IAEA chief says Iran still capable of building nuclear weapons

The UK Charity Commission’s launched a statutory inquiry last week into the Islamic Human Rights Commission Trust's transfer of large six-figure annual sums into publications and events of a private company listed at the same address.

Cooperation of this kind is not inherently improper, but it demands transparency and demonstrable separation of purpose.

This controversy is not unique.

Across Europe and North America, governments have investigated institutions they suspect of channeling Iranian influence or ideological extremism while presenting themselves as advocates against Islamophobia and imperialism.

Lawful activism or faith-based advocacy can be conflated with subversion, leading to limits on freedoms a liberal democracy seeks to protect.

But Islamophobia can also be invoked as a rhetorical shield against legitimate oversight, discouraging scrutiny through accusations of prejudice.

Getting the balance right is crucial—and countries have tried to do so in different ways.

Germany: constitutional patriotism

Germany, grounded in its doctrine of wehrhafte Demokratie, acted decisively on July 24, 2024, by banning the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH) for functioning as a proxy of the Iranian state and ideological partner of Hezbollah.

Fifty-three premises were searched, assets seized, and the director expelled. Berlin’s message was plain: freedom of worship does not extend to institutions operating as arms of foreign governments.

Sweden: Law over rhetoric

On February 3, 2025, Sweden withdrew state funding from the Imam Ali Islamic Centre in Stockholm after confirming its use for Iranian espionage. 

The move, conducted within the bounds of legal proportionality, underscored that liberty of religion is strengthened—not weakened—by the rule of law.

Denmark: oversight before crisis

When reports surfaced of Iranian-linked transfers to Copenhagen’s Imam Ali Mosque, Denmark’s parliament opened Question S 770 (February 28, 2025), seeking government assurances of transparency.

This pre-emptive scrutiny exemplified democratic vigilance through inquiry rather than decree.

France: faith vs politics

France, long the sentinel of laïcité, dissolved Centre Zahra France on March 20, 2019, for glorifying armed movements and inciting hatred—a decision later upheld by the Lille Administrative Court.

Paris reaffirmed that belief may be free, but the politicization of faith is not protected under law.

The Netherlands: intelligence and prevention

In March 2025, Dutch and Belgian security agencies jointly reported Iranian intimidation and influence operations via religious networks. Their method—monitoring and early warning rather than dissolution—illustrates how intelligence can achieve restraint without spectacle.

Canada: strategic resilience

Canada has pursued a hybrid approach of fiscal regulation and national-security vigilance. The RCMP confirmed expanded investigations in its June 4, 2025, statement, while the Montréal Police Service increased protection for both Muslim and Jewish institutions amid geopolitical tension.

The 2019 revocation of charitable status for the Islamic Shia Assembly of Canada remains an instructive precedent that financial oversight can neutralise ideological capture without impugning religious liberty.

Patterns and implications

Across these jurisdictions, three convergent lessons emerge.

First, democratic states must recognise that the rhetoric of anti-discrimination can be co-opted to shelter extremism.

Second, the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism remains a defining fault line. Regulators face a daunting challenge in distinguishing between political expression and the propagation of hatred.

Third, effective counter-strategy depends upon clarity of evidence and transparency of law. Germany and France favour enforcement; Sweden and Denmark rely on procedural oversight; Canada employs intelligence and fiscal scrutiny.

Their diverse methods share one aim: to protect the neutrality of civic space from ideological manipulation.

The British Context

The United Kingdom now faces its own test.

An official warning leveled in March and now the inquiry into the Islamic Human Rights Commission Trust are not isolated events but part of this wider democratic reckoning.

The Charity Commission seeks to determine whether funds raised under the banner of human rights were used for non-charitable political ends.

The Trust’s published accounts record £324,228 in 2022 and £416,246 in 2023 transferred to its corporate counterpart for “projects undertaken on behalf of the Charity.”

The question is not one of theology but of governance: whether charitable privilege can coexist with political partisanship, and whether appeals to anti-imperial justice can obscure the advance of intolerant ideology.

Britain’s tradition favors law over proclamation and balance over reaction. In that spirit, the task of the Charity Commission is to reaffirm the principle that transparency and accountability are the guardians of liberty.

Different approaches

Decisive action need not be punitive; proportionate inquiry and public explanation are the hallmarks of democratic strength.

If Germany has wielded the sword, France the decree, Sweden the warrant, and Canada the audit, then Britain may hold the scale—steady, balanced, incorruptible. For charity, like liberty, perishes less from attack than from misuse.

It is possible, indeed necessary, to tread with such care that the sceptred isle may once again say, in the calm majesty of her conscience, that she has defended both her charities and her soul.

Milo Sedarat was detained at his father’s home in Montclair, New Jersey, on Wednesday in connection with a foiled attack that investigators said was planned for Halloween.

Roger Sedarat, Milo’s father, is an award-winning Iranian-American poet and professor at Queens College in New York City.

Another 19-year-old from Montclair, Tomas Kaan Guzel, was also arrested according to the report.

The arrests came after five other alleged co-conspirators, including one minor, were charged last week following an investigation by the FBI and the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau.

Authorities said the suspects intended to replicate Islamic State's 2015 Paris attacks.

Police sources told the Post that Guzel moved his travel plans forward after learning of FBI raids on other suspects’ homes in Detroit.

Authorities said the raids uncovered multiple firearms, including three AR-15-style rifles, two shotguns, four pistols, and over 1,600 rounds of ammunition, along with tactical vests, GoPro cameras, and combat gear.

FBI Director Kash Patel said before Halloween weekend that the suspects were planning a “violent attack.”

Sedarat and Guzel are expected to face charges in federal court in New Jersey.

