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Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Iran says its president was injured in Israeli airstrike last month
Iran has confirmed that President Masoud Pezeshkian was wounded during an Israeli airstrike that targeted a high-level government meeting in Tehran last month. Mr Pezeshkian, 70, is said to have sustained a leg injury and was forced to flee the building through a pre-planned emergency hatch. Fars news, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Cops, described the strike as bearing similarities to the Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut . The report said: 'The attack occurred before noon on Monday, June 16, while a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was being held with the heads of the three branches of government and other senior officials in the lower floors of a building in western Tehran.' 'The attackers targeted the building's entrances and exits by firing six bombs or missiles to block escape routes and cut off air flow.' Other senior officials present at the meeting reportedly included parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei. Several people were injured, with Fars reporting that 'some officials, including the president, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving' and escaped using 'an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance'. It also noted that power was cut off on the affected floor after the explosions. The revelation is in line with claims made by Mr Pezeshkian in a recent interview, in which he accused Israel of trying to assassinate him. Speaking to political commentator Tucker Carlson, the president said: 'They did try, yes… They acted accordingly, but they failed.' However, he did not mention being injured during the interview. Despite the president's calm tone, his remarks triggered a backlash among Iranian lawmakers. Twenty-four MPs signed an open letter accusing him of undermining national security. The criticism was also aimed at his apparent willingness to re-engage with the United States, despite tensions over American airstrikes on nuclear sites and Iran's recent expulsion of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'From a national security standpoint, such messaging risks inviting further aggression,' the MPs wrote. A new emergency espionage law is also being debated, which would introduce harsher punishments for spying, including capital punishment. Fars did not disclose the precise location of the strike, though opposition outlet Iran International reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted an area near Shahrak-e-Gharb in western Tehran on the same day.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Iran's president was injured in Israeli airstrike on security council officials and had to escape through an emergency hatch, Tehran reveals
Iran has confirmed that president Masoud Pezeshkian was wounded during an Israeli airstrike that targeted a high-level government meeting in Tehran last month. Mr Pezeshkian, 70, is said to have sustained a leg injury and was forced to flee the building through a pre-planned emergency hatch. Six missiles reportedly struck a building in western Tehran where the Supreme National Security Council was meeting, injuring several senior officials. The strike, which was part of a 12-day war between the two nations, is said to have targeted the entrances and exits to block escape routes and disrupt air flow within the compound. Fars news, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Cops, described the strike as bearing similarities to the Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. The report said: 'The attack occurred before noon on Monday, June 16, while a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was being held with the heads of the three branches of government and other senior officials in the lower floors of a building in western Tehran.' 'The attackers targeted the building's entrances and exits by firing six bombs or missiles to block escape routes and cut off air flow.' Other senior officials present at the meeting reportedly included parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei. Several people were injured, with Fars reporting that 'some officials, including the president, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving' and escaped using 'an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance'. It also noted that power was cut off on the affected floor after the explosions. The revelation is in line with claims made by Mr Pezeshkian in a recent interview, in which he accused Israel of trying to assassinate him. Speaking to political commentator Tucker Carlson, the president said: 'They did try, yes… They acted accordingly, but they failed.' However, he did not mention being injured during the interview. Despite the president's calm tone, his remarks triggered a backlash among Iranian lawmakers. Twenty-four MPs signed an open letter accusing him of undermining national security. The criticism was also aimed at his apparent willingness to re-engage with the United States, despite tensions over American airstrikes on nuclear sites and Iran's recent expulsion of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'From a national security standpoint, such messaging risks inviting further aggression,' the MPs wrote. 'If before June 12 there were diverse views on resisting American overreach, this war generated rare unity around the necessity of confronting the United States and its proxy, the Zionist regime.' Iran has responded to the June conflict by launching a crackdown on suspected collaborators. Authorities have arrested more than 700 individuals accused of working with Israel. A new emergency espionage law is also being debated, which would introduce harsher punishments for spying, including capital punishment. Fars did not disclose the precise location of the strike, though opposition outlet Iran International reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted an area near Shahrak-e-Gharb in western Tehran on the same day.
