Iran summons Polish diplomat over London drone display

“We are lying on wealth yet remain poor because of ourselves — the managers, officials, politicians and lawmakers — not America,” Pezeshkian said at a meeting of education managers in the central city of Isfahan. He urged local authorities to depend on people’s capacities instead of waiting for the state to act. “If you rely on the government, nothing will change in fifty years. But if you trust the people, you can achieve anything,” he said.

Pezeshkian said the growing desire among young Iranians to emigrate was troubling and reflected a loss of faith in the country’s future. “Why should our children think about leaving?” he asked. “Going abroad to study and learn is not bad, but believing that they must go and never return is a disaster,” he said. The president urged young people to gain knowledge overseas and bring it back to serve their homeland.

Warning over internal conflict

Iran’s main threat comes from domestic divisions rather than from the United States or Israel, Pezeshkian said. “I am not afraid of America or Israel. I fear our own disputes,” he said. “If we fight each other, we do not need enemies. We destroy ourselves.”

Pezeshkian voiced similar concerns on Wednesday, saying at a cabinet meeting that political infighting was a greater danger than foreign hostility, the state news agency IRNA reported. “I have no serious concern about plots by the United States or others, because their hostility is obvious,” he said. “But I am deeply worried about false divisions and efforts to blacken everything inside the country.”

Hardline lawmakers have opened impeachment moves against four of his cabinet ministers this month in what critics say is an attempt to paralyze his government. Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, has urged cooperation to restore public trust and ease growing hardship under renewed sanctions.

“Trump is operating in a new paradigm and wants to unilaterally impose his power on the world,” Kamal Kharrazi said in an interview with Khamenei official website, adding Israel acts under green light of the United States. 

Kharrazi is veteran theocrat Khamenei's top foreign policy advisors and heads the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations. Members of the body are handpicked by Khamenei and its reports and advisories have often presaged major policy shifts by the ruling system.

His remarks carried on the official website of Iran's top decision-maker appear to represent one of the closest approximation of the Supreme Leader's view on the recent Gaza truce and Trump's role since it was clinched over the weekend.

“While we must not shy away from negotiations and should remain at the table, we must also ensure that nothing is imposed on us, and if they try, we must stand firm,” he added.

'Missile are no up for negotiations'

“The issue of missiles and the issue of resistance are not issues that Iran wants to negotiate on,” Kharrazi added.

Members of the body he leads are by handpicked by Khamenei and its reports and advisories have often presaged major policy shifts by the ruling system.

A senior Iranian lawmaker said last week that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has lifted all limits on the range of Iran’s missiles, previously capped at 2,200 kilometers (about 1,367 miles), signaling a potential major shift in Tehran’s defense posture following the punishing June war.

The stance was echoed by other Iranian officials, who emphasized that there would be no negotiations over the missile program’s range.

“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 Force commanders, according to state media on October 7.

Kharrazi also warned that Israel seeks to dominate beyond its borders and that Iran must always be prepared.

“We must be vigilant against Israel’s future plans for the region and even the world. Though they are a small minority, they seek to dominate the region and the world by relying on great powers; hence, we must prepare for resistance starting today,” Kharrazi said.

"Today, Iran is trying to survive. When I heard the reports two weeks ago, Iran is looking to build a nuclear weapon. I said, don't worry about it," Trump told reporters in the White House.

"I said the last thing they want to do is a nuclear weapon. It didn't work out. And if they did a nuclear weapon, before they got even close, that site would be attacked and it would be wiped out."

Trump earlier this year gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to reach a nuclear deal, demanding it end all domestic uranium enrichment. Tehran denies seeking a weapon and sees enrichment as a right.

On June 13, the 61st day since US-Iran talks began, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which killed nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians.

On June 22, the United States joined the fighting with strikes by B-2 bombers and submarine-launched missiles on three Iranian nuclear sites which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said "obliterated" the country's nuclear program.

'Shot down 1000s of drones'

Trump appeared to acknowledge new details of US military efforts to repel Iranian counterattacks during the conflict.

"We were shooting them down like it was target practice, but we shot down thousands of drones and missiles," he said.

Trump on Monday clinched the release of 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners in a complex international deal he said will bring the devastating two-year-old war in Gaza to a close.

His decision to attack Iran facilitated the breakthrough, he said.

"If we weren't involved, there wouldn't be peace," Trump continued. "If we didn't destroy the nuclear capability of Iran, that deal would have never happened for two reasons: the Arab nations would not have felt bold enough to do it, because you have a very powerful, at that time, Iran - it's not powerful anymore.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump alleged, described the air attack on Iran as a success in private remarks at the two leader's summit in Alaska over the summer.

"(The B-2) is unbelievable as a weapon. I know Putin - when I was riding with him in Alaska, we passed a lot of them, and he said, 'that really did the trick.' I said, 'Yeah, it's amazing."

Nezamoddin Mousavi, former head of the IRGC's Fars News agency, told another Guards-linked outlet Tasnim News that the military organization was never satisfied with the deal, and that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei never trusted the United States but insisted on supporting Iran’s negotiators.

"The Leader had a clear framework regarding the negotiations," Mousavi said. "He was not hopeful about them and viewed the United States as untrustworthy. But at the same time, he believed the negotiators should be treated with respect."

"The IRGC shared this view, and I understood that we should maintain respect for (foreign minister) Zarif and ensure a unified voice was heard from us, so it wouldn’t appear that there were two centers of authority in the country.” he added.

