Thumbs up: Iranian football referee's pose alongside Trump stokes ire

Esmail Kowsari told Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV that no decision on closing the Strait had been made but military preparations to do so were ready.

“Military measures concerning the Strait of Hormuz have been completed, but no decision has yet been made regarding its (closure) and the matter is still under review,” said Kowsari, a member of the parliament's national security committee.

The Strait of Hormuz is a waterway bordered by Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Around a fifth of global oil and gas shipments pass through the strategic chokepoint, which was a site of conflict in the Iran-Iraq in the 1980s but was spared in the Mideast combat last month.

Tehran, Kowsari added, has not walked away from negotiations but US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites violated Iran's sovereignty and hurt diplomatic efforts.

Conditions for resuming talks do not currently exist, Kowsari said.

Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to close the strait as tensions with Israel and the United States have flared in recent years.

Last month, Kowsari told state media that the Iranian parliament had approved a measure to close it but that the measure was not binding, and the final decision rests with Iran’s top decision-making body, the Supreme National Security Council.

A closure would likely upend global energy markets and risk triggering broader conflict.

“According to the plan drawn by Israel and the United States, the regime was supposed to fall by the ninth or tenth day of the war,” Rabiei, a veteran of the intelligence ministry and a former cabinet minister, told local media.

“When Trump told the people of Tehran to leave the city, it was clear something was meant to happen—but it failed.”

The 12-day campaign assassinated Iranian military commanders and pounded military targets but killed hundreds of civilians. A US attack on Iranian nuclear sites capped off the conflict. Iranian missiles killed 27 Israelis.

Both US President Donald and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mooted regime change and killing Iran's Supreme Leader during the conflict.

Tehran officialdom swiftly declared the conflict a victory, in a narrative which jarred many war-weary Iranians.

Netanyahu said the conflict reversed Iran’s nuclear progress and set the stage for internal political collapse.

“We hit them right on the nose, in the groin,” he told US network Newsmax in an interview on Thursday. “It creates a possibility inside Iran, because the people who are being tyrannized now say they have hope.”

But Rabiei said Iran’s population had only grown more embittered.

“The day Evin prison was bombed—a surreal scene in which women prisoners, medics and soldiers were killed—they expected protests,” he said, referring to an Israeli air strike on a notorious prison which killed dozens of people. “Instead, people were consumed with hatred for Israel.”

“No country is better off after regime change following a war. Israel does not care what happens to Iran afterward—it just wants Iran not to be strong,” he added.

A fragile ceasefire remains in place between Iran and Israel after Trump said US attacks had “obliterated" Iran’s nuclear program.

“Some of the disruptions to the GPS system originate from within the country for military and security purposes,” Ehsan Chitsaz, Deputy Communications Minister, told the Ham-Mihan newspaper on Monday, acknowledging the government's role.

He added that “political priorities following the ceasefire between the Islamic Republic and Israel may have led to shifting satellite allocations.”

The main purpose of the jamming is to misdirect drones or guided missiles, preventing them from striking their intended targets.

While most modern military drones and missiles use encrypted GPS signals for military use only, some reconnaissance drones and guided bombs or missiles still rely on unencrypted, open GPS signals, making them vulnerable to interference.

Tehran has felt the disruptions more than most regions in recent days. Domestic navigation apps such as Balad and Neshan, as well as international ones like Waze, have been displaying incorrect maps or placing users in locations such as Europe, Canada, or Africa while signals are scrambled.

Chitsaz also confirmed Iran was now exploring alternative systems, pointing to its ally China’s BeiDou navigation constellation.

“The Islamic Republic is set to pursue alternative options such as China’s BeiDou system, which has been raised as one of the main axes of the long-time joint agreement during ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Beijing," he said.

The Global Positioning System consists of 24 advanced satellites owned by the US Department of Defense that orbit the Earth and use mathematical data to help GPS receivers determine location and even time. The number of satellites has now risen to over 30, increasing the system’s accuracy.

A smartphone or any device equipped with a GPS receiver determines its physical location by receiving signals from satellites and calculating based on the time the signals were sent and the satellites' positions.

If the clocks on these satellites are off by even a thousandth of a second, users can be placed 200 or 300 kilometers away from the correct location, as many in Iran have experienced.

Navigation outages tied to internal security clampdown

Chitsaz’s remarks follow mounting public complaints of GPS disruptions across Iranian cities. Users reported navigation apps displaying incorrect locations, with one example cited by Ham-Mihan involving a driver in Shahr-e-Rey, southern Tehran, being shown in Shiraz.

