Netanyahu urges Iranians to ‘take risks for freedom,’ hints at more war

Masoud Pezeshkian will start his four-day visit to Yerevan on August 18, according to Armenian media outlets.

Iran's government or state-run media have not yet confirmed the visit which is expected to focus on the US-Armenia deal on a Caucasus corridor.

On Friday, Trump brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which gives Washington leasing rights to develop the Zangezur transit route connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan. It will be renamed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).

On Monday, Pezeshkian had a phone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during which he urged regional countries to "remain vigilant and cautious in the face of possible schemes by the United States to pursue its hegemonic goals in Caucasus."

He warned that the United States may use the Zangezur project to achieve its objectives under the guise of economic investment or promotion of peace.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the planned transport route must not change the region’s geopolitics or cut Iran's access to other corridors.

Speaking in a phone call with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Araghchi said, “In any decision or action, respect for national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of countries must be fully observed."

Earlier in the day, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani dismissed what she called exaggerated claims about the Zangezur corridor, saying it covers only a small area near Iran’s border.

"It is not as if our entire northern border has been lost,” Mohajerani said, but added that that Iran demands stability, territorial integrity, and existing sovereignty to be preserved.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, however, vowed to block the establishment of the transit corridor saying it would endanger regional security and alter the region's geopolitics.

“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” Ali Akbar Velayati said.

Velayati stressed that Iran has always opposed the Zangezur corridor, saying it would alter borders, fragment Armenia, and restrict Iran’s regional access.

At least 284 Baha’is were arrested and 270 were summoned to security or judicial institutions in Iran between August 2020 and 2025, the US-based rights group said on Monday.

Other violations of Baha’i rights in Iran over the same period included 419 cases of home searches, 147 trials, 127 travel bans, 108 prison sentence enforcements, 106 denials of education and 57 restrictions on economic activities, it added.

The Bahaʼi faith emerged in nineteenth century Persia, challenging Islamic orthodoxy with its teachings on universal religion and progressive revelation.

Iranian authorities perceive it as a threat to religious and political control, calling it a false religion and a cult.

Over the past five years, 388 Baha’is in Iran have been sentenced by judicial or security institutions to a total of 17,948 months of imprisonment, HRANA reported, equivalent to 1,495 years and 8 months.

Additionally, 91 individuals were fined about 503 billion tomans ($12 million), and 103 were deprived of social rights. Twenty-five individuals were sentenced to 600 months of exile, HRANA said.

Imprisoned for being Baha’i

Many Baha’i prisoners received long-term sentences during this period, often without fair trial procedures and based on charges such as “propaganda against the regime” or “forming illegal groups.”

The figures include 17,324 months of mandatory imprisonment and 624 months of suspended sentences.

The HRANA report identified 2023 as the most repressive year, with 162 documented violations, and 2024 as having the highest number of arrests 76, and a total of 5,220 months of imprisonment.

Other forms of pressure

Beyond judicial prosecution, Baha’is in Iran face other forms of repression, including economic and educational exclusion, interference with burials, cemetery destruction, and property confiscation, HRANA reported.

The pressure and harassment have intensified in recent years, with Baha’is facing more security and judicial actions than any other religious minority in Iran.

Over the past three years, an average of 72% of all reported religious minority rights violations in Iran have targeted Baha’is, HRANA reported.

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as official religions.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha’i faith a cult, and in a 2018 religious fatwa, he forbade contact including business dealings with its followers.

Iran's ministry of Intelligence said last month it had made arrests targeting the Baha'i religious minority, evangelical Christians, foreign-based dissidents, Sunni Muslim jihadists, separatists, monarchists and media organizations acting in league with Israel as part of its post-war crackdown.

"The United States of America calls on Iran to immediately halt these executions, release all those unjustly detained, and end its campaign of repression against those seeking their fundamental freedoms," the State Department said in a post on its Persian-language X account.

The protests erupted nationwide in 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in morality police custody after she allegedly violated hijab rules. Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and thousands arrested in a sweeping crackdown.

Demonstrator Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkour was hanged in June after what Amnesty International decried as a "sham" trial.

The rights group said he was subjected to enforced disappearance, tortured into making televised confessions and denied a lawyer during the investigation. His execution, it added, was "utterly appalling" and aimed to crush dissent and instill fear.

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  Iran hangs man convicted in connection with 2022 protests

Six men face execution after being convicted of killing a member of Iran's domestic enforcement militia in Tehran in the 2022 protests. One of their lawyers said last week that Iran’s Supreme Court has yet to respond to their appeal.

Last week, two Kurdish brothers from western Iran — civil activist Amirali Zakerifard, 44, and his brother Emad — who were charged for their participation in the 2022 protests, were sentenced to a combined 65 years in prison and 148 lashes.

Rights groups say the charges include insulting Islamic sanctities and assembly and collusion against national security.

They say the recent wave of repression is not only linked to the Woman, Life, Freedom protests but has also intensified under the pretext of security following a June war with Israel, disproportionately targeting ethnic and religious minorities.

