Iran society has transformed but its system not at all, ex-US hostage says

US President Donald Trump attended the ceremony and received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), world football’s governing body, for promoting global peace and unity.

“This is truly one of the great honors of my life. Beyond awards, we have saved millions and millions of lives," Trump said. "The Congo is an example. India, Pakistan — so many different wars we were able to end, in some cases, a little bit before they started."

Iran will open the tournament against New Zealand on 15 June in Seattle, with further group games in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Several senior Iranian football officials were denied US visas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw in Washington, prompting an initial threat by the Iran Football Federation (FFIRI) to boycott the event.

Out of nine members of the delegation who applied for visas, only four were granted entry, including head coach Ardeshir Amir Ghalenoei, while other senior officials, including federation president Mehdi Taj, were denied.

Despite the visa restrictions, the partial delegation attended the draw ceremony, ensuring Iran’s participation.

The team has now reached its seventh World Cup and its fourth in a row. Their arrival in the US comes against the backdrop of longstanding entry restrictions that continue to shape travel rules for Iranian nationals.

The top two teams and the eight best third-placed sides will advance to the round of 32.

Ali Akbar Velayati's remarks on X were a rare sharp public rebuke to one of Iran's Arab neighbors across the Persian Gulf, with whom Tehran has long feuded but has shifted toward detente in recent years as pressure from the United States and Israel mounted.

The Southern Transitional Council, a separatist force in Yemen which has long been backed by Abu Dhabi, jolted the stalemated conflict in that country this week.

Their surprise march on oil-rich southeastern territory aims to strengthen their bid to revive an independent state of South Yemen.

The armed Houthi movement, a foe of the STC, is not directly challenged by the latest fighting but their patrons in Tehran appear rattled.

"The government of the UAE must be asked: What were you doing in Yemen?" Velayati wrote. "Are you also interested in claiming ownership of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait? Why did you occupy the island of Socotra, and what was its connection to America’s maritime ambitions? Do you also claim ownership over this island and over the Strait of Hormuz?"

Velayati is a veteran stalwart of high level decision-making circles in the Islamic theocracy and his statements are widely viewed to reflect Khamenei's thinking.

The oil-rich Emirates, a tourism and trade hub, sees itself as a rising regional power and has backed allies in conflicts marring Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

It maintains a military presence on the remote Arabian Sea island of Socotra and has economic interests in ports in Djibouti and the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Joining a regional conflagration pitting Iran's armed allies against Israel, the Houthis in Yemen launched attacks on international shipping for two years until a Gaza ceasefire in October in the Red and Arabian seas connected by the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The United States and its Persian Gulf allies viewed the attacks as a bid to expand Iranian hegemony in the strategic chokepoint leading to the Suez Canal.

Washington, in an annual national security assessment released earlier on Friday, downplayed the threat from Iran after US attacks on its nuclear facilities in June but vowed to keep the Straight of Hormuz open.

Tehran officials have repeatedly vowed to close the waterway, through which much of the world's energy exports from both Iran and the Arabian Peninsula flows, in the event of a conflict.

'Fantastical transnational empire'

Velayati went on to accuse Abu Dhabi of killing Muslims in a bid to build a regional empire in connivance with a Western colonial agenda.

"The blood of tens of thousands of Muslims in Yemen — and now in Sudan — has been spilled as a result of your expansionist policies. It must now be asked: What does the UAE want from Sudan," he said. Will you answer whether you are cooperating with Britain in Sudan or not?

"Why, in the view of many analysts, do your actions raise suspicions of an attempt to build a 'fantastical transnational empire'?" he added.

Tehran and Abu Dhabi have long been at loggerheads over three Persian Gulf islands controlled by Iran since 1971 but claimed by the United Arab Emirates.

Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands have been held by Tehran since they were seized by the Shah after the withdrawal of British forces from the region. Voices across the fractured Iranian political spectrum reject UAE claims, which are backed by Europe and the United States.

"Are your repeated empty claims regarding the Iranian islands also part of this cooperation with colonial powers?" Velayati continued. "How can anyone claim ownership of Abu Musa, which belonged to Iran thousands of years before the formation of the United Arab Emirates?"

"The patience of the Iranian people is not unlimited."

“My bosses, President Trump and Secretary Rubio, are not into regime change. They are into a regional solution left to the region itself. That issue was Israel’s. What President Trump stepped in to do in that 12-day war ending was historic. It was amazing,” Barack said.

He was speaking in an interview with the UAE-based IMI Media Group, published on The National newspaper website on Friday.

The envoy, a former real estate investor of Lebanese ancestry, said the Trump administration wants Tehran to engage in a genuine dialogue on its disputed nuclear program and suggested Iran had stalled an agreement.

“I think our president has been clear. He is open to real discussions. He is not open to senselessly kicking the can down the road, and he knows the program,” Barrack added.

“If the Iranians want to listen to what this administration is saying on enrichment, on stopping funding of the proxies, it is the answer.”

Donald Trump has set three conditions for Iran to meet before starting negotiations with Washington: zero uranium enrichment, an end to backing Tehran's armed allies in the region and curbs to its missile program. Tehran sees the terms as a non-starter.

“Our president is smart enough to know that baiting him just to get a dialogue and continuing this senseless killing through surrogates is not going to happen. So I think he is 100% available to it,” Barrack said. “We have the hope that Iran is available to it. Either way, it’s the fastest road to a solution in this region.”

'No regime change'

Barrack criticized the past pro-regime change policy in the region, saying that since 1946 there have been 93 regime changes and coups, none of which succeeded, including two in Iran.