During the 12-day war, internet and mobile blackouts were announced as necessary for national security, seeing many Iranians without the internet for several days in a row.

Hossein Meysami, director of new technologies at the communications ministry, acknowledged difficulties faced by the likes of taxi drivers and couriers who depend on GPS services for business.

“We must accept that an event occurred in our country, and it was reasonable for certain agencies that are sensitive in this area to impose restrictions until conditions normalize,” Meysami said on Monday, referring to the lingering after-effects of the 12-day war with Israel.

He also warned that senior military and government personnel should under no circumstances use WhatsApp, citing security concerns.

In Tehran, GPS disruptions have been reported near military and security sites such as the Ministry of Defense and sensitive locations such as around the residences of the Supreme Leader.

In these restricted zones, residents have been unable to locate themselves for days or even longer, with their phones showing them in distant places like Mehrabad Airport, or even in another country.

Damage to digital businesses acknowledged

The deputy minister also admitted that government-imposed internet restrictions have hurt the private sector, affecting as many as 10 million internet-dependent businesses.

“Filtering and systemic disruption have not only destroyed some businesses but also created social despair and mistrust,” Chitsaz admitted.

During the war, rights group HRANA said over 1,100 Iranians had been killed by Israel, including military personnel and nuclear scientists targeted, with senior figures eliminated in a wave of precision strikes.

Iran says 13 top nuclear scientists were killed with a further 20 commanders, including the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also eliminated.

On Saturday, IRGC-affiliated Fars News said that the country's president was among several injured when an Israeli strike targeted a National Security Council meeting.

Iran officially reopened its airspace on July 3, saying all airports were fully operational.

Khomeini International Airport recorded just 25 takeoffs and landings on July 12, down from 118 on June 7, the Saturday before the June 13 Israeli strikes.

Mehrabad Airport in Tehran saw a similar drop, halving its total flights over the same period.

On June 7, Mehrabad Airport handled a total of 137 domestic flights. By July 12, nearly three weeks after the ceasefire, that number had dropped to just 70.

“A lot of domestic flights are being cancelled because the demand simply isn’t there,” a Mehrabad employee told Iran International. “People are still afraid their planes could be targeted. Everyone remembers the Ukrainian flight.”

In 2020, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran, killing 176 people. Authorities later blamed “human error” in the air defense system.

Dramatic fall in regional and long-haul flights

International connections from Iran have collapsed since the war. Before the attack, Khomeini Airport saw routine flights to Europe and East Asia. By July 12, nearly all those routes had vanished.

What remains is a limited number of flights to regional countries, and even those have been sharply reduced.

Flights to Turkey, which had peaked at 42 on June 7, dropped to just five on July 12. Routes to Austria, Germany, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, China, Thailand and India were eliminated entirely. UAE flights also fell from 19 to four.

Only 15 percent of flights at Khomeini Airport on July 12 were operated by foreign airlines, down from 46 percent a month earlier. European carriers like Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, as well as major Persian Gulf operators including Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Pegasus, have all halted service and they did not any flights on July 12.

The domestic sector has tried to fill the vacuum. New or expanded operations were registered by Kish Air, Varesh, while others—like Mahan Air, Iran Air, Taban, and Yazd Airways—recorded no flights at all.

At Mehrabad, flights were only operating to 11 cities. The majority of former destinations—including Ahvaz, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Bushehr—no longer appeared on the boards.

Some domestic services appear to have shifted to more operational or government-linked destinations, including frequent flights to industrial or oil-rich areas such as Asaluyeh and Siri Island.

Opaque routes and missing data

Several recent flights had no listed origin or destination, raising questions about potential information blackouts or data suppression. Sources at Mehrabad suggested this may reflect either intentional concealment or failures in data processing since the war.

In other cases, regular routes had become effectively defunct. Flights from and to airports in Rasht, Yazd, Zahedan, Qeshm, Ahvaz and many others were no longer available, despite being active before the June 13 escalation.

“Some of these suspended routes were simply under-booked,” the Mehrabad staffer added. “Tickets were sold, but not enough people were willing to fly, so the flights got cancelled.”

Iran’s aviation sector, already under strain from sanctions and underinvestment, now faces another extended period of isolation—one increasingly reflected in the empty skies above.

"The so-called snapback mechanism has no legal or political basis," Baghaei said during his weekly press briefing. "In light of recent developments, resorting to such a mechanism is more unfounded than ever and lacks any legal, political, or ethical justification."

