Iran steps up imports of missile fuel precursor from China - CNN

Under a new law Iranians will be able to enter their details on a Foreign Ministry’s portal called Porseman to check whether they are “problem-free” to travel to Iran, top envoy Abbas Araghchi said according to state media.

Those cleared receive a green tick indicating they have no outstanding legal or security issues. Araghchi went further, saying that if a person with a green tick is arrested, “those who arrested them will be prosecuted.”

He described the plan as part of an effort to “decriminalize the mindset” of Iranians abroad and encourage smoother travel home.

The statement immediately drew ridicule online.

Iranian journalist Hossein Bastani wrote on X that the idea was absurd, asking where the Foreign Ministry could “take action” against more powerful armed organs of state power like the Intelligence Ministry or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Competing state bodies staffed variously by clerics, security men, spies and conservative bureaucrats vie hotly for influence in the Islamic theocracy.

US diplomats have frequently criticized the foreign ministry as beholden to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the IRGC.

Authorities are not the authorities

Analysts interviewed by Iran International said the Porseman portal may be subject to the vagaries of Iran's divided system.

Patrick Clawson, director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the initiative ignores the fundamental problem: that “the authorities are not the authorities.”

Different agencies in Iran, he said, often act without coordination or oversight, meaning a traveler could be cleared by one branch of government and still detained by another.

That lack of hierarchy, Clawson added, has long frustrated both diplomats and negotiators dealing with Tehran.

“You could have eight agencies saying you’re fine,” he said, “and the ninth one arrests you.” Clawson dismissed Araghchi’s claim of prosecuting the Revolutionary Guard as political theater, calling it another example of how little power the foreign minister actually holds in Iran’s decision-making structure.

'No green tick will protect you'

Alex Vatanka, head of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, said the Islamic Republic has spent years trying to convince Iranians abroad to visit and invest, but trust is almost nonexistent. The foreign ministry can make assurances, he said, but “if another branch of the system decides you’re a target, no green tick will protect you.”

That fear is not unfounded. Lebanese academic Nizar Zakka and Australian researcher Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who both described their ordeals in interviews with Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran— were invited to Iran by senior officials for conferences and academic exchanges, only to be later arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges.

Their cases remain emblematic of how one arm of the state can extend invitations while another turns those same visitors into hostages.

Vatanka believes the initiative stems from desperation to attract tourism and foreign currency as Iran’s economy falters.

“They look at Turkey, the UAE, even Saudi Arabia making billions from tourism, while Iran—with all its history and culture—gets almost nothing,” he said.

“But Iran treats people as currency. Hostage-taking has been part of its political toolbox since 1979, and that’s not something a website can fix.”

Former US diplomat Alan Eyre said the timing of the Porseman rollout also reflects President Masoud Pezeshkian’s attempt to project normalcy after a bruising year marked by snapback sanctions, a 12-day war, and deepening isolation.

“They’re trying to show Iran is open for tourism and investment,” Eyre told Iran International, “but the executive branch is weak and can’t control the security forces that actually run things.”

Eyre said the effort fits a familiar pattern: after international crises, the clerical establishment launches cosmetic outreach to soften its image abroad. But, he added, “beneath that surface message of safety, you still have a system that arrests its own citizens and uses them as bargaining chips.”

The US State Department has long advised US citizens not to travel to Iran, citing risks of arbitrary arrest, detention, and hostage-taking, and the current Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory remains in place.

For now, Porseman offers reassurance only on paper. In practice, the same system that issues a green tick cannot resolve the uncertainty that defines travel to Iran — a country where returning home still carries unpredictable risk.

The judiciary said the case was launched hours after the interview appeared online and that Hashemi has been summoned to court to explain her remarks.

In the interview, Hashemi alleged that her father, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic and a central figure in its early leadership, was deliberately killed because he had become a “thorn in the eye” of Iran’s rulers. She said he was removed for siding with the people and speaking out against the country’s direction.

Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, died in January 2017 while swimming at a government facility in Tehran. Authorities said at the time that he had suffered a heart attack, but members of his family have repeatedly voiced doubts about that explanation. They have cited missing CCTV footage, the disappearance of his diaries, and the lack of a post-mortem examination as reasons for their concern.

