Arab League members express support for Iran-US talks

Tehran would not concede its nuclear rights in ongoing talks with the United States, said Behnam Saeedi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee on Saturday.

“The Islamic Republic will not back down from its right to enrichment under any circumstances,” he added.

Saeedi said that Washington must end all punitive measures without exception. “The US must lift all sanctions against us in every dimension, and there must be an enforceable guarantee for the lifting of sanctions,” he said.

She and her husband both work in the public sector. They now have to work from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. as the government forces offices to shut down during peak heat hours to curb electricity use.“The people making these decisions think everyone owns a car or can afford rideshare every day,” she said. “Most of us rely on buses. Not everyone lives within 30 minutes of work. For us, the commute is at least an hour. It’s exhausting.”

To be at work by 6, they wake at 4:30. The metro is too far, so they rely on buses, which now begin service only slightly earlier—at 5:30 a.m. Their children’s school hasn’t changed its start time to match, and nurseries don’t open before 7:30, leaving working parents stuck in the dark—literally and figuratively.

From 1991 to 2022, Iran observed daylight saving time. But then the conservative-led parliament repealed the law, claiming it caused confusion and disrupted the economy. The government tried to reverse course with an urgent bill, but parliament blocked it.So we are stuck with fixed clocks—just as we are with the incompetent bunch ruling, and ruining, our country.

Blackouts are now a daily affair. They’ve hit businesses, factories, homes—even as the Supreme Leader declared this the “Year of Investment for Production.”Images of producers burning heaps of spoiled eggs due to outages have gone viral, along with photos of diesel generators lined up outside homes and shops.

“You cry if you don’t laugh,” my sister says. “Most people who post or see these images on social media are raging inside.”

The minor schedule tweaks in cities like Tehran haven’t helped much, and conditions are even worse in smaller towns. Many schools still refuse to shift their hours, creating logistical nightmares for parents juggling long commutes and childcare.

Then there’s the water crisis.We live in a four-story building where water pressure has dropped so much that the upper floors barely receive any.Officials now warn that by summer 2025, apartments above the second floor will face complete water cuts unless they install electric pumps. But with power outages so frequent, even that solution is flawed.

In practice, this means residents on lower floors get by, while those higher up are left dry. Once again, the burden has shifted to the public.

More than 40 cities across Iran are under water stress, according to official figures. Millions are affected—and occasionally insulted by clerics pontificating about the link between drought and sin.

“The government can’t be blamed for lack of rain,” my brother-in-law interjects as he walks past the sofa my sister and I are slumped on.

“To be fair, it can’t be blamed for worn-out infrastructure either, or for sanctions, or the failure to coordinate and communicate basic schedules. It has just one job: to make your lives miserable. And that it’s performed to perfection if your faces lit by your phones’ glow are any measure.”

“This failed model, where Arab states are told they can’t survive ten days without US support, is being imposed again,” Khamenei said. “But it will collapse, and America will leave this region.”

Khamenei said Washington was promoting a security structure that keeps regional countries reliant on foreign protection. “The US wants these countries unable to function without it — that’s the message in their behavior and their proposals,” he said.

He also accused the United States of fueling instability and violence. “The US has used its power to massacre in Gaza, to stoke war wherever possible, and to arm its mercenaries,” he said, describing Israel as “a malignant cancer that must and will be uprooted.”

Khamenei says Trump’s rhetoric ‘shames America’

Khamenei also condemned US President Donald Trump’s remarks during his recent visit to the region.

“Some of what the US president said during this trip doesn’t even merit a reply,” he said in a meeting with teachers in Tehran. “The level of discourse is so low it brings shame to the speaker and to the American nation.”

Trump, during a regional tour that included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, called for a tougher nuclear agreement with Iran and accused its leadership of spreading instability.

Speaking Tuesday in Riyadh, he said, “The biggest and most destructive of these forces is the regime in Iran, which has caused unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and beyond.”

Trump also mocked Iran’s economic and environmental problems, contrasting its decline with the development of its Persian Gulf neighbors.

“While you have been constructing the world's tallest skyscrapers in Jeddah and Dubai, Tehran's 1979 landmarks are collapsing into rubble,” he said. “[Iran’s] corrupt water mafia… causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dismissed recent comments by US President Donald Trump during his regional visit as beneath response, describing them as an embarrassment to both the speaker and the American people.

“Some of what the US president said during this trip doesn’t even merit a reply,” Khamenei said in a meeting with teachers and educators in Tehran. “The level of discourse is so low it brings shame to the speaker and to the American nation.”

Khamenei rejected Trump’s argument of using power to promote peace. “He lied,” he said. “The US has used its power to massacre in Gaza, to stoke war wherever possible, and to arm its mercenaries.”

He accused Washington of enabling Israeli attacks on civilians and described Israel as “the Zionist regime” and as “a malignant cancer that must and will be uprooted.”

“This failed model, where Arab states are told they can’t survive ten days without US backing, is being imposed again,” Khamenei said. “But it will collapse, and America will leave this region.”

“We are not seeking war. We believe in negotiations and dialogue,” Pezeshkian said at a military ceremony in Tehran. “But we are not afraid of threats and we will never retreat from our legal rights.”

Pezeshkian criticized US President Donald Trump for sending what he called contradictory messages. “He talks of peace while threatening us with advanced weapons. No one but him believes these contradictions,” Pezeshkian said.

The president added that Iran would stand firm. “They assassinate our scientists and accuse us of terrorism. But we are the victims of terror,” he said. “They should not expect us to give up our military and nuclear achievements under pressure.”

Separately, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran remains committed to peaceful nuclear development under the Non-Proliferation Treaty but will not negotiate away its right to enrichment.

“Iran is ready to build trust about the peaceful nature of its program, but cannot compromise on the legal and inalienable right to enrichment,” Araghchi said at a meeting with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. He added that Iran had “paid a heavy price” to preserve this right and would not accept restrictions as a long-standing NPT signatory.

Araghchi also criticized what he called inconsistent messages from US officials, saying they had complicated negotiations and undermined trust. “The Americans change their positions frequently and face pressure from war-driven lobbies,” he said. “This is their internal issue, but Iran will stay focused on its lawful and principled position.”