Khamenei aide unveils ‘Israel annihilation plan’ book

While hardline media aligned with the establishment condemned the summit outright, reformist and moderate voices turned their criticism inward, questioning the government’s decision to boycott the meeting and the reasoning behind it.

Hardline daily Jam-e Jam, run by state broadcaster IRIB, headlined its front page “The Shameful Summit.”

The gathering, the daily wrote, was not a symbol of peace, but "a stage for diplomacy wearing a mask of empathy — while the same actors keep the fires of war burning.”

'Resistance miracle'

Javan, linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), was more bullish.

“Does anyone in the West truly believe they ‘won the war’ and can dictate postwar conditions?” the daily asked in an editorial. “The new order favors the Resistance Front and the Islamic Republic, to the detriment of Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

The ultra-conservative Kayhan, funded by the Supreme Leader’s office, had the answer to Javan’s rhetorical question.

“The Zionist regime failed to achieve any of its military goals and had to negotiate with Hamas,” Kayhan wrote under the front-page headline “The Miracle of Resistance.”

Hamshahri, run by Tehran’s municipality, backed Iran’s decision to decline Egypt’s invitation, calling it “an effort to rescue Netanyahu from the Gaza quagmire through negotiation with Hamas.”

Hardline commentator Mohammad Nadimi issued a harsh warning.

“Sharm el-Sheikh is the completion of the Arab-Israeli-American alliance for a new Middle East. Join it, and we give up the islands, missiles, enrichment and drones; refuse, and we must prepare for war to restore balance,” he posted on X.

‘Peace hanging in balance’

Tehran moderates offered a more restrained response — with the reformist daily Shargh splashing “Peace on a Razor’s Edge” on its Tuesday front page.

“Whether Iran views this ceasefire as an opportunity to consolidate influence or a temporary setback depends on Washington’s policy toward Tehran and its regional competition with Riyadh,” the paper’s editorial read.

Former presidential aide Mohammad Ali Abtahi highlighted the human loss in Gaza.

“Two years ago neither Hamas imagined accepting peace after 65,000 martyrs and Gaza’s destruction, nor Israel thought it would end up signing a peace deal with the group it calls terrorist,” he wrote on X.

Former ambassador Nosratollah Tajik questioned the efficacy of the summit.

“Trump’s speech at Sharm el-Sheikh, with no mention of the Palestinian people, shows he does not intend to address the roots of the conflict. Without a Palestinian state and refugee settlement, this is just another painkiller, not a cure.”

Isolation or Strength?

The government-run Iran daily defended the decision to skip the summit, calling it a “Trump spectacle” to compensate for not winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

Tehran’s refusal to be part of the show, the paper said, underscored its “independent role amid geopolitical rivalries and chronic mistrust.”

But the reformist Ham Mihan rebuked that logic.

“If that is the case, why did you seek meetings with them (the Americans) at the United Nations?” it asked in its Tuesday editorial. “Such reasoning may appear principled but isolates the country further and defines Iran as outside the existing world order.”

Political analyst Majid Younesian, writing in the same paper, urged realism.

“Declining Egypt’s invitation is neither a waste of diplomatic opportunity nor a trap. The truth is that Iran’s state apparatus is still not ready to alter its approach toward engagement with the West,” he wrote.

Eslami said any decision on withdrawal “would have to be made by the relevant authorities,” adding that “the overall conclusion is that leaving the NPT is not on the agenda.” He said the IAEA “should have condemned the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, but it did not,” and criticized the agency for not ensuring the protection of sensitive nuclear data.

“The agency has issued no declaration to guarantee the safeguarding of information related to our nuclear industry,” Eslami said. He added that Iran’s cooperation with the agency is now governed by a parliamentary law passed after the June strikes, which requires the IAEA to act within that framework.

Limited inspections, no IAEA staff in Iran

Eslami said inspectors have visited Iran only twice since the attacks, both times with clearance from the Supreme National Security Council, to the Bushehr and Tehran reactor sites. “No IAEA inspector is currently in the country,” he said.

The comments come after Iran and the IAEA reached a cooperation agreement in Cairo in September to resume inspections suspended following the June airstrikes. The deal, negotiated between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, outlined “practical modalities” for monitoring Iran’s declared sites under what Tehran called “postwar conditions.” Both sides described it as a step in the right direction, but Iranian officials warned the accord could collapse if UN sanctions were reinstated.

Tensions over snapback sanctions and oversight

Western governments triggered the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran in late September, saying Tehran had failed to meet its obligations. Araghchi later said the fate of the Cairo accord rested with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, while hardline lawmakers renewed calls to end cooperation with the agency altogether.

Last month, Eslami told Japan’s Kyodo News that Iran faced “wartime conditions” after the US and Israeli strikes and that inspections would not fully resume without new guarantees to protect its facilities and data. IAEA chief Grossi said later that Iran remains bound by its treaty obligations even if sanctions are restored, stressing that cooperation “must be permanent.”

