Iran's ex-FM hopes Oman talks will spark 'lasting spring' in Mideast
Iran's former foreign minister expressed hope that upcoming talks between Iran and the United States in Oman would lead to Mideast peace.
"Muscat means birthplace. Thirteen years ago, during my service in the foreign ministry, direct pre-JCPOA talks with the United States were born in this very city," Ali Akbar Salehi wrote in a post on X Thursday, referring to a 2015 nuclear deal.
"In politics, prediction is neither possible nor desirable, but we have always returned from Muscat with great success. I hope this city will be the foundation of a lasting spring in the Middle East," Salehi added.
A group of hardliners gathered in front of the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday to protest the Islamic Republic's upcoming negotiations with the United States.
The protesters held placards reading, "You'll make a deal again, they'll scrap it again" and "We need guarantees."
Another placard read, "We need a few wise, dignified and honorable officials," referencing Khamenei's earlier stance that negotiations with the US are "unwise, undignified and dishonorable."
Similar protests were held on Wednesday in Tehran's Palestine Square, during which hardline demonstrators torched and trampled on US and Israeli flags.
The United States on Thursday criticized a suggestion by influential former Iranian security chief Ali Shamkhani that US threats could prompt Tehran to end cooperation with United Nations nuclear inspectors and hide its uranium.
“These actions—the threat of that kind of action—are inconsistent with Iran’s claims of a peaceful nuclear program,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said during a press briefing.
“Iran is the only non-nuclear weapons state producing highly enriched uranium at this level,” she said.
“Why would one need to do that if it was for peaceful energy work? Doesn't make much sense.”
Iran plans to amputate the fingers of three men convicted of theft on Friday just days after executing five political prisoners, prompting alarm from UN human rights experts and international rights groups.
"Three men in Iran face imminent finger amputations that may be carried out as early as tomorrow (11 April 2025). The prohibition of torture and ill-treatment is absolute and allows no exceptions," Mai Sato, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in a post on X.
UN experts, which include Sato, expressed deep concern over the planned amputations, saying it violates international law and called for the immediate halt of such punishments.
In their statement, the UN experts said the three men were convicted of theft in 2019 and sentenced to amputation, with the Supreme Court upholding the verdict in 2020 despite allegations of torture.
Iran executes five political prisoners
The planned amputations come just days after Iran executed five political prisoners on Tuesday in Mashhad Central Prison, in northeastern Iran.
Left to right- Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij and Abdolrahman Gorgij.
The five prisoners, identified as Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdolrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali, and Malek Ali Fadayi Nasab, were convicted of “armed rebellion” for their affiliation with banned political groups, according to Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR).
In a statement on Wednesday, IHR said the five men were executed without the opportunity for a final visit with their families. Their executions came after years of detention, including long periods in solitary confinement and allegations of torture during their trials.
“These prisoners were subjected to torture and sentenced to death following an unfair trial in the Revolutionary Court,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, Director of Iran Human Rights (IHR). "The international community and the people of Iran must respond seriously to these executions."
The executions of the five men came on the same day as Amnesty International warned that the vast majority of the executions in Iran last year were linked to political repression.
The rights group reported that Iran accounted for 64% of all known global executions in 2024, with at least 972 people executed, in what Amnesty said is the government's ongoing campaign of mass suppression of dissent.
The US Treasury on Thursday designated an Indian national and his tanker company along with other vessels and entities linked to exporting Iranian oil in contravention of US sanctions.
Jugwinder Singh Brar, chairman of Prime Tankers, along with seven other firms and 30 vessels were named in a notice published on the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals and entities (SDN) list.
Many of the ships and companies had been cited by Washington-based advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) as facilitators of Iran's energy sales.
Jugwinder Singh Brar gestures as he drives a newly purchased Rolls-Royce Cullinan from a Dubai dealership, March 2020.
Iran's nuclear threat has worsened to an "extreme danger" level since last year, according to a new report by a US-based research institute.
“Since February 2024, the date of the last edition of the Geiger Counter, the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program has worsened significantly,” the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in its report published Tuesday.