Rafsanjani was a powerful figure in Iran’s post-revolution politics and a key backer of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rise to power in 1989. But the two men later fell out, particularly after the disputed 2009 election, when Rafsanjani supported opposition candidates and called for political openness. His children have said that pressures on him increased in his final years.

Witnesses said police, Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards manned checkpoints and turned people back from access routes in Fars province.

Iran has long declined to recognize Cyrus Day in its official calendar, and has in past years restricted access to Pasargadae and, at times, Persepolis to discourage large gatherings around the Achaemenid-era sites.

Security curbs around the October 28-31 anniversary -- linked by some accounts to Cyrus’s entry into Babylon in 539 BCE -- have become routine since large crowds rallied at the tomb in 2016.

The latest closures came amid renewed public debate inside Iran over how to commemorate pre-Islamic heritage.

Ghader Ashna, secretary of the Public Culture Council at the culture ministry, told the ISNA news agency that over the past year no formal request had reached his body to add “Cyrus Day” to the national calendar, but said any proposal would be reviewed by a dedicated working group and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.

Separately, ISNA quoted cultural scholar Bahman Namvar-Motlagh as saying that honoring Cyrus did not contradict Iran’s Islamic identity and could help bolster social cohesion if handled without “excess or confrontation.”

He framed interest in Cyrus among younger Iranians as part of a broader search for common symbols of national unity in a tense regional environment.

• 

  Exiled prince calls for ‘Cyrus Accords’ in post-Islamic Republic Iran

• 

  Iran’s ancient sites face rising land subsidence risk, experts warn

• 

  Trump is no Cyrus: Iran envoy swats down Gaza peace plaudits

• 

  Authorities block Iranians from ancient sites ahead of Cyrus the Great day

Rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi marked the day with a message on Instagram describing Cyrus as a “cultural symbol” associated with tolerance and justice, and contrasted that legacy with Iran’s record on political freedoms and capital punishment.

Exiled opposition figure Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, told supporters at a Toronto event earlier this month that a future post-Islamic Republic order should elevate the 2020 Abraham Accords into what he called “Cyrus Accords,” recasting Iran as a promoter of regional peace rather than conflict.

Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, is widely cited in Iran’s schools and popular culture as a touchstone of nationhood. The Pasargadae site and Persepolis -- both UNESCO-listed -- draw steady domestic and foreign tourism, though access has at times been restricted on sensitive dates.

In 2024, heritage outlets connected to the state reported fencing and concrete barriers on the road to Pasargadae ahead of the October commemorations.

Iranian scientists and officials have separately warned that land subsidence from groundwater over-extraction is emerging as a long-term threat to several heritage sites, including areas around Persepolis and the Tomb of Cyrus.

Geologists cited this month reported cracks and surface fissures in Fars and other provinces, saying cumulative deformation could damage historic fabric over years if water withdrawals are not curbed.

Cyrus Day is not an official holiday, but diaspora communities and some Iranians at home mark it annually with cultural events and online campaigns.

The Islamic Republic’s leadership has historically promoted an Islamic “ummah” identity and has sometimes viewed mass gatherings at pre-Islamic monuments as politically sensitive, especially amid periodic anti-government protests.

Iranian state bodies did not immediately issue a statement on Wednesday’s access limits in Fars.

Centering around the Islamic veil which conservatives view as a sacrosanct symbol of Iran's Islamic identity which they are empowered to force on society, the dispute exposes deepening cultural and political rifts inside the country.

The image, which was intended to represent the alleged victim symbolically, drew ire from conservative elements who accused the newspaper of allegedly insulting Islamic values and undermining the hijab.

State TV presenter Mohammad-Reza Shahbazi harshly criticized the choice, saying, “Virtuous and veiled women are pure from the filth you wallow in day and night, which sometimes reeks like this (rape case). Put up a picture of one of your own kind instead.”

Editor-in-chief Mohammad-Javad Rouh said the alleged victim did not wish to reveal her identity and that using an unveiled photo as a symbolic image was not possible under the Islamic Republic’s media restrictions.

