propaganda against the sacred system,’ I am also accused of ‘strengthening the Zionist regime,’” said Younesi, a former advisor to former president Hassan Rouhani.

His father Ali Younesi was intelligence minister during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency.

In past public remarks, Hassan Younesi had warned of deep infiltration by Israel’s Mossad in Iran, saying officials should be concerned for their personal safety.

Younesi, who is also a lawyer, was briefly detained in November 2022 amid Iran’s nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini over an alleged hijab law violation.

The charge against Younesi comes amid a broader crackdown on dissent and alleged espionage during and after the 12-day war with Israel.

More than 700 people were arrested in the month after the ceasefire, mostly accused of working as agents for Israel in recent days.

The arrests reportedly targeted what authorities described as an “active espionage and sabotage network” that intensified operations following Israel’s June 12 strike, which killed several senior Iranian military and nuclear figures.

Iranian media report sharp product price increases despite no official hikes, with some dairy producers quietly raising prices in recent months. Industry officials cite a needed 35% rise due to production costs.

Data sent by viewers to Iran International show the price jumps, with the cost of a packet of cheese or a tub of yogurt in some areas exceeding the entire daily budget of a household. The average monthly wage in Iran is roughly $150 at today’s exchange rate.

Many respondents said they no longer buy dairy products, with some reporting they have gone months without them. In their messages, families said they now focus only on “essential and cheap” purchases.

“The price of yogurt we use has gone up by 40,000 tomans (about 55 US cents) in just one week,” a resident of Mahallat, Markazi province, told Iran International. A consumer in northern Gilan province said prices there were even higher than in Tehran.

One viewer wrote: “I don’t buy industrial cheese anymore because half the packet is water.”

In several reported cases, a tub of yogurt now costs about 70 percent more than a few weeks ago.

Another reported that Lighvan cheese – among Iran’s finest -- had jumped from 240,000 tomans (about $2.5) before the recent 12-day conflict with Israel to 600,000 tomans (about $6.5).

Iranian hardline daily Kayhan has criticized what it calls an unregulated surge in dairy prices and the lack of clear action from officials following a recent government-approved rise in the purchase price of raw milk.

“Within just a few weeks, milk, yogurt, cheese, and buttermilk have appeared on shelves with noticeably higher price tags — in some cases exceeding a 30% increase — placing the burden squarely on households,” it wrote.

According to the paper, industry representatives blame weak oversight and unclear policymaking for enabling opportunistic pricing, while experts warn that without consumer protections, the policy aimed at supporting livestock farmers has instead added pressure on ordinary Iranians.

According to Mohammadreza Banitaba, spokesperson for the Iranian Dairy Products Industries Association, per capita dairy consumption in Iran has dropped from around 100–130 kilograms in 2010 to below 70 kilograms today — less than half the 150–160 kilograms recommended by global health standards and far below consumption levels in developed countries, which often exceed 200 kilograms per person annually.

Declining quality

In addition to price hikes, consumers have complained about declining quality. One reported that a bottle of milk was delivered spoiled and “resembled yogurt.”

Another said that packaged cheese labelled as 400 or 500 grams turned out to be “half water.” Others reported milk spoiled before opening or tasted sour on purchase.

Some people linked spoilage to frequent power and water cuts. “Because of electricity outages, dairy products are not sold fresh and when we buy them, they are already spoiled,” one person told Iran International.

Producers call for 35% price rise

Industry representatives say higher prices are inevitable given rising costs. Ali Ehsan Zafari, head of the Dairy Cooperatives Union, told state-run Young Journalists Club earlier this month that the increase in raw milk prices had significantly raised production costs.

He said the price of raw milk had risen from 18,000 tomans per kilogram to 23,000 tomans (from about 20 to 25 cents). According to Zafari, “the overall increase in fat and milk prices is more than 20 to 25 percent, and therefore dairy prices should increase by 35 percent.”

Zafari urged the Ministry of Agriculture and the market regulation authorities to quickly set “logical prices” for dairy to prevent “chaos in the market.”

“Given that people’s salaries have not increased, we agree that this price increase should not happen. But when raw materials become more expensive, production units should not suffer losses,” he added.

Silent price hikes in recent months

The government’s official news agency IRNA reported in July that several dairy companies had quietly raised prices in multiple stages without official approval in recent months, even as cattle farmers complained that the official raw milk purchase price was below expert estimates.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s livestock affairs division, Iran produced 11.7 million tons of raw milk last year and aims to exceed 12 million tons this year, with more than nine million tons for domestic consumption and 2.4 million tons of dairy products exported.

