AIPAC urges dismantling of Iran's nuclear program

President Donald Trump signed an order banning travel to the US from 12 countries, including Iran.

The White House said Wednesday that the move aims to tighten security. Nations affected include Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen.

The White House said Iran is “a state sponsor of terrorism” that “fails to cooperate in identifying security risks” and “has historically failed to accept back its removable nationals.”

Trump said the most restricted countries harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” lack proper identity verification, and have poor visa compliance.

“We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States,” he said.

Read more here.

"The English draft of the US nuclear proposal contains language flaws," Iran's former nuclear chief said Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the text.

Speaking in a televised interview, Ali Akbar Salehi also described the proposal as "very confusing and contradictory."

Turkey, long a major customer, imported over 5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States in the first quarter of 2025, according to Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA).

That’s nearly the same volume as in all of 2024—which itself marked a 38% jump from 2023. The United States is now Turkey’s second-largest gas supplier after Russia, displacing Iran.

Meanwhile, Iran is grappling with year-round gas deficits. Last winter, domestic shortages roughly equaled Turkey’s daily seasonal demand.

EMRA data shows that Iran’s winter deliveries to Turkey have halved over the past two years, failing to meet the agreed quota in every month of the cold season.

A 25-year agreement between Tehran and Ankara expires next year. Despite repeated offers to renew, Turkey has shown little interest, bolstering its energy ties with Russia, Azerbaijan, and the US.

In March, Ankara began importing gas from Turkmenistan through swap deals via Iran—further reducing direct reliance on Iranian supply.

Iraq and Syria: shrinking markets

Iraq, Iran’s only remaining major gas customer, has also reported a sharp drop in supply.

Reduced deliveries from Iran have cut electricity production by 3,000 megawatts, according to Iraqi officials, just as summer demand peaks. Iran now supplies only 3% of Iraq’s electricity needs, down from 10% just a few years ago.

Turkey has stepped into the void, doubling its electricity exports to Iraq in 2025 and now supplying more than twice the volume Iran provides.

Tehran earns an estimated $5.5 billion annually from electricity and gas exports. Yet the strategy of converting regional political leverage into economic gains appears to be unraveling.

For years, Iran spent tens of billions of dollars supporting armed groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, hoping to convert influence into energy contracts and infrastructure projects. But the hard-gained influence all but vaporised with Israeli strikes and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Syria, once a central partner in Tehran’s ambitions, has effectively cut ties. Iraq plans to end reliance on Iranian gas within two years.

Lost Ground

From 2012 to 2023, Iran sent more than 300 million barrels of free crude oil to Syria—worth $23 billion, according to energy analytics firm Kpler— in hopes of securing energy and industrial dominance in postwar reconstruction.

Last week, Syria’s interim government signed a $7 billion deal with Qatari, Turkish and US firms to build 6,000 megawatts of new generation capacity.

Turkey will supply 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually, while Qatar began gas shipments via Jordan in March, bypassing Iran entirely.

Even before Assad’s fall, Iran lagged behind. Turkey exported 15 times more goods to Syria than Iran. Today, Iran’s trade has all but stopped, while Turkish exports to Syria topped $1 billion in the first four months of 2025 — a 32% increase over the same period last year.

Khanoumi Shop, an online cosmetics and personal care retailer, had posted the promotional video as part of a new campaign to market its brand.

The video showcased young women performing a rap song — a move that violated the Islamic Republic’s ban on female public singing.

Following the video’s release, Khanoumi’s Instagram page — which had 1.5 million followers — was taken offline by judicial order.

This is not the first time the brand has used methods frowned upon by the clerical establishment to promote its products. Two years ago, it released another rap video featuring female animated puppets to advertise its wares.

The company has also engaged in sharp messaging which could be construed as an oblique critique of officialdom. It promoted a moisturizing cream by referencing the dryness of Isfahan's Zayandeh Rood river, which has suffered from mismanagement and water shortages.

Khanoumi is among a handful of Iranian brands that have tried to distinguish themselves through bold advertising, but such efforts have increasingly drawn the ire of the country's theocratic authorities.

In recent years, several similar campaigns have faced backlash from the judiciary. The feminine hygiene brand MyLady, whose Instagram page was blocked after it ran a campaign for International Women’s Day on March 8, raising awareness about the restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic against Iranian women.

