US court to sentence pair in Tehran-backed plot against Iran dissident

“Despite all the efforts made, this bank could not be placed on the path of reforms as desired by the central bank,” official media cited Central Bank Governor Mohammadreza Farzin as saying.

Farzin said that the bank had 5.5 quadrillion rials ($5.1 billion) in accumulated losses, 3.13 quadrillion rials ($2.9 billion) in overdrafts, and a negative 600 percent capital adequacy ratio.

Iran’s economy minister said all customer deposits will be transferred to state-owned Bank Melli Iran, with branches rebranded and funds accessible from October 25.

“Serious measures for banks that did not comply with regulations were necessary, but in the past, legal shortcomings prevented decisive action,” Ali Madanizadeh said.

Madanizadeh said the accumulated losses of Ayandeh Bank would be covered by the bank’s main shareholders, without providing further details.

The collapse underscores Iran’s deepening banking crisis, worsened by sanctions and mismanagement. Earlier this year, the Central Bank warned that eight other banks risk dissolution without reforms.

The Central Bank of Iran has not publicly disclosed the names of the eight banks at risk of dissolution due to financial instability.

Ayandeh Bank was established in 2013 following the merger of several smaller financial institutions, most notably Tat Bank, Saman Bank’s credit institutions, and Ansar Financial and Credit Institute.

Iran’s banking system has been one of the hardest-hit sectors under decades of United States and international sanctions, which have crippled access to global finance, cut off dollar transactions, and eroded confidence in the rial.

“Iran welcomes the expansion of defense and industrial cooperation with friendly and independent countries, and Belarus holds a special place in this partnership,” Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh told Belarus’s chairman of the State Authority for Military-Industrial Cooperation in a visit to Tehran, according to state media.

Iran and Belarus have both turned to Russia for economic and defense support amid harsh sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe, but advanced air defense systems provided by Moscow were likely destroyed in Israeli attacks last year.

Tehran has supplied Moscow with drones and ammunition for its invasion of Ukraine, while Minsk has hosted Russian troops and allowed its territory to be used as a launchpad for attacks.

Both governments see closer coordination with Russia as a counterweight to Western pressure.

Minsk and Moscow have been joined in a supranational Union State since 1999.

US sanctions on Belarus include prohibitions on transactions with key government entities such as the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, as well as restrictions on exports and re-exports.

Facing sanctions

Iran remains under broad US sanctions targeting its energy, financial and military sectors over its nuclear activities and arms transfers to Russia.

Following a 12-day war with Israel in June and the return of UN sanctions last month, Iran is seeking to rebuild its economy and strengthen its military readiness.

Western countries have called for Tehran to engage in renewed diplomacy with Washington and restored access to international nuclear inspectors.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Russia would help Iran meet its military needs even after European-triggered international sanctions further restricted trade with Tehran.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, decried the attacks in June as illegal and say US demands that Tehran rein in its defense capabilities are unacceptable.

“(Iran) was a very big, strong bully. And they used that power very strongly across the Middle East, and they really controlled it. But they don't control it anymore. They're not respected anymore at all,” Trump said in the interview conducted on October 15 and published on Thursday.

Trump said US airstrikes in June “bombed the hell out of” Iran’s nuclear facilities and “knocked out their nuclear potential,” leaving Tehran “fighting for survival."

The return last month of UN sanctions triggered by European powers has further strained Iran's economy after a punishing 12-day war with Israel and the United States.

Trump added that sanctions had left Iran “very weak,” citing the killing of senior Iranian military commanders, including Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in 2019, as key to curbing Tehran’s power.

Talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program began earlier this year with a 60-day ultimatum. On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.

“By doing it, we were able to—you see, if Iran was sitting there, powerful and a bully, it would have been impossible to make a deal like this, because you would have had this looming threat over the region. Now it’s not a looming threat,” Trump said, referring to a Gaza ceasefire he clinched this month.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has called the attacks illegal.

The US President told the Israeli Knesset last week that it would be ideal if Tehran could be folded into a broader Middle East peace deal. Still, he has often mooted bombing Iran again if it seeks to rebuild its nuclear program.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appeared to rule out any renewed talks with Tehran in a rare speech on Monday. He denied the attacks had destroyed the nuclear program, telling Trump, to "keep dreaming".

Bush invasion, Obama deal

Trump criticized previous administrations for their Middle East policies, saying the so-called War on Terror disrupted the balance between Iran and Iraq.

“The problem was when Bush went in and blew up Iraq, he destabilized the region, because when we blew up one of the two powers, all of a sudden you had one bully," Trump said, referring to Iraq and Iran. "See, they weren’t bullies when they were fighting each other. But when one fell, Iran became a serious bully.”

Trump called the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran under the Obama administration another grave mistake, arguing it failed to stop nuclear proliferation.

“Under the Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a massive nuclear weapon by now. You know, it expired a long time ago. I canceled it, but I said it was ready to expire anyway. They had a clear road to a nuclear weapon—unchallenged,” Trump said.