Both Iranian media and industry officials say higher prices have reduced consumption among middle- and low-income households, raising concerns about public health. Dairy producers argue that without further price adjustments, the industry’s survival is at risk due to higher costs for feed, transport, labor and energy.

Livestock farmers say increasing the raw milk purchase price is unavoidable if their sector is to survive.

Purchases fell to about 1.2 million barrels per day, nearly 30 percent lower than in June and slightly below the year-ago level, the firm said.

June surge fades

The pullback follows a sharp rise in June, when shipments reached more than 1.7 million barrels per day, the highest since March, according to Vortexa.

Emma Li, senior market analyst at Vortexa, said sellers accelerated deliveries ahead of possible supply disruptions linked to the brief Iran-Israel conflict. She said the rush reflected a strategy to front-load supplies amid uncertainty about further attacks.

Independent refiners, known as “teapots,” drove much of the June demand but have since slowed restocking, Bloomberg quoted Kpler senior crude analyst Muyu Xu as saying. Xu said demand from teapots is “far from robust” after their higher imports in June and that some refiners face a tight crude‑import quota.

US sanctions pressure grows

The slowdown in shipments comes as the United States has stepped up enforcement of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil trade.

The US Treasury said last week it imposed measures against a fourth Chinese oil terminal alleged to handle sanctioned Iranian crude.

The announcement followed broader sanctions on more than 50 individuals, entities, and vessels tied to what the US Treasury described as a “shipping empire” connected to Hossein Shamkhani, son of a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Discounted oil still flows

China remains the largest buyer of Iranian crude, which is sold at steep discounts to Brent and typically flows through private channels in defiance of US sanctions. Vortexa said in June that discounts averaged about four dollars per barrel below Brent futures, compared with two dollars per barrel below Brent futures in May.

Despite repeated US sanctions, CBS said China is believed to take up to 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports, much of it bound for teapot refiners.

Official Chinese customs data, which often shows negligible or zero Iranian imports, is due this week.

Outlook uncertain

Iran’s export capacity is constrained by aging oil fields, rising domestic demand, and low investment.

A confidential Iranian Oil Ministry report seen by Iran International said Tehran averaged 1.4 million barrels per day in oil and condensate exports to China in the first half of 2025, down 12 percent from last year.

Homayoun Falakshahi, senior energy analyst at Kpler, said even with sanctions fully lifted, daily exports would likely not exceed 1.7 million barrels.

An official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran confirmed to The Telegraph on Monday that the IRGC has formally asked the Taliban for the list of nearly 25,000 Afghans.

The list, dubbed the “kill list” in British media was leaked in 2022 and contains the full names, emails, and phone numbers of people in Afghanistan who applied for relocation to the United Kingdom following the military withdrawal in 2021.

It includes personal data of Afghan soldiers, government employees, and their families, as well as around 100 British special forces members and intelligence operatives who had endorsed Afghan applicants.

A Taliban official told The Telegraph that since discovering the value of the list, the group has been working to locate and detain those still in Afghanistan, intending to use them as leverage in diplomatic pressure on the UK.

"Taliban leadership in Kandahar has also ordered officers in Kabul to arrest as many individuals as possible from the leaked document to use them as leverage in exerting diplomatic pressure on London," according to the report.

The Telegraph says the IRGC appears to have similar intentions, particularly with renewed nuclear negotiations and the threat of snapback sanctions looming over Iran.

Since the June 25 ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Tehran has accelerated the deportation of Afghan nationals from Iran, citing an inability to continue hosting large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers.

On July 25, senior Iranian diplomats met with counterparts from the UK, France, and Germany in Istanbul to discuss the path forward. They agreed to continue negotiations.

European governments are pressing Iran to resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including the reinstatement of inspections and other obligations. Following the war with Israel, Iran has moved to further limit cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, any party to the now-lapsed 2015 nuclear agreement—including France, Germany, the UK, Russia, or China—can file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance.

If no progress is made on Iran's nuclear dossier by August 30, the so-called snapback mechanism can reinstate UN sanctions removed under the 2015 deal.

“We have made it clear to the United Nations and the Security Council that such a step is a misuse of international mechanisms, and the Islamic Republic will respond decisively,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Sunday.