Masoud Nazari, a Kurdish religious and political activist from the city of Javanrud in Iran’s Kermanshah province, was shot several times late Tuesday as he returned from a mosque to his home in Istanbul’s Arnavutköy district, the Turkish news outlet Haberler reported. The attack took place around 8:30 p.m. on Salih Street in the Islambey neighborhood. The gunman, who had followed Nazari, fled the scene on foot after the shooting.

Nazari was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and later died, Haberler said. Police have launched a large-scale investigation, but no suspect has been detained and no group has claimed responsibility.

Haalvsh said Nazari left Iran about ten years ago after facing pressure over his religious and political activities and had lived in Turkey since then. Citing his family and friends, the outlet said he had “repeatedly received threats from Iranian security agencies” and that “the fingerprints of the Islamic Republic’s security institutions are clear in this incident.”

Nazari was known among Kurdish Sunni activists for his criticism of Iran’s religious policies. Haalvsh described him as a cleric and political critic who had opposed the Islamic Republic for years.

Rights groups have long accused Iran of targeting its critics abroad. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a Washington-based human rights foundation, said in a report last year that it had documented at least 862 extrajudicial killings and more than 120 abduction or assassination attempts linked to the Iranian government since 1979.

“One of the officials of the Zionist regime used the phrase ‘Trump as Cyrus the Great,’” Kazem Jalali, said at a ceremony in Moscow on . “Those who call the US president by such a title should be reminded that a person who supports the killing of tens of thousands in Gaza cannot be called a defender of human rights,” he said.

The remarks appeared to answer comments by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who on Monday called Trump “a giant of Jewish history” and compared him to the ancient Persian ruler.

Ohana made the remarks during Trump’s visit to Jerusalem, where he addressed Israeli lawmakers after brokering a ceasefire in Gaza.

Banners in Tel Aviv posted this week by the Friends of Zion, a Christian organization dedicated to backing Israel, proclaimed "Cyrus is Alive!" alongside Trump's picture.

Cyrus is revered as a powerful ancient ruler by Iranians and remembered fondly in the Jewish tradition for ending the so-called Babylonian Captivity of Jews when his forces conquered that empire and allowed exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem.

A decree after his conquest recorded on an ancient artifact called the Cyrus Cylinder created in 539 BC enshrined aspects of religious freedom and has been hailed as the first bill of human rights.

Trump received a hero’s welcome in Israel this week after helping to secure a truce that ended two years of war in Gaza and freed the last living Israeli hostages. During his visit, he signed a Gaza ceasefire deal at a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh and said US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had “obliterated” the program.

“The bully of the Middle East has been taken down,” Trump said, adding that Iran “will not return to the nuclear world again.”

Iran has denied pursuing nuclear weapons and accused Israel of misleading the US president into authorizing the attacks. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Trump had been “badly fed the fake line” that Iran was close to producing a bomb.

Araghchi wrote on X that Trump was “being misled by the same warmongers who derailed American diplomacy with Iran for many years.” He said the US could not call for peace while leading military action against Iran and reinstating sanctions.

“The real bully of the Middle East, Mr. President, is the same parasitic actor that has long been bullying and milking the United States,” he wrote, referring to Israel.

“There’s a lot more work to be done on the overall peace agreement,” Hoeven said, referring to ongoing US-backed efforts to consolidate a regional peace framework following the Gaza ceasefire.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is holding for now after Hamas released 20 hostages to Israel on Monday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, regional and international leaders convened to advance the fragile peace process. Egypt’s president described the US-backed proposal as “the last chance” to secure lasting stability in the Middle East.

“If this peace agreement can come together, and it has such broad-based support among not only Israel and the United States, but the Arab countries, we have a chance to really change the paradigm in the Middle East," Hoeven told Iran International.

Hoeven, a senior senator and long-time supporter of Israel, said Iran remained the key obstacle to regional stability.

“As far as Iran and the reign of terror, they have been the number one state sponsor of terror for many years,” he said. “Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, they are proxies for Iran. Iran props them up," Hoeven said.

The senator expressed optimism that renewed US and Arab cooperation could reshape the region’s security and economic future. “If we can change that dynamic and get back to the Abraham Accords and get Saudi Arabia engaged like we’d like to, hopefully we can really change the region for a better, peaceful, prosperous future.”

The Abraham Accords, brokered in 2020 by President Donald Trump and his senior adviser son-in-law Jared Kushner, normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.

Current efforts to expand that framework could gain momentum following the Gaza ceasefire.

Hoeven’s remarks follow similar comments made to Iran International last week by Democratic Senator Cory Booke, who said Iran “plays a destructive role across the Middle East” and remains the main spoiler of peace efforts.