Baghaei stressed that Iran still considers itself a signatory of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), despite reducing its commitments in response to what he described as "blatant violations" by the United States and European parties. The US pulled out of the 2015 agreement in 2018 under President Donald Trump's first administration.

“Our reduction of commitments was a response one year after the illegal withdrawal of the US from the JCPOA,” he said. “The European parties themselves also violated their obligations under the deal and failed to act accordingly. Therefore, they have no standing to invoke the mechanism.” He did not elaborate on how the EU violated the deal.

He said the move to activate the snapback clause, originally embedded in UN Security Council Resolution 2231, was "just an instrument of political pressure" and "will be met with a proportionate and appropriate response by Iran."

He dismissed the European threats as lacking "any legal justification" and said, "They must be held accountable for the consequences of their own failures. If they had adhered to their commitments honestly, today’s situation would have been different.”

Earlier in June, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “France, together with its European partners, can, with a simple letter, reimpose a global embargo on weapons, nuclear equipment, and banking and insurance sectors in Iran, which were lifted 10 years ago.”

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, any current JCPOA party—France, Germany, the UK, Russia, or China—can file a non-compliance complaint. If no resolution to maintain sanctions relief is adopted within 30 days, all previous UN sanctions automatically snap back, including cargo inspections, arms embargoes, and missile-related restrictions.

Iran accuses Germany of double standards

The spokesman also criticized Germany and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), alleging selective enforcement of nuclear non-proliferation obligations and supporting Israeli military actions.

“Germany’s hosting of US nuclear weapons is in clear violation of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” Baghaei stated. “We know that a significant number of US nuclear warheads are stationed in Germany, which itself is enough to show a breach of international commitments.”

He added, “Despite this, we witness Germany taking an incorrect stance and supporting violations of international law by backing Israeli military actions. This support carries international responsibility.”

Just days after Iran expelled the UN watchdog, Baghaei also accused the IAEA of "instrumental and selective behavior" in addressing nuclear issues, saying the agency has become part of a broader political toolset, in particular, giving information to the US and Israel which Iran says helped strikes launched against Iran's nuclear facilities last month.

Iran also criticized the IAEA for not condoning the strikes on the country's three main nuclear facilities. “The peaceful nuclear facilities of Iran are being targeted militarily, while the agency remains silent on clear violations by other countries,” he said.

On reports of Russia allegedly pushing Iran to agree to "zero enrichment" levels, Baghaei called the claims “fabricated” and aimed at “damaging Iran’s ties with its partners.” He said that “Russia knows well that Iran makes independent decisions regarding its nuclear policy, and they have always respected that.”

No date for talks, no proposals from allies

Regarding the resumption of nuclear negotiations, Baghaei said no time or location has been set for future talks but confirmed ongoing consultations with China and Russia.

“We maintain strategic relations with both countries and are in close contact with them,” he said. “While no specific proposals have been presented, both China and Russia have consistently expressed readiness to help resolve the nuclear issue.”

He cited “positive discussions” between Iranian and Russian officials during the recent BRICS summit and added that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had traveled to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ministerial meeting for continued consultations.

On reports that China or Norway may act as new intermediaries in nuclear negotiations, Baghaei said such rumors were “just speculation and cannot be confirmed.”

Diplomacy still an option, but not at any cost

When asked about Iran’s conditions for returning to talks, Baghaei said, “We are serious about diplomacy and have entered negotiations with good faith. However, before the sixth round of talks, the Zionist regime, in coordination with the United States, carried out a military aggression against Iran.”

He emphasized that Iran would not re-enter negotiations “until there is confidence in the effectiveness of diplomacy.”

“Diplomacy is a tool and an opportunity,” he said. “We are not allowed to deprive ourselves of this tool to explain Iran’s position and defend our national interests. Just as the armed forces are fulfilling their duty to defend the country, the diplomatic apparatus must do the same through diplomacy.”

Damage to Fordow still under review

Baghaei said that assessments of damage to Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, targeted by US bombs just before the ceasefire with Israel last month, are still ongoing due to the "scale and type of the strikes."

He also responded to a recent joint statement by the UK, France, and Germany condemning Iran's retaliatory strike on the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

“It is the height of hypocrisy for the three European countries to justify the aggression of the Zionist regime and question Iran’s legitimate defensive response,” he said. “These statements are baseless and not worth responding to.”