Iran's IRGC tests new loitering drone during wargames

Kaja Kallas said the council in its meeting on Monday "discussed Iran’s continuing threats to international peace". European member states, she added, emphasized that Tehran's "practice of detaining foreign nationals for political leverage must end."

"We also will have a deeper discussion on Iran and European Union-Iran policy, in the very near future," she added.

The Council of the European Union in a meeting on Monday called on Iran to halt executions and align its policies with international human rights standards, emphasizing the rights of women, girls, and minority groups.

“The EU will also urge Iran to release all arbitrarily detained individuals, including foreign and dual nationals, to bring detention conditions into line with international standards and to provide due process to all detainees,” the Council said in a statement.

The Council also demanded Tehran's full cooperation with UN mechanisms, including the Independent Fact-Finding Mission and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran.

Earlier on Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that his country would propose the European Union issue sanctions against Iranian officials responsible for the detention of French citizens in Iran.

At least three French nationals, Olivier Grondeau, Cecile Kohler, and Jacques Paris, were detained in 2022 and remain in custody in Iran.

Last week, the European Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution condemning Iran’s detention of European Union citizens, labelling the practice as “hostage diplomacy.”

The resolution called for the immediate and safe release of all EU citizens held in the country, including the three French nationals—Grondeau, Kohler, and Paris—as well as Swedish-Iranian death-row prisoner Ahmadreza Djalali.

“In the coming weeks and months, you will see a different face of the Islamic Republic. It will not speak the language of jihad, hostage-taking, or chaos. It will talk of deal-making, mutual interest, and pragmatism,” Pahlavi said at a National Press Club event in Washington DC on Tuesday.

“The United States has a choice—will it seek to use the leverage and this historic opportunity to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the Middle East and the world, or will it fall for the flirtations of a radical Islamic regime and hand the Middle East back to its radical, terrorist proxies?”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed openness to direct negotiations with the new Trump administration on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, though hardliners and Iran's Supreme Leader remain publicly opposed.

Trump withdrew the United States from an international nuclear deal with Iran in his first term and has said Tehran cannot be allowed to have nuclear arms, though he has appeared to rule out seeking the overthrow of the nearly fifty-year-old theocracy.

Pahlavi warned that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains the region’s chief obstacle to peace and prosperity, saying the weakening of Hamas in Gaza, the fall of Assad in Syria and the decapitation of Hezbollah in Lebanon present a historic opportunity.

“The Middle East is on the cusp of fundamental change—a reset that has the potential to course-correct decades of terror, conflict, and chaos to peace, prosperity, and stability.”

The exiled prince, who has resided in the Washington DC area for most of his life, said in apparent nod to Trump's opposition to foreign wars that no military intervention by the United States was required.

“Mr. President, anyone telling you that you have to sacrifice the lives of your brave troops to see change in Iran and a peaceful Middle East is lying to you,” saying the Iranian people would topple their own oppressors, whom he called "the world’s chief warmonger."

"Funding of proxies will continue. Regional instability will continue. Interference in the affairs of other countries will continue. Radicalization will continue," Pahlavi said. "None of that will change. Again, as I said, it's in the DNA of the regime. This DNA hasn't changed for 45 years. We should not expect it will change in the next 45 years."

Previously, Reza Pahlavi, in a letter to Donald Trump, warned the new US administration against trusting the Islamic Republic and emphasized that Trump has the opportunity to end the tyranny in Iran through a policy of maximum pressure.

"Based on our follow-up efforts, this journalist has been imprisoned and captured by the Zionist regime," Iran's official ISNA quoted Peyman Jebelli as saying.

He said that the family did not wish for the matter to be made public, emphasizing that the journalist remains in captivity in Israel, not Gaza.

Without disclosing the journalist’s identity, or the timing of the detention, Jebelli expressed hope that the journalist would be freed from captivity soon.

Israeli officials have not yet made any announcements or confirmed the detention of the unnamed journalist affiliated with the Iran and it is unclear how he could have entered the Jewish state with whom Iran has no diplomatic ties.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, Israel has imposed restrictions on foreign journalists entering Gaza. The Israeli High Court ruled in January 2024 that the ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza could continue, citing ongoing security concerns.

"We are ready for any confrontation, and we are prepared to respond to threats in the field of cyber warfare," IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news quoted Mohammad Bagheri as saying following the final phase of a large-scale military exercise in western Iran.

The fighting talk comes as US President Donald Trump promises a maximum pressure approach on Iran with the new premier not denying that he will give the green light to Iran's archenemy Israel to target the country's nuclear facilities.

Bagheri spoke of the country's focus on technology as the attention now moves beyond the conventional battlefield, including attack and defense drones.

"Due to the development and promotion of artificial intelligence and robotics, modern battles are significantly different from those in the past," he said.

"Accordingly, the Army’s Ground Forces maximized the use of these two technologies during the exercise in the western region, and with the equipment produced by the Army's Research and Self-Sufficiency Organization, the robotic operations were executed and assessed."

"Their grossly unfair trial was marred by allegations of torture and forced confessions," Amnesty said in a statement Monday.

Behrouz Ehsani, 69, and Mehdi Hassani, 48, had their death sentences upheld by Iran's Supreme Court earlier this month.

Mostafa Nili, a lawyer representing Ehsani, said on Monday that the Supreme Court had ordered a temporary halt to Ensani's execution.

"Today, along with my esteemed colleague Mr. Babak Paknia, we visited the Supreme Court branch. We learned that the branch, in accordance with the law, issued an order yesterday to halt the execution of Mr. Behrouz Ehsani Aslamlou's sentence. The sentence will not be carried out until the review of the retrial request is completed," Nili wrote in a post on X.

No such announcement has been made regarding Hassani, leaving his fate uncertain.

According to Norway based rights group, Iran Human Rights (IHR), the two men were arrested at the height of Iran's nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

IHR said Ehsani and Hassani were notified of their death sentences on the second anniversary of the protests in September 2024. According to IHR the two men were sentenced to death on charges of baghy (armed rebellion) and moharebeh (enmity against god) through “membership in Mojahedin Organisation [MEK] and collecting classified information.”

“In recent days, officials of the Islamic Republic have linked the murders of Judges Moghiseh and Razini to MEK, paving the way for the execution of prisoners associated with the organisation," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam in a statement.

"For this reason, the risk of these prisoners' execution is very serious. We call on the international community, human rights organisations, and the people of Iran to increase the political cost of these executions through their efforts," he added.

Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini, assassinated in Tehran on January 18, had decades-long histories of handing down death sentences and lengthy prison terms to dissidents in numerous cases.

According to Amnesty, Ehsani was held in solitary confinement for 50 days in section 240 of Evin prison, where agents pressured him to make forced confessions under psychological torture, including threats of flogging, execution, and harm to his family, which he resisted. He was later moved to section 209 for 75 days before being transferred to a general ward.

Similarly, Hassani was held in solitary confinement for six months and forced to write self-incriminating statements under torture. According to Amnesty both men were denied contact with their families during these periods.

Amnesty urged Iranian authorities to halt the executions immediately and quash their convictions and sentences.