Hezbollah asked Iran Guards to leave Lebanon fearing Israeli strikes – Al Arabiya
Hezbollah has asked Iran to withdraw officers from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) currently based in Lebanon following growing fears over potential Israeli assassination attempts, Al Arabiya reported on Monday.
According to regional sources cited by Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, the Lebanese armed group, closely aligned with Tehran, is monitoring ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman.
Hezbollah apparently fears that any Israeli strike targeting IRGC personnel could derail the talks and put Iran in a difficult diplomatic position, according to the report.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use every possible means to pressure Tehran and obstruct its nuclear progress,” the sources said, suggesting that any high-profile Iranian casualty in Lebanon could serve as a pretext for escalation.
IRGC officers are believed to reside in discreet locations in Beirut’s southern suburbs and in the Bekaa Valley, and typically move under strict security protocols.
Israeli intelligence has previously succeeded in targeting IRGC-linked figures and Hezbollah commanders during recent conflicts in Lebanon.
Neither Hezbollah nor Iranian officials have publicly confirmed the reported withdrawal request.
Last year, seven senior IRGC commanders and officials were killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, triggering Iran's first ever direct airstrike on the Jewish state.
Iran will implement a long-delayed redenomination of its national currency this year, Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said on Monday, reviving a plan to strike four zeros from the rial and formally replace it with the toman in a bid to simplify transactions.
"This year, we will definitely pursue the removal of zeros," Farzin told an annual monetary and foreign exchange policy conference in Tehran. "It has been tried in about 70 countries such as Russia, Turkey, and Germany, and proven effective when implemented at the right time."
The announcement marks the clearest signal yet that Iran is moving forward with the redenomination plan first proposed in 2019 and approved by parliament in 2020.
The new currency system would peg one toman to 10,000 rials, aligning official usage with the informal practice already common among Iranians, who long abandoned the rial in everyday transactions.
Farzin stressed that the plan is being accompanied by broader reforms in the banking system, following the ratification of new legislation earlier this year.
"This is a year of transformation," he said. "We are moving from an old model of banking governance to a new one, underpinned by a series of newly approved laws and regulations."
Still, the move comes amid persistent economic headwinds. Iran’s inflation rate has hovered above 40% in recent years, and the national currency has lost more than 95% of its value over the past four decades.
A 10,000-rial note, once worth around $150 before the 1979 revolution, is now valued at less than 10 US cents.
Critics argue that striking zeros from the currency without addressing Iran’s underlying economic challenges—such as fiscal imbalances, monetary instability, and international sanctions—may prove cosmetic.
“The problem is not the four zeros, but the persistent inflation and monetary mismanagement,” economist Jamshid Assadi said in an earlier analysis. “Without reforms to central bank independence, fiscal discipline, and financial transparency, the redenomination will not have a lasting effect.”
Past experiences in countries like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Argentina have shown that currency redenominations alone do little to stabilize economies without deeper structural reforms. Conversely, countries such as Turkey and Germany only succeeded after implementing broad fiscal and institutional changes.
Iran’s caretaker Economy Minister Rahmatollah Akrami echoed some of these concerns at the same conference on Monday, warning that limited independence of the Central Bank, unclear inflation-targeting frameworks, and a lack of transparency have all contributed to Iran’s recurring macroeconomic instability.
“The effectiveness of monetary policy tools is limited in the absence of institutional strength,” Akrami said, urging a “redefinition of the Central Bank’s role” within Iran’s economic governance.
The new currency rollout is expected to span up to a few years, during which both the rial and the toman will circulate simultaneously. The Central Bank will oversee the withdrawal of rial notes and coins and their replacement with the new toman units.
While the psychological effect of dealing with smaller numbers may ease some frustrations for the public, analysts warn that without tackling deeper problems—such as rising liquidity, declining purchasing power, and a weakening private sector—the benefits of redenomination will be limited.
As global sanctions continue, not only for Iran's nuclear program, but for the country's human rights abuses and support of Russia's war on Ukraine, the economy is in its worst condition since the founding of the Islamic Republic.
Over one third of Iranians live below the poverty line with unemployment plaguing the population.
“The real question is whether this is meaningful reform—or just another economic shock dressed up as policy,” wrote Iran’s Jahan-e Sanat daily back in 2019 when the reform was first proposed.
Israeli media reported a Houthi missile was intercepted en-route to the Jewish state as the Iran-backed group continues its almost daily attacks.
Israel's Y-Net reported that it had been intercepted before reaching Israeli territory, the latest in an ongoing air operation from the Houthis in Yemen.
On Sunday, Israel attacked Hodeidah in Yemen after the Israeli army said it had warned residents of three ports under Houthi control to evacuate, according to the Houthi interior ministry.
Last week, the Houthis, listed as a terrorist organization by countries including the US, fired a ballistic missile which narrowly missed Israel’s main airport after multiple interception attempts failed.
The Houthis announced a ban on “air navigation to the airports of occupied Palestine” following the strike which landed just meters from Ben-Gurion Airport in central Israel.