In February, the Instagram page of Cenan, one of Iran's largest bakery companies, was shut down by the Islamic Republic's police after it released a promotional video featuring female employees without the mandatory hijab.

In March, Iranian authorities blocked the Instagram accounts belonging to multiple female artists under judiciary orders, ramping up an effort to limit the visibility of women vocalists, whose performances have been banned in public settings since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The restrictions on female artists have escalated since the protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in 2022 over hijab, as many female performers supported the demonstrations. Several have been arrested or barred from professional activities.

Artistic defiance has become a hallmark of Iran’s protest movements, with musicians such as Shervin Hajipour, Mehdi Yarrahi, Saman Yasin and Toomaj Salehi facing arrest for their roles in encouraging dissent.

The relationship between the Sunni Muslim heavyweight and the Shi'ite theocracy has been in a deep freeze ever since.

Following Araghchi’s June 2 meeting with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the top Iranian envoy himself wrote in an Arabic post on X that diplomacy between Iran and Egypt had entered a new phase.

“The level of interaction and political cooperation, and most importantly, the level of trust and confidence in the relations between the two countries, is unprecedented.”

In a diplomatically worded but significant statement, the Egyptian presidency said sides had emphasized “the importance of pursuing the current path to explore prospects for further advancing the two countries’ relations.”

Egyptian media similarly adopted an optimistic tone, with Egypt Today describing Araghchi’s visit as “one of the most visible signs of rapprochement” and noting it could signal “potential shifts in regional alliances and cooperation.”

What might resumed relations mean?

Egypt is a close US ally and maintains official relations with Israel. For Iran, mending the 45-year rift with Egypt could signal a softening of its revolutionary-era, anti-American posture.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously called for the Egyptian people to rise up and overthrow Anwar Sadat after he normalized ties with Israel.

It would also send a strong message across the region that longstanding hostilities and rivalries can give way to cooperation.

Cairo, whose influence in the Arab world is much diminished following the quashing of Arab Spring protests and ongoing economic challenges—could bolster its image as a leading Arab power by positioning itself as an interlocutor between Iran and both Western and Arab nations.

Arab states in the Persian Gulf have taken Egypt's mantle of regional leadership following the unrest starting in 2011, but while all have a testy relationship with Tehran but only Cairo has not revived diplomatic ties or reopened its embassy in Iran.

The timing of Araghchi’s visit with that of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi—leading to a trilateral meeting—may be an indication of Egypt’s intent to play a mediating role in the Iranian nuclear file.

How did relations break down?

Tehran and Cairo have not had full diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iran’s Islamic Revolution ousted the Shah.

Egypt’s decision to host Iran's exiled monarch—who died and was buried in Cairo in 1980—sparked Iranian anger.

That same year, Iran officially cut ties with Egypt after it became the first Arab country to recognize Israel by signing the Camp David Accords.

Relations deteriorated further when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamist army officer Khaled Al-Islambouli.

In a controversial move, Iran named a street in Tehran after Islambouli—an act Egypt has long viewed as a profound insult.

Despite the hostility, the two countries agreed in the early 1990s to restore diplomatic relations at the level of chargé d'affaires—a status that has remained in place for more than three decades.

What are the obstacles to full resumption of diplomatic relations?

Iran’s strong opposition to the Camp David treaty and its revolutionary posture in the post-1979 era set the foundation for decades-long rift with Egypt.

While successive governments have considered changing the street’s name as a goodwill gesture, hardliners have repeatedly blocked such efforts.

Though there have been several high-level encounters between Iranian and Egyptian officials since 2012, most have occurred on the sidelines of international or regional summits.

In August 2012, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made a landmark visit to Tehran to hand over the rotating presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit to Iran.

It was the first visit by an Egyptian head of state to Iran since 1979 and marked a sharp departure from the policies of Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

That visit was followed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to Cairo in February 2013 to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit—another rare show of diplomacy between the two sides.

Fast forward to 2023, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered steps to improve ties with Cairo. Later that year, in November, he met al-Sisi during the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh.

In December 2024, Raisi’s successor, President Masoud Pezeshkian, visited Cairo at al-Sisi's invitation to attend the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation summit. During the visit, Pezeshkian held meetings with al-Sisi and other top Egyptian officials.

Accompanying him was Araghchi, who has since made three subsequent visits to Cairo.