“For (Trump) then to be imputed with regime change, we had two regime changes in Iran already. Neither one worked. So I think wisely leave it to the region to solve. Why is it Israel did not finish the job? We are not at the end yet. It is chapter five, and we have five more chapters to go.”

The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program earlier this year, for which Trump set a 60-day deadline.

When no agreement was reached by the 61st day on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military offensive, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.

Both Israeli and Iranian officials have vowed a devastating military effort against their foe in the event of a renewed conflict.

The House of Commons Library provides research briefings based on past government and parliamentary findings to enable members to better understand complex policy issues.

“The greatest threat currently posed by Iran in the UK was the physical threat posed to dissidents and other opponents, a change from previous years when espionage was the primary threat,” the briefing cited the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) as saying in a report in July.

It described targeted individuals as “dissidents, journalists, regime opponents, Israelis, Jews, and sectors including government, travel and universities.”

Ties between Tehran and London are at a low ebb after Britain joined Germany and France in triggering the imposition of UN sanctions on Iran.

Iran has long accused its former colonial ruler of meddling in its internal affairs and seeking the downfall of its theocracy. On Friday a senior official said the United Kingdom was in league with the United Arab Emirates in regional wars.

The UK government in September submitted a statement on steps taken to confront Iranian activities including designation of the Iranian state in its entirety on the enhanced tier of its new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).

The move meant that anyone working for or directed by the Iranian state to conduct activities in the UK must declare those activities or face up to five years in prison.

'Persistent, unpredictable'

The ISC report also addressed cyber threat from Iran, adding it possess a “significant area of asymmetric strength” in cyber activity.

"While Iran’s cyber capability is less developed than that of China or Russia, it remains a tool for targeting journalists, analysts, and dissidents, and an Iranian cyberattack on UK infrastructure was considered unlikely,” the report said. "the threat level is persistent and unpredictable."

Iran International revealed last month the existence and structure of a secret Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps cyber unit targeting dissidents and foreign governments, citing confidential official documents.

Department 40 of the IRGC counterintelligence unit was known as "Charming Kitten" to security experts. It had surveilled dissidents abroad, examined drone footage of the courtyard of the British embassy in Tehran and gathered information for a thwarted plot to kill Israelis in Istanbul.

The UK briefing recorded a package of government actions so far, saying that 547 individuals and entities linked to Iran had been sanctioned and that the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme had placed Iran on the enhanced tier.

“Use of a wide range of organizations means physical threat can manifest from a much broader pool of suspects, adding a further layer of unpredictability," ISC added.

The briefing concludes that the Iranian Government is “persistent and, crucially, unpredictable."

The episode marks a rare public challenge to dogma in the Islamic Republic and the strength of opposition to any religious free thinking by stalwart backers of the system.

Abdolrahim Soleimani Ardestani, in a debate with fellow cleric Hamed Kashani circulated on video over social media, challenged the canonical story of the “martyrdom" of Fatemeh, a revered matriarch and the daughter of the prophet Mohammed.

A video of the discussion on YouTube had garnered 17,000 comments, among them arguments strongly for and against his remarks.

He argued that if her husband the first Shi'ite Imam, Ali, had merely watched events unfold, he would be “complicit in the killing," in an important challenge to the notion that the central figure in early Islamic history was a paragon of justice.

Ardestani went to attribute the death of the ninth Shi'ite Imam, Javad, to the jealousy of his wife and said mourning such an event for centuries was misguided.

State-appointed eulogists, who lead the faithful with chants before prayers, tore into the maverick cleric on Friday according to videos which circulated on social media.

"Damn that dishonorable Ardestani bastard with no roots, all the way till Judgment Day," said one eulogist, Hossein Sotoudeh.

Officials signal punitive response

Mohammadali Amani, secretary-general of the Islamic Coalition Party, urged legal action against Ardestani without naming him, saying on X that insulting Shi'ite sanctities was “an unforgivable sin.”

Cleric Alireza Sanjari Araki, responding to a religious query, said that denying the martyrdom of Fatemeh or the “absolute guardianship of the Ahl al-Bayt” could place a person outside Shi'ite doctrine and subject them to rulings of unbelief.

He was referring to the family of the Prophet Mohammed from whom the Fatemeh, Ali and Javad hailed. The Shi'ite tradition regards them as holy spiritual and political figures.

Tasnim News wrote that the subject was inherently “a matter of honor” for Shi'ites.

Social-media backlash widens

Pro-government users have inundated Ardestani with verbal abuse, while others condemned the attacks and defended his right to question historical narratives.

A social media user going by the name Mohammad Hossein Rajabloo said Ardestani needed to quit his neighborhood otherwise his home would be attacked.

But another user wrote that verbal violence by eulogists “goes beyond a jurisprudential dispute,” adding that divergent views are now met “not in forums for free inquiry, but with crude language from public pulpits.”

Others argued that critical reasoning threatens entrenched interests or that his questions did not warrant such escalation.

Reformist cleric Mohammadali Abtahi said former president Mohammad Khatami objected to Ardestani’s remarks in a recent meeting, arguing they harm the cause of religious reform.

The moderate Mardomsalari Party called the cleric’s comments “coarse” and contrary to Shi'ite beliefs but said violence, or attacks on his home were unacceptable and violated freedoms of expression and belief.

The confrontation underscores the Islamic Republic’s long record of harsh responses to perceived theological dissent, evoking past cases such as the decades-long targeting of author Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie was left with serious injuries including the loss of an eye when he was stabbed while giving a talk in the United States in 2022.

The attempted murder is believed to have been inspired by the fatwa issued by the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini against Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses.