Hardline daily urges Iran to punish Britain over Australia's expulsion of envoy

"The government has decided to increase the price of unleaded gasoline, which is primarily used by luxury vehicles," Mohsen Hajimirzaei, chief of staff to President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Monday night.

Hajimirzaei added that the decision was delayed to address concerns about its impact on those whose livelihoods depend on unleaded fuel, in a likely reference to taxi drivers.

"To eliminate worries over the price hike’s effect on vulnerable groups, the decision took considerable time."

Price increases tend to make other fuel types more costly, economic analysts speaking to Iranian state TV and Persian-language outlets abroad said, adding that they also generally drive up the cost of goods and services.

Previously, President Pezeshkian had proposed reducing the gasoline quota for low-income households while capping allocations for wealthier families.

Typically, fuel price increases are accompanied by a quota system for subsidized gasoline, where consumption beyond that quota is charged at higher rates.

Defending the move, Hajimirzaei said government subsidies could no longer be justified.

"We decided to import unleaded gasoline at a cost of $3.5 billion. It cannot be sold cheaply. Owners of new luxury cars will have to pay international prices," he told the Iranian Students' News Agency

Hundreds killed in 2019

The memory of November 2019 looms large, when a gasoline price hike sparked protests in over 110 cities and attacks by security forces on demonstrators claimed hundreds of lives.

Although that decision had been jointly made by the heads of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches, none accepted responsibility once unrest erupted.

Several Iranian outlets, including the reformist Rouydad24, warned on Tuesday that the unleaded gasoline price hike could fuel inflation and intensify financial pressure on middle- and lower-income groups. Serious unrest could recur, the outlet warned.

At the same time, serious challenges abroad further darkened the outlook.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Tuesday that Iran would abandon military restraint and open new battlefronts if war with Israel reignites.

"In the next possible war, our restraint will end," he declared in parliament, adding that "New geographic areas and targets will be added to our response. And if the enemy overreaches again, the war could expand into economic and political arenas as well."

This statement strongly suggests that Iran may target shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf and strike neighboring countries—reminiscent of its actions during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, when it attacked oil tankers and launched missiles at Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, often without claiming responsibility.

The move could send global oil prices soaring but also restrict Iran's own foreign trade, exacerbating already deep economic problems.

"Now the first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Grossi told Fox News in an interview.

Grossi, who was in Washington DC for the annual meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, stopped short of saying there was an agreement or timeline for them to resume their work.

"When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not. So we are discussing what kind of modalities, practical modalities, can be implemented in order to facilitate the restart of our work there."

Resuming full cooperation with the IAEA is one of the conditions three European countries - Germany, Britain and France - have put forward to Iran as a deadline for their triggering of UN sanctions at the end of August looms.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, all sanctions lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal could automatically be reimposed if one party accuses Iran of non-compliance.

Tehran argues that the European countries no longer have legal standing to trigger the measure and has rejected the legitimacy of such a move.

"The reconstruction of (US-Iran) dialogue, conversation is more difficult, but it's not impossible. It's not at all impossible," Grossi added.

"Our work, the work of the inspectors, is indispensable, because without us in there checking what is going on, you cannot enter any serious negotiation without knowing what is really happening in countries."

Hardline opposition to IAEA work

The Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission issued a statement on Tuesday expressing distrust of the IAEA ahead of the inspectors' return.

Iran would demand conditions such as “full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in order to cooperate with the agency in any form, the statement asserted.

Iran’s Foreign Minister said earlier this month that the IAEA must clarify how it would go about inspecting nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States in June.

Following US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on June 22, Iran passed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA under its safeguards agreement unless its security demands are met.

Grossi gets 24/7 protect over Iran threat

Grossi has been under round-the-clock protection in recent weeks following a specific Iranian threat, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing informed sources.

"The elite unit of Austria’s security services is protecting Grossi after the country’s intelligence agency received information of a threat to the International Atomic Energy Agency chief from a third party," the report said citing one source.

In July, deputy head of Iran’s judiciary said the country may try Grossi in absentia over his alleged role in enabling attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities.

A hardline Iranian newspaper even called for Grossi’s arrest and execution, accusing him of acting as an Israeli agent.

Britain, France and Germany condemned those threats at the time and expressed full support for Grossi and the IAEA in fulfilling its mandate.

Iranian media reported Tuesday that Babak Zanjani has been allocated oil cargoes for export, using a cryptocurrency as collateral, even though the Central Bank of Iran has already declared the cryptocurrency to have no legal validity, economic value or financial backing.

The transaction was carried out through Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), a subsidiary of Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, Eghtesad Online reported.

“NICO has transferred millions of barrels of oil to Babak Zanjani, while Zanjani not only has a huge debt to the government, but has also not repaid a large part of his past debts,” the report added.

Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum and NICO accepted Zanjani’s “invalid cryptocurrency” worth an estimated $300 million as collateral, ILNA news agency reported.

Iran's resort to Zanjani comes as the heavily-sanctioned country's crude oil exports dropped to about 1.2 million barrels per day in the first half of August, according to a report by Vortexa Energy Analysis Company.

Zanjani’s rise and fall remain among the most contentious episodes in Iran’s economic history. His net worth was once valued at $13.5 billion and he was considered a central figure in circumventing sanctions under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–2013).

His networks laundered billions through complex schemes spanning Turkey, Indonesia and Central Asia.

Arrested in 2013, Zanjani was convicted of embezzling $1.9 billion in oil revenues. He was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to 20 years in prison.

Sanctions coming

“With the snapback mechanism looming, the Islamic Republic has brought back the very person with expertise and a complex network in this field,” Atta Hosseinian, a Berlin-based economic journalist specializing in energy, told Iran International.

Britain, France and Germany have threatened to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism of a 2015 Iran nuclear deal triggering UN sanctions if Iran doesn't make diplomatic concession's by month's end.

Reports in Iranian media have raised concerns about Zanjani’s return to business, questioning how someone with his history can be rehabilitated.

“It can be said Zanjani has returned by order from the top. This does not mean that supervisory and responsible institutions were unaware or uninformed. He has received and will receive a large volume of oil,” Hosseinian added.

On August 11, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence issued confidential guidance warning ministries and major companies to prepare for the likely return of punitive UN sanctions.

The snapback mechanism, part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 — which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — allows any party to the accord to accuse Iran of non-compliance.

If no resolution is reached within 30 days, all previous UN sanctions would automatically resume, including arms embargoes, cargo inspections, and missile restrictions.

“We are prepared to engage in indirect negotiations with the United States, provided the Americans assure us that they will not launch any military aggression during the negotiations,” Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat published on Tuesday.

“We never left the negotiating table at any time. We were at the heart of the negotiations when Israel launched an attack against us and the United States joined in,” Araghchi added.

The Trump administration had set a 60-day deadline to secure a nuclear agreement with Iran. On day 61, with four rounds of negotiations completed and a fifth looming, Israel launched a surprise military attack on Iran on June 13.

The United States joined the campaign on June 22, striking three major nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.

The military campaign, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, involved B-2 stealth bombers armed with 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) so-called bunker buster bombs designed to destroy fortified underground facilities.

Trump praised the precision strikes, saying Iran’s nuclear facilities targeted in the attacks were “totally obliterated.”

Araghchi warned: “If they believe that what they have been unable to achieve through military attacks can be accomplished through negotiations, then these negotiations will not take place.”

The United States has demanded that Iran halt all uranium enrichment activities. Tehran insists that, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it retains the right to pursue enrichment.

In July, Trump said the United States was in no hurry to enter talks with Iran due to the effectiveness of the strikes.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom are pressuring Iran to resume talks with the US and resolve disputes over Tehran's nuclear program, including full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The most recent round of negotiations between Iran and the three European countries concluded in Geneva on Tuesday, with no concrete outcome announced.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday rejected calls by Tehran moderates for direct negotiations with the United States, insisting that Washington’s hostility cannot be resolved through talks.

Deputy foreign ministers from the four countries took part in the meetings which follow a previous round held in Istanbul in July.

The talks held in Geneva produced no tangible results, The Wall Street Journal's correspondent Laurence Norman reported citing sources. "Iran did put some promises on the table but they lacked detail/substance."

In the talks, "the Iranians gave E3 representatives very little to work with in order to get an extension of the snapback," Axios reported citing an unnamed source.

At the Istanbul talks in July, the three European powers reportedly floated a proposal to avoid imminent confrontation by agreeing to a six-month extension on the sanctions move in exchange for various diplomatic concessions.

In Geneva, the Iranians did not "put tangible detailed deliverables on the table," the report added.

It "was not a disaster," but did not lead to any progress, Axios reported citing an informed source.

The E3 envoys "will report to their countries' foreign ministers so that they can decide in the coming days whether to activate the snapback mechanism or not," the report added.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom have warned they are prepared to trigger the so-called “snapback” mechanism by the end of August if Tehran fails to reach a diplomatic solution over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran warns of consequences

"In Geneva, we explained to the Europeans that, for legal reasons, they have no right to use the snapback mechanism, and that if such a thing happens, it will have consequences for them," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said without elaborating.

"It was agreed that contacts between Iran and the European side would continue in the coming days," Esmail Baghaei said.

The snapback mechanism, part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 — which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — allows any party to the accord to file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance.

If no resolution is reached within 30 days, all previous UN sanctions would automatically resume and would include arms embargoes, cargo inspections and missile restrictions.