The remarks give rare insight into the policy outlook of the sprawling military group that is central to Tehran's domestic security and military stance abroad.

They appear to expose new details on the decision-making behind the doomed 2015 international nuclear deal that has become especially irksome to Iran's leadership after a provision paved the way for UN sanctions to be reimposed last month.

Hardliners in Iran have long criticized former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for accepting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’s (JCPOA) snapback mechanism, viewing it as a concession that ultimately enabled the reimposition of sanctions on September 28.

The snapback mechanism allows any participant including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran in the event of alleged violations, without the possibility of a veto.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he was surprised by Iran’s agreement to the snapback condition, calling it a “legal trap.”

“To be honest, we were surprised. But if our Iranian partners accepted this formulation—which, frankly, was a legal trap—we had no grounds to object,” Lavrov said.

‘With the Supreme Leader'

Mousavi, who as head of Revolutionary Guards-linked Fars News agency attended government and IRGC meetings on the Iran deal, said the Guards never promised to restrict their activities beyond the deal’s commitments.

He added that the Iranian government at the time was unhappy with the Guards’ missile tests and military exercises, causing internal disputes.

“We must respect the ruling bodies, and the IRGC is part of the establishment. The IRGC does not follow an expert’s command; it aligns with the Supreme Leader,” Mousavi said.

“If officials sign agreements beyond Iran’s commitments, the IRGC won’t accept them, but this does not imply belief in dual governance. After Americans failed to uphold their commitments, these revolutionary bodies demanded accountability.”

“Our clear and fundamental criticisms of the JCPOA are evident and have been published in media like Fars News Agency and Tasnim. Other sessions were held for finalization - not necessarily involving Mr. Zarif or government officials - and I saw no one convinced by the process or willing to justify it,” Mousavi added.

The United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 under the first Trump administration. In response, Iran gradually reduced its compliance with the JCPOA and began enriching uranium at higher levels in 2019.

In June, Israel launched a surprise military offensive targeting Iran’s military and nuclear facilities, including assassinations of top officials. Iran retaliated with waves of drone and ballistic missile strikes.

The United States entered the conflict on June 22 with strikes on key nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, but brokered a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after 12 days of fighting on June 24.

Following the attacks, Iran halted cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the diplomatic impasse over Iran's nuclear activities continues.

Detainees in the notorious lockup outside Tehran rejected their food rations for the third consecutive day, sources told Iran International.

Several inmates fainted on the third day of the strike, according to videos from inside the prison shared online.

"The Islamic Republic is carrying out a massacre in this prison," one inmate said in a video sent to Iran International, describing the continuation of the collective hunger strike in protest against death sentences.

The strike comes as Iran has executed at least 1,172 people this year, according to the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The protests began on Monday in wards 1 and 2 after the transfer of a group of prisoners to solitary confinement.

At least 19 prisoners had been moved to solitary confinement pending their execution this week, 11 of them on drug-related charges and three on murder convictions, according to US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The prison has seen a sharp rise in executions in recent weeks, according to HRANA.

'We will all be killed'

Prisoners in Ward 4 issued a statement describing the daily transfer of their cellmates to solitary confinement, saying they have “no choice left but to protest and go on strike.”

“There is not a single day when our cellmates are not taken to solitary confinement for execution. If we are left alone after these protests, we will all be killed,” the statement added.

Death-row inmates at the prison, in a separate statement published on Iranian rights activist Golrokh Iraee’s X page, said nearly 1,500 prisoners were on strike and called on the public to support their cause and gather outside the prison to protest the rising number of executions.

"These are the most agonizing moments of our lives and those of our families — suffering that has gone on for years. This situation has become unbearable for us," the statement said.

"Our only refuge as prisoners is you, the dear people of Iran. Execution is not our right... Take action against executions in Iran. Raise your voices. Gather outside the prisons and do not let them execute prisoners," it added.

Five executed in one day

Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency on Wednesday said that three men — Amirreza Ghobadi, Majid Hatami, and Sajjad Hatami — were executed at Ghezel Hesar prison after being convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) through armed robbery.

HRANA reported that two others convicted of murder were also executed on Wednesday in the same facility.

The five were among at least 19 inmates transferred to solitary confinement for execution.

One prisoner sentenced to death for the murder of Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a University of Tehran student, was returned to his ward after the victim’s family granted a two-month reprieve.

There has been no information on the fate of the remaining prisoners transferred to solitary confinement.

Families join protest outside prison

On Tuesday night, families of death-row inmates gathered outside Ghezel Hesar Prison, holding photographs of their loved ones and chanting “do not execute” and “immediate abolition of the death penalty.”

The protest coincided with the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign.

The campaign entered its 90th week this Tuesday, with prisoners in 52 prisons across Iran joining the hunger strike.

The No to Execution Tuesdays campaign began in January 2024, launched by political prisoners in the prison to protest the rising number of executions across the country.

The initiative quickly gained momentum, spreading to dozens of prisons in Iran, including the women’s ward at Evin Prison, where inmates joined the weekly hunger strikes and issued statements calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Ghezel Hesar’s record of executions

Located in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Ghezel Hesar is one of Iran’s largest and most notorious detention centers, where executions are routinely carried out.

In a report marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty last week, HRANA said at least 1,537 people were executed in Iran between October 2024 and October 2025, including 183 in Ghezel Hesar — the highest number recorded in any prison in the country.