Iran says US conditions for talks not formally presented

“Americans will take the wish of reducing Iran’s missile range to below 500 kilometers to the grave,” Armed Forces Judiciary chief Ahmadreza Pourkhaghan said during a meeting with Revolutionary Guard aerospace commanders, according to state media.

The comments follow those of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who said last month that the United States had raised a proposal to cap the range at 500 kilometers. “No honorable person would accept such a condition,” he said then.

Iranian commanders have instead stressed the opposite. Last week, Mohammad Jafar Asadi of the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters said Tehran would extend its missiles “to wherever necessary” and insisted the country was ready to defend itself.

Iran’s missiles have a declared range of up to 2,000 kilometers, which officials say covers Israel and is sufficient for deterrence.

Pourkhaghan said Iran’s missile and drone capabilities had shifted regional conflicts. “Powerful missile and drone strikes forced the Zionist enemy to raise the white flag and ask for a ceasefire,” he said.

The Beit al-Moqaddas unit in Kordestan province said the assault took place late Monday, when attackers threw a grenade at a Guard post in the town’s Hezbollah Square area.

It identified the dead as cleric Alireza Valizadeh and Ayoub Shiri, describing them as security personnel. Three others were taken to the hospital with injuries.

The unit blamed “mercenary terrorists linked to global arrogance” and said security forces were pursuing the assailants.

“The martyrdom and injury of several of the brave men of Sarvabad is proof that the security of Iran rests on the courage of selfless defenders,” the statement said. “This kind of terrorist action will never weaken our resolve to safeguard the people.”

Sources close to Kurdish parties in Iran confirmed the report to Iran International.

According to these sources, “after the grenades exploded, gunfire was heard for several minutes, but no one was injured as a result of the shooting.”

They added, “the first attack was carried out by throwing grenades, which killed two security forces, and after about an hour the clashes ended. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the operation.”

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  Gunmen kill police officers in Iran's restive southeast

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  Four killed in clash between police and Jaish al-Adl gunmen in southeastern Iran

Last month, armed men opened fire on a police vehicle in Sistan-Baluchestan province, killing at least two officers.

The provinces of Kordestan and Sistan-Baluchestan,home to ethnic Kurdish and Baluch minorities, have long seen insurgent and militant activity against Tehran.

Kordestan, bordering Iraq, is a hotspot for sporadic attacks by Kurdish armed groups seeking autonomy. In Sistan-Baluchestan, Sunni militant factions such as Jaish al-Adl have staged frequent ambushes on security forces near the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders.

Tehran blames “foreign-backed terrorists” for the unrest and has intensified security operations in both areas amid wider regional instability.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday the reactivation of UN sanctions on Iran was “a setback but not the end of diplomacy,” and called for continued dialogue to reduce tensions. Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul accused Tehran of using Yemen’s Houthis to project destabilizing influence and said their attacks endangered Israel and international shipping.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Tuesday those comments were unacceptable. “Those who reimposed restrictions on Iran and accuse us of destabilization have no right to lecture us,” he said. “It is shameful that the very parties responsible for the current situation now present themselves as accusers.”

He added that European criticism of Iran’s defense policy was misplaced. “The parties that spend hundreds of billions of dollars to turn our region into a warehouse of destructive weapons cannot question the indigenous defense capabilities of the Iranian people,” he said.

Police broadcast videos of Arash Sayyadi, Ashkan Shekariyan-Moghadam and Rassam Sohrabi confessing to "disrupting public order" and "rap dissing" online.

The rappers also directed their apologies to “security and judicial agents, the agents of the Second Base of the Intelligence Organization and the Tehran District 5 Prosecutor’s Office,” the video said.

Toomaj Salehi, who faced a death sentence during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement but was later released, expressed abhorrence of the scene.

“The issue isn’t who these three are or what they did; the main question is who allowed those agents, after frightening and pressuring someone, to shave his head and force him to stand before a camera reading from a script?” Salehi posted on Instagram.

Rights groups accuse Iran uses forced confessions as a tool of repression, often broadcast on state television. The most recent case occurred in August, when coerced statements from Christian converts were aired.

Salehi also delivered forced confessions on Iranian state media in which he admitted inciting sedition and riots. He later denied the accusations in a YouTube video released in November 2023 after his release.

Arash Sayyadi, who goes by the stage name Eycin and Rassam Sohrabi have been subject to prior arrests, human rights website HRANA said, without elaborating. It offered no background information on Ashkan Shekariyan-Moghadam, known as Ashkan Leoo.

Iranian hip-hop faces severe censorship, repression, and arrests, which force some artists to record and distribute their music underground to avoid state scrutiny.

The value of Iran's currency plumbed new lows after the UN sanctions triggered by European states resumed late last month, raising already eye-watering costs of living.

In one video sent to Iran International, a man displays grocery bags containing apples, peaches, grapes and bananas while criticizing Iranian authorities for what he described as economic mismanagement.

“I bought four basic items, not luxury fruits, and it cost 16,000,000 rials ($14). The more people tolerate you government folks, the worse you act," he said. "People have shown patience, and you’ve ruined the country. You get worse every day. What happened after the war? Executions and skyrocketing prices. How much more?”

Another man shared a video showing his grocery purchases and chiding Iran's Supreme Leader for saying sanctions have had no impact.

“I bought one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cucumbers, one kilo of eggplants, one and a half kilos of potatoes, one and a half kilos of onions and one kilo of tomatoes—it totaled 7,290,000 rials ($6.6). Then Khamenei says sanctions have no effect. God damn you for dragging us to hell,” he said.

In another video, a shopper focuses on the price tag of a tray of eggs, comparing the cost before and after the reimposition of sanctions while addressing Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Look at this egg price, it’s 1,980,000 rials for 30 ($1.8). Before the snapback mechanism, it was 1,300,000 rials ($1.2). Mr. Pezeshkian, maybe the mechanism didn’t affect you, but it hit chickens and eggs hard,” he said.

Bread and dates

One video uses sarcasm to highlight the rising price of dates, a fruit often referenced in Islamic teachings.

“They told us all our lives that the Prophet and Imams lived on bread and dates. A 700-gram (1.5 pounds) box of the ‘Prophet and Imams’ food’ now costs 3,760,000 rials ($3.4). We’ve crossed the peak—we’re heading to the skies,” he said.

Iran’s minimum wage for 2025 is 104 million rials per month, equivalent to about $94.

To offset inflation, the Iranian government has issued a series of vouchers known as Kalabarg to help low-income households.

The vouchers are valued at 5,000,000 rials ($4.5) per person for income deciles 1–3, and 3,500,000 rials ($3.1) for deciles 4–7.

A woman in another video shows her purchases using a family voucher and questions its effectiveness.

“I got a four-person voucher worth 14,000,000 rials ($12.6). With it, I bought one tray of eggs, one box of tea, two tomato pastes, one laundry liquid, one pack of noodles, and one pack of gum. All this hype about vouchers, and that’s all it got me,” she said.