Since the Gaza war began, dozens of strikes have been launched by Yemen, with scores of drones and missiles fired at the Jewish state.
Following the maritime blockade of the Red Sea region enacted by the Houthis, in a bid to force Israel into a ceasefire with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, the US had led a more than 20-nation coalition against the group.
In a shock move last week, US President Donald Trump agreed to an Oman-brokered ceasefire after having escalated attacks on the Houthis in March.
The Houthis had launched at least 174 attacks on the US Navy and 145 attacks on global shipping, according to the US State Department.
However, the deal did not encompass the group's attacks on Israel.
In Israel, the ceasefire has left members of the political and military elite on edge.
"This was totally unexpected," one security source told Iran International on condition of anonymity. "Everyone is very much watching and waiting to see what comes next, but it leaves us in a much weaker position."
Another said: "We have no choice but to take tougher action now to show that even standing alone, we will not allow the Houthis to threaten the safety of Israel."
Iran is witnessing a renewed rise in COVID-19 cases, prompting health experts to recommend that vulnerable individuals wear masks in public places, particularly in crowded enclosed areas, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Infectious disease specialist Davoud Yandegarinia told IRNA on Sunday that while there is no consolidated data on the number of new infections, an increase in hospital admissions and clinic visits indicates the virus is spreading again.
“It seems to be the Omicron variant, which remains the last variant of concern according to the World Health Organization,” he said.
Yandegarinia advised people with underlying health conditions, weakened immune systems, and those working or moving through densely populated areas — including healthcare workers — to resume mask use.
He also urged elderly individuals, pregnant women, heart patients, and those taking corticosteroids to continue using the same preventive methods employed during earlier stages of the pandemic.
“There is no need at this time to apply preventive measures to the general public,” he added, “but it is better for people to use masks in offices, closed environments, and hospitals.”
IRNA also earlier reported that Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi recently sent a letter to university health departments across the country, calling for increased precautions against respiratory illnesses, particularly COVID-19 and influenza.
Iran became the second country after China to officially declare an outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020, since reporting nearly 145,000 deaths — the highest official toll in the Middle East, with over 7.5 million confirmed cases.
Iranian political prisoner Ehsan Faridi has been sentenced to death on charges of “spreading corruption on earth,” a ruling quietly issued months ago but only recently made public, according to information obtained by Iran International.
Faridi, a 22-year-old student from the northwestern city of Tabriz, was studying manufacturing engineering at the University of Tabriz when he was first arrested by Iran’s Law Enforcement Intelligence Organization in March 2024.
He was released on bail after nearly a month in detention, only to be re-arrested in June that year after appearing before Branch 15 of the Tabriz Prosecutor’s Office, which handles so-called national security cases.
His death sentence was handed down in February 2025 by Judge Ali Sheykhlou of Branch 3 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, a figure known for issuing harsh rulings against dissidents.
The verdict was based on reports from the police intelligence unit and an indictment issued by a prosecutor who was later sacked for corruption. The ruling was delivered despite objections raised by Faridi and his lawyer, and without what sources describe as sufficient evidence.
Corrupt prosecutor
Faridi's indictment had been issued by Ali Mousavi Aghdam, a former prosecutor for Branch 15 of the Tabriz Prosecutor’s Office.
Aghdam was arrested in November 2024 — less than three months after filing the charges — for forming a corruption ring within the judiciary, accepting bribes, forging documents, and fabricating cases. He was later convicted and dismissed from the judiciary.
Faridi's case is currently under review by Iran’s Supreme Court. According to a source familiar with the proceedings, the lack of credible evidence in the file and the court's past record of overturning similar sentences issued by Judge Sheykhlou has given Faridi’s family hope that the ruling will be annulled.
Faridi had already been sentenced to six months in prison on a separate charge of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” prior to the death penalty case.
The revelation comes amid a surge in executions in Iran, particularly targeting political prisoners. Human rights groups reported that at least 230 people — including 8 women — were executed across Iranian prisons in the first three months of 2025, more than double the number from the same period the previous year.
As of early May, human rights monitors estimate that around 60 individuals facing political or security-related charges are currently on death row in Iran.
Famous Indian TV host and former army officer Gaurav Arya sparked a brief diplomatic stir between Tehran and New Delhi and drew widespread reactions on social media after calling Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi a “son of a pig” on air.
Arya was criticizing Araghchi for visiting Pakistan before traveling to India for talks aimed at deescalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, following the Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
The clip quickly circulated online, prompting a public response from the Iranian embassy in New Delhi. In a statement, the embassy said: "Respect for guests is a long-standing tradition in Iranian culture. We Iranians consider our guests 'beloved of God. What about you?"
Following the Iranian reaction, the Indian embassy in Tehran issued its own clarification, writing: "The Embassy of India in Iran wishes to clarify that the person in this video is a private Indian citizen."
"His comments do not reflect the official position of the Indian government, which finds the disrespectful language used in the video inappropriate," the Indian embassy added.
Major Gaurav Arya is a very popular Indian personality with nearly two million followers on X including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His program "Chankaya Dialogue" also has over four million subscribers on YouTube.