Between June 13 and August 10, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) documented at least 58 arrests and eight new death sentences, including several people from Kurdish minority.

Since 2022, Iranian authorities have executed 11 people over the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, with many more at risk.

"As part of the exercise, complex scenarios were practiced in order to examine the IDF's competence, processes for transitioning from routine to emergency, and the functioning of the General Staff and regional commands," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Taking place just ahead of the two-year anniversary of the surprise Hamas attacks in which thousands of members of the militant group attacked Israel from air, land and sea, the drill aimed to "implement the lessons of October 7," the military added.

In one day, Hamas killed around 1,200 people mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostages to Gaza, sparking the worst round of Gaza war since Hamas took over the strip in 2007.

Israel's incursion into the enclave has killed 61,000 Palestinians according to Gaza health officials. Humanitarian organizations have warned famine looms for the population there, most of which has been displaced by Israeli military action.

"The Chief of Staff also conducted situation assessments in the Air Force and Navy together with the commanders," the statement added.

The exercises came two months after Israel launched a surprise military campaign against Iran on June 13, targeting military and nuclear sites and killing hundreds of military personnel, nuclear scientists and civilians.

Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty soldier, according to official figures published by the Israeli government.

"The IDF will continue and initiate a series of audit activities across all commands, branches, and units in order to improve their competence and readiness," the military added.

During a press conference this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in the wake of the Iran war, the country must remain “fully alert”.

“We are prepared for every scenario. The Iranians are preparing for different scenarios - and I won't go into detail,” he said.

According to Israeli daily Maariv, the military was woken up to what they were told was a mutli-faceted attack on the country.

Threats they were told they were facing included rocket fire at rigs, infiltration from the Jordanian border in three locations, attacks by armed groups on settlements in the occupied West Bank and missile fire from Iran’s military allies the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

As the Houthis continue to fire ballistic missiles and drones at Israel regular basis, almost all intercepted by Israel’s air defenses before reaching Israeli territory, Maariv also reported that Iran is working to incite the Houthis as well as militias in southern Syria, in addition to others in Jordan.

The Israeli military has recently carried out a series of bombings on the de facto authorities in Syria, accusing its ex-jihadist president of posing a threat to the country and Syria's Druze minority.

“With this year’s low rainfall, surface and underground water resources have declined and the situation is not favorable,” Hossein Haghighi, head of Tehran Water and Wastewater Region 4, told the semi-official ISNA news agency. “If it does not rain, we expect even tougher conditions in autumn.”

Haghighi said authorities had adopted a “multi-layer” approach that included reducing water pressure in some areas, public awareness campaigns and promoting low-flow devices to curb household use.

New buildings are required to install storage tanks and pumps before connecting to the network, he said. Tariffs are structured to heavily subsidize low users, while “bad consumers” – the highest tier – pay sharply higher rates. “After three warnings, we cut water to heavy users for 12 hours,” Haghighi said.

'Day zero' warnings disputed

Haghighi’s remarks followed a stark warning from Mohsen Dehnavi, spokesman for Iran’s Expediency Council, who said the water crisis “has passed the warning stage and entered a critical phase.”

“Continuing this trend could bring some areas of the capital to day zero in the coming weeks – a day when drinking water is cut off in many neighborhoods and the daily life of millions is disrupted,” Dehnavi said in a post on the social media platform X.

He blamed “five years of drought, overuse of underground aquifers, rapid urban population growth, high per-capita consumption and structural weaknesses in water management” for pushing Tehran’s reservoirs towards dangerous depletion.

He called for “strict conservation policies, renovation of ageing networks, industrial consumption controls and the adoption of smart, real-time resource management systems.”

Isa Bozorgzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s water industry, rejected the “day zero” assessment, saying that with further reductions in demand the crisis could be “acceptably managed.”

“If Tehran reduces its consumption by another 12%, the capital will pass through this crisis without severe disruption,” he said. Bozorgzadeh added that July saw a 13% drop in use compared with last year, and consumption so far in August was down more than 14%.

Drought, heatwaves, and blackouts

The water crisis comes after months of extreme heat that has triggered rolling blackouts and the temporary shutdown of government offices in several provinces to conserve energy.

Iran’s meteorological organization says the country has faced a near-constant drought for more than two decades, with rainfall down sharply this year and snowpack levels at historic lows.

Environmental activists have long warned that Iran’s sprawling capital – home to nearly 10 million people – is acutely vulnerable to water shortages due to inefficient infrastructure, leaky pipes, and limited investment in modern conservation technologies.

Climatologist Nasser Karami told Iran International earlier in August that the water crisis in Iran transcends drought and is a product of government mismanagement, militarized agriculture and deliberate manipulation.

According to Haghighi, Tehran’s average household water use is more than twice the international standard.

“Changing consumption habits is no longer optional – it’s a necessity,” Haghighi said. “If every household reduces just 10% of its water use, the capital can avoid the most severe restrictions.”

Elias Hazrati, head of the government’s information council, said on Tuesday: “Today, the country is in a completely stable situation. There is no crisis, and no war is taking place or about to begin.”