Reuters
09-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
U.S. issues additional Iran-related sanctions, Treasury website shows
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on 22 companies in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey on Wednesday for their roles in helping sell Iranian oil, the Treasury Department said. The oil sales benefit Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Iran's most powerful paramilitary organization, it said. The U.S. has designated Quds as a foreign terrorist organization. The Quds Force employs front companies outside of Iran that use offshore accounts to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in profits derived from Iranian oil sales to circumvent U.S. sanctions, Treasury said. The money funds Iran's weapons programs and proxy groups across the region, according to the Treasury Department, which has imposed waves of sanctions targeting such activities. "The Iranian regime relies heavily on its shadow banking system to fund its destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, rather than for the benefit of the Iranian people," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
The National
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Israel ‘raids Iranian-run terrorist cell' in Syria and arrests suspects
The Israeli army said on Monday it arrested a "terrorist" cell run by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during an operation in southern Syria. The army said it carried out a targeted overnight operation in the Syrian town of Kudna in Quneitra province and "arrested operatives that were operated by Al Quds Force" and "posed a threat in the area". It said troops 'remain deployed in the area, continuing to operate and prevent the entrenchment of any terrorist entity in Syria, with the aim of protecting the residents of the State of Israel". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported that Israeli forces raided the village of Al Dawaya in Quneitra, searched a number of houses and arrested two brothers. Syrian media said Israeli forces arrested six people including a child in the countryside of Quneitra. since the fall of Bashar Al Assad 's regime in December, Israeli troops have been stationed in Syria where they have established a buffer zone near the border. Syrian authorities have condemned Israel for pushing deeper into the country. The Israeli military last week said it had captured another 'terrorist cell operated by Iran' in a raid in southern Syria, with Syrian state media reporting three people had been arrested. Israel has also carried out strikes in Syria aimed at denying the Islamist-led interim administration military assets. On June 12, Syria said the Israeli military killed one civilian and detained seven people in an overnight incursion, with the Israeli army saying it had seized members of Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel has said it is "interested" in establishing ties with Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, but insisted the strategic Golan Heights – which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the UN – would "remain part of Israel" under any peace accord.
The Guardian
05-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Iran's devastation has hardened hearts towards the west – even for those with no love of the state
A trembling ceasefire has brought a pause to what had become the familiar sounds of explosions over Tehran. I was born in 1988, a year before the Iran-Iraq war came to an end. For my generation, war was something that belonged to the past – an impossible event, until this summer. For 12 days, we lived in the capital under incessant Israeli attacks, and what we saw has changed us for good: dead neighbours, buildings gutted and worry – endless, deep-etched worry – on the faces of people. There is comfort in speaking of 'the Iranian people' as though we are one unified bloc. But like most societies, Iranians hold divergent views. When fighting first broke out, there were people who were glad to see a foreign power targeting the widely disliked Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) top brass, at least in the beginning. But others – though dissidents themselves – deeply resented the idea of foreign invasion. Some hardliners saw this war as a messianic mission to be carried through to the bitter end; others were numb to what was happening. But as the news filled with footage of civilian casualties, and the attacks grew harsher and less targeted, different social factions began to unite around the notion of watan, homeland. Patriotism gained new currency, and national pride was on most lips. Scenes of solidarity – whether lasting remains to be seen – abounded: landlords cancelling rent in light of the crisis; people outside Tehran hosting those fleeing the capital; no rush to grocery stores, no chaos, no panicked evacuations. In my view, the way European countries responded to Israel's onslaught played a key role in this shift. The E3, alongside other silent nations across the continent, supported the Israeli strikes, using all the usual justifications, from Iran's nuclear programme to its support for terrorism, all while the US president painted a rosy image of Iran's supposed greatness the 'day after'' on his Truth Social. But those of us in the Middle East know better. Images of fresh devastation in Gaza appear daily, and we remember the chaos in Libya, civil war in Syria, two decades of occupation in Iraq and the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan. There was no promise in these conflicts – no seeds of democracy being planted. Surely, the naked reality of Israel's aggression would register with the same powers that rightly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine – so that yet another war would not crush the region once again. And surely, these attacks – brutal, unprovoked, deliberate – should have been met with a flood of condemnation and fury at the disregard for the UN charter. But none came. The silence was deafening. A reminder that Iranian lives, clearly, carry less worth than those of others. This, for many of us, was the main takeaway from the support western countries extended to Israel. The war was on Iran, but it was justified through the same old playbook: racism. The indifference and inaction of those with the power to intervene; the media's passive tone when referring to non-white casualties; the habitual disregard for their suffering; and the blase attitude towards attacks on lands outside the western orbit – with the German chancellor even saying: 'This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us.' Many Iranians are angry at this injustice – so much so that the idea of building a nuclear weapon, once confined to the radical fringes of politics, is now gaining traction among ordinary people. As one user put it on X: 'No one seems concerned about the state of human rights in North Korea,' implying that nuclear warheads remain the only reliable deterrent against aggression. It would be foolish to trust Israel with a ceasefire. The country has a track record of violating agreements with impunity. That means a Damoclean sword still hangs over Tehran, even as the sound of explosions fades. From afar, this city of over 10 million people may appear to have returned to its usual bustle. But uncertainty still hangs in the air, and what makes it worse is the absence of any credible broker capable of ending the war. For many here, the west's tacit, explicit or even active participation in the conflict disqualifies it from any role as a good-faith negotiator. From where I stand, once again, feelings of mistrust towards Europe are bedding in. Buildings will be rebuilt, infrastructure repaired. But what may be damaged beyond repair – perhaps irredeemably so – is the moral fabric on which Europe stands to preach to others. The double standards. The hypocrisy. The injustice of it all. The imperial mindset – still visibly alive and well – now casts a long shadow over how Europe is perceived. Not just for Iranians, I suspect, but for many people across the global south. These are hard times to live through. Whether the Islamic republic survives this moment, strikes a deal, or continues down its current path of retaliation, I do not know. But what is sure is that whoever governs Iran in the future will not forget what happened here. Hossein Hamdieh holds a joint PhD in Geography and Anthropology from Humboldt University of Berlin and King's College London. He is currently based in Tehran, where he works as a social researcher Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? 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