Rouh rejected claims that the paper had targeted the hijab.

“We did not speak against the hijab, nor did we intend to create controversy,” Rouh said. He added that the newspaper had fulfilled its journalistic duty by interviewing both the complainant and the accused’s lawyer in what he called “a balanced, professional report.”

The hardline website Mashregh News claimed, citing an informed source, that Iran’s Press Supervisory Board had already issued three formal warnings to Ham-Mihan in recent months.

It alleged that one of the paper’s violations was serious enough to be referred to court and that “a judicial verdict is imminent," without elaborating.

Mashregh further accused the paper of intentionally publishing the rape case article by journalist Elaheh Mohammadi — who was imprisoned in 2022 for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini — shortly before a potential suspension.

“The behavior of Ham-Mihan’s managers in assigning a project to a journalist with a history of arrest for security issues, whose past reporting triggered one of the country’s deepest crises, is now under review,” the outlet wrote.

Hardliners on the offensive

State-aligned outlets quickly turned the incident into a political storm. The official Mehr news agency said Ham-Mihan had been taken down for “violating professional ethics.” Tasnim, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, accused the paper of “a deliberate insult to the traditions of a large portion of Iranian women.”

Online, conservative commentators called the newspaper’s decision immoral.

Filmmaker Mikail Diani claimed it showed “malice and an effort to create social division,” while Fatemeh Raygani, a philosophy researcher, wrote on X that the report had “polluted the symbol of the black chador with a story of (alleged) sexual assault.”

Not the first time

The closure of Ham-Mihan underscores the precarious position of moderate media in Iran, where professional reporting on sensitive social issues can quickly provoke accusations of immorality or political subversion, leaving editors and reporters under intense scrutiny from authorities and the public alike.

Ham-Mihan, run by Gholamhossein Karbaschi — a senior member of the centrist Executives of Construction Party and a former Tehran mayor — was relaunched in July 2022 after previous suspensions.

It has faced closure twice before, in 1999 and 2008. Since its relaunch in 2022, it has drawn scrutiny for its coverage of gender and social issues.

Karbaschi told Eco Iran a few days ago that several of his reporters were summoned and threatened by Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents after publishing a piece on challenges facing female heads of households.

“What threat can a newspaper with a circulation of one or two thousand pose to the state?” he asked.

The dispute comes amid intensifying pressure on Iran’s press. According to the Defense of Free Information organization (DeFFI), at least 95 journalists and outlets faced legal or security action in the first half of 2025, with six reporters temporarily detained and collective prison sentences exceeding 22 years.

Some observers believe the main reason for the action taken against Ham-Mihan was reporting the alleged rape case itself.

Veteran reformist columnist Ahmad Zeidabadi wrote: “In a country where you can’t even report on a private criminal case, what need is there for newspapers at all? State TV and Kayhan (which is funded by the Supreme Leader’s office) are enough.”

"The signing of a strategic agreement between Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a matter that pleases us," Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X.

"The Islamic world is in need of this brotherhood. And we no longer need speeches to resolve the region's issues, but rather action and cooperation," he added following a meeting with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsen Naqvi in Tehran.

Larijani also praised Pakistan’s stance during a 12-day war in June between Iran and Israel, saying it “reflects a shared understanding of the region’s strategic realities.”

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a strategic defense agreement in September, pledging mutual protection in the event of external aggression.

Nuclear armed-Pakistan has one of the world's largest armies but lacks fellow Sunni state Muslim state Saudi Arabia's vast energy wealth.

Both countries have long been suspicious of the Shi'ite Muslim theocracy in Tehran, which they view as a competitor for regional influence.

Iran’s endorsement of the agreement signals a rare moment of apparent convergence amid deepening geopolitical faults in the Middle East.

Pakistan shares a 560-mile border with Iran, where both countries face persistent threats from armed groups operating in the frontier region, including cross-border militancy.

In January 2024, Iran and Pakistan exchanged missile and drone strikes targeting militant groups in one of the most serious military escalations between them in decades.

Despite the exchange, both sides moved quickly to de-escalate, activating diplomatic channels and emphasizing that the attacks aimed at non-state actors not each other’s governments.