Iran said its nuclear program was peaceful and that repeated US accusations were aimed at justifying aggression.

In Tehran, many women now walk unveiled. At airport checkpoints, they pass bareheaded—and officers look away. Yet that fragile tolerance evaporates beyond the capital.

In Isfahan, women receive automated text messages accusing them of “improper veiling,” detected by license-plate cameras. In Qom and Mashhad, inspectors visit offices to “remind” employees of the rules.

Inside the state, there is no agreement on how to confront defiance.

President Masoud Pezeshkian concedes that “coercion doesn’t work.” Parliament hard-liners demand new crackdowns. Friday-prayer leaders thunder about moral decay. The country’s morality directorate boasts of “eighty thousand trained field operatives.”

The people, however, have made their choice.

Across Iran’s cities, millions of women walk unveiled—not in protest marches, but in daily, deliberate normalcy. Their quiet defiance has become an act of collective civil resistance, echoing Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat in Montgomery: simple, silent and transformative.

In doing so, Iranian women have written a new, unwritten law.

From street vans to soft surveillance

The morality police of the 2000s were visible, violent and crude. The new version is quieter but no less insidious.

The loud green vans are gone, as are the street scuffles and viral videos of women being dragged away. In their place stands a bureaucratic apparatus: text warnings, sealed storefronts, administrative summonses and digital dossiers.

Three years after the death of Mahsa Amini, the state has returned to where it began—only this time, it wears a digital mask. The danger is deeper because it is diffuse.

But society has moved on. The question is no longer just about the veil; it is about the freedom to choose one’s own life.

The morality police are no longer merely an institution; they are a symbol of a larger confrontation—the logic of control versus the logic of choice.

One seeks to recreate a past that no longer exists. The other insists on claiming a future that has already begun.

In that struggle, victory will not belong to those with the greater machinery of repression, but to those who still possess the will to live free.

Mohammad Noursalehi, head of Isfahan’s City Council, told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) that the Zayandehrud Dam -- the main source of water for central Iran -- is reaching critically low levels.

“If the current trend continues, even drinking water for citizens will be at risk within the next 45 days,” he said.

According to Noursalehi,the dam is releasing several times more water than it receives, and much of that flow never reaches Isfahan’s main treatment plant because a large portion is diverted or lost along the route through both legal and illegal withdrawals.

Five million people at risk

He warned that more than five million people in Isfahan, Yazd, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Qom provinces depend on the Zayandehrud for drinking, agricultural, and industrial water.

“This is no longer just an agricultural or industrial problem. People’s drinking water is in danger,” he said, calling for the immediate suspension of non-drinking water use.

Noursalehi urged the government to accelerate long-stalled water transfer projects such as the Kouhrang-3 tunnel and the southern Isfahan pipeline, saying that decades of delay had compounded the crisis.

“If these projects had been completed on time, we would not be facing this situation today,” he said.

The council head also warned of severe environmental consequences, noting that the complete drying of the Gavkhouni Wetland -- once a UNESCO-listed ecosystem -- threatens the region’s biodiversity.

Land subsidence is already visible across Isfahan’s plains, Noursalehi said, warning that groundwater depletion has caused the ground to sink in several northern districts, prompting the evacuation of some schools.

“If this continues, Isfahan’s centuries-old monuments could face serious structural threats,” he said.

Officials in Iran have recently acknowledged that 19 major dams across the country are below 20 percent of capacity, with some hydropower plants -- including Tehran’s Amir Kabir Dam -- forced to halt operations.

Environmental researchers say the country is nearing “water bankruptcy,” driven by decades of overuse, unscientific dam-building, and poor water management.

Autumn remains dry, reservoirs at record lows

The first month of autumn passed with almost no rainfall across most provinces, according to the national meteorological organization. Officials said precipitation this year has dropped up to 45% below seasonal averages, leaving many regions facing possible rationing of drinking water.

Ahad Vazifeh, head of the National Center for Climate and Drought Crisis Management, said on Thursday that “no significant rain is forecast for at least the next three weeks,” warning that water shortages in major cities, including Tehran and Isfahan, will persist.

“Even if winter brings above-average rain, it will not compensate for the current deficit,” he said.

Government data show that total water stored in Iran’s 193 main dams has fallen to 17.6 billion cubic meters -- just 34% of full capacity and down nearly a quarter from last year.

Inflows since the start of the new water year have dropped 39%, while the outflow from reservoirs has declined by 29%.

The Zayandehrud dam in Isfahan is now only 13% full, the Lar dam near Tehran 2%, and the Independence dam in Hormozgan 6%, according to the Energy Ministry.

Many southern and central reservoirs have reached “dead storage” levels, rendering water unusable for supply or power generation.

Experts say Iran’s worsening drought, coupled with climate change and policy missteps, is transforming water shortages into a potential national security concern. Hundreds of villages now rely on water deliveries by tanker, while protests over shortages have erupted periodically in several provinces.