Roger Sedarat has authored four collections of poetry including Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic and most recently an academic work, Emerson in Iran: the American Appropriation of Persian Poetry.

Nabavian, deputy head of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told an academic forum in Qom on Thursday that “the real goal of the Americans is to disarm Iran technologically and scientifically.”

He added Washington sought to trigger snapback sanctions to collapse Iran’s economy and drive the national currency to 1,500,000 rials to the dollar but said “the plan failed due to the vigilance of the country’s security and economic authorities.”

Today, the exchange rate is about 1,080,000 rials per dollar.

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Nabavian said the United States uses calls for negotiations as a tool to pressure Iran and that “none of America’s promises have ever been sincere.” 

He described Washington and Israel as “pursuing domination in the region” and said Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful.

Nabavian added that future conflicts in the region would differ from the recent 12-day war, with adversaries likely to use economic and internal destabilization efforts before any direct confrontation.

In a meeting with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah bin Saud al-Anzi this week, Iran’s Hajj chief Alireza Rashidian said that last year Iran’s allocation was approximately 85,000 pilgrims. 

He requested an increase in the quota for the next Hajj season in May 2026 to align more closely with Iran’s larger population of around 91 million. 

He also raised operational issues including use of Ta’if airport and increased flight capacity via Saudi airlines.

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Saudi Arabia allocates Hajj slots based on a formula set up in 1987, typically around one pilgrim per thousand Muslims in a country. For example, Indonesia has a quota of 221,000 pilgrims for 2025, Pakistan 180,000, India 175,000, and Iran now approximately 87,500. 

On Thursday, the Supreme Leader’s representative for Hajj affairs, Abdolfattah Navvab, told Tasnim News that Iran hopes its Hajj quota will increase in proportion to the country’s growing population. 

“Given the rise in Iran’s population, we hope the national quota will also increase so we can serve a larger number of pilgrims eager to visit Mecca,” he said.

Navvab added that last year’s quota was set at 85,000 pilgrims based on a population of 85 million, with an additional two percent allocated for staff and organizers.

He added that about 200,000 Iranians performed the Umrah pilgrimage last year -- a non-mandatory Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year -- and that, while Iran faces no specific restrictions for Umrah, limited flight capacity remains the main challenge.

“Fortunately, Saudi airline Flynas resumed flights from Shiraz yesterday, and services from Khuzestan province will begin soon to allow more pilgrims to travel,” he said.

Many of those affected have voiced frustration over long delays and unclear procedures, with some students staging protests outside the German consulate in Tehran to demand action on their visa applications.

On Sunday, a group of young Iranians gathered in front of the consulate to protest the embassy’s refusal to process applications for bachelor’s, conditional master’s and college programs.

"This situation is completely unfair. The embassy should not treat us differently from those in higher programs when we have already paid tuition, insurance, and even rent," one protester told Iran International.

TLScontact, the external service provider that collects visa applications and biometric data on behalf of the German embassy, has also faced criticism from applicants who say their repeated calls and visits have gone unanswered.

“In the past two weeks, we have repeatedly contacted TLS, and in recent days we again protested both in front of the consulate and TLS, but no one is responding,” the protestor said.

On June 16, the German embassy announced that it had temporarily closed due to the circumstances created by the war between Israel and Iran and urged visitors to refrain from going to the embassy or its legal-consular section.

“Appointments already issued have been cancelled. The affected applicants will receive an email, and a new appointment will be automatically scheduled for a later date,” it said in a statement.

"The processing of pending visa procedures and the acceptance of new applications are taking place in accordance with current capacities," Germany's Federal Foreign told Iran International in response to an inquiry.

"The Federal Foreign Office aims to expand operations depending on further developments and the personnel resources available," it added.

Separation and forced return

An Iranian man living in Germany told Iran International that before the war began, he had completed the paperwork to obtain an interview appointment for his teenage son’s family-reunion visa.

But since the war broke out, the process has been suspended, and as of November 2025, he has not been able to register for an appointment.

He added that separation from family, uncertainty, and the unstable situation in Iran have negatively affected his son’s mental health.

The “Family Reunion” section of the German embassy’s website says the processing of visa applications for those who had already submitted their documents remains suspended.

It also says that from November 11, appointments for Iranian nationals already on the waiting list for family-reunion visas “will be scheduled depending on available capacity.”

According to the notice, it is not possible to register for new appointments or join the waiting list.

According to those who spoke to Iran International, the separation of families—spouses and children unsure when they will reunite—has imposed a heavy psychological burden.

An Iranian living in Germany said his friend, who migrated to Germany as a nurse on a work visa and has been apart from her husband and six-year-old child for more than a year, was in the final stages of securing their visas when the process was halted due to the war. Now, the future for this family of three remains uncertain.

An Iranian woman living in southern Germany also told Iran International that she witnessed her friend’s forced return to Iran.

She said the woman, a student at the University of Erlangen in northern Bavaria, southern Germany, was forced to abandon her studies and return to Iran after her husband was unable to obtain a visa.

She added that the embassy returned her husband’s passport without even stamping it as rejected.

More than 550 Iranian figures—including political activists, journalists, human rights defenders and those who suffered eye injuries during the nationwide 2022 protests—sent a letter to the German federal government, calling for the immediate resumption of visa processing for political, civil, and labor activists, journalists and other at-risk professions.

According to the 2025 Henley Passport Index on the world’s strongest and weakest passports, among 199 passports, only 13 countries rank below Iran.

In August, the state-run IRNA news agency reported that the closure of several embassies during the 12-day war left about 3,000 to 4,000 Iranian passports caught in visa processing. The report said many applicants, especially students and athletes, were unable to leave the country.