Tehran slams US ‘hypocrisy’ over Mahsa Amini anniversary message
Iran condemned the United States on Tuesday for what it called “hypocritical and deceitful” remarks on the anniversary of a young Iranian woman's death in morality police custody in 2022, accusing Washington of decades of crimes and subversion.
“No rational and patriotic Iranian would ever believe the claim of friendship and sympathy by a regime with a long history of meddling in Iran’s affairs and committing crimes against Iranians,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.
It cited grievances ranging from a CIA-orchestrated 1953 coup and US support for Saddam Hussein during the 1980–1988 war to the downing of an Iranian passenger jet in 1988, years of sanctions and joining Israel in attacks on nuclear sites in June.
Tehran also argued that the US, as Israel’s main supporter and a country it described as steeped in racism, has “no credibility to speak on human rights.” It vowed that Iranians “will never forget or forgive” America’s actions.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called on Iran and Western countries to intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent the so-called snapback of international sanctions on Tehran initiated by European states last month.
Guterres said building trust through dialogue is essential, speaking in response to a question from Iran International's reporter at the UN on Tuesday.
“My appeal to Iran and to the other powers is to use diplomacy and to create the conditions of trust in order to be able to avoid it,” UN Secretary General said.
Guterres added that he has been in contact with both sides and aimed to facilitate discussions.
“Of course, offering my good offices, but it all depends on the diplomatic efforts that are made in order to establish the trust that is needed for the snapback to be avoided,” Guterres said.
Last month, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom triggered the UN snapback sanctions mechanism in a partly lapsed 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.
The move initiated a 30-day window for diplomacy before sanctions are due to take effect on October 18.
Iran-IAEA cooperation
One of the demands of the three European countries is the immediate resumption of full work between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran and the IAEA signed an agreement in Cairo last week aimed at eventually resuming nuclear inspections in Iran. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Monday urged Iran to immediately implement the deal to resume inspections.
Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami on Tuesday criticized European powers for adopting an even more bellicose rhetoric against Tehran after the Cairo deal.
"From the very moment the agreement was signed between our esteemed foreign minister and the IAEA director general, we witnessed new and harsher positions from European countries," he told reporters in Vienna.
The Europeans also seek unconditional renewed talks with the United States severed since Israeli and US attacks on Iran in June.
Last month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected calls by Tehran moderates for direct negotiations with the United States, insisting that Washington’s hostility cannot be resolved through talks.
California representative in the US House Young Kim said in a post on X on Tuesday Mahsa Amini's memory lives on in Iranian people who “risk everything for freedom.”
“Your courage inspires the world. We stand with you,” she added in her message marking the 22-year-old girl's third death anniversary.
The commander of one of the most secretive and powerful arms of US power, the B-2 stealth bomber wing, described to Fox News what he called their "flawless" June 22 bombing on Iranian nuclear sites.
The planes are based at Whiteman Air Force Base, just south of Knob Noster, Missouri, home to all 19 operational B-2 Spirit stealth bombers.
Colonel Josh Wiitala, who commands the base, showed the reporters the bombers used in the roughly 30-hour mission dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. Along with submarine-launched missiles, the American air attack targeted the Iranian nuclear facilities of Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.
“It was just flawless performance,” Wiitala said. Shortly after the strikes, US President Donald Trump said they had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.
The mission marked the first known US deployment of 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs or Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) called the GBU-57.
“This team had flown Red Flag after Red Flag, major exercise after major exercise. I was watching the crews prepare and thinking about how many repetitions they’d had, how long they’d trained for this. It was a very seasoned crew,” Col. Wiitala said.
Each B-2 flew with two pilots so one could rest during the long mission.
“When I knew the crews were safe, when I knew they were in friendly airspace and secure, that was the biggest thing for me. In terms of mission success, it was 14 weapons on target. Again, it was just flawless performance,” Col. Wiitala added.
The B-2 is the only long-range stealth aircraft capable of carrying the 30,000-pound MOP and each aircraft carried two GBU-57s in their attack on Iran.
“We’ve used penetrators in the past, same concept as the penetrators you saw during the Iraq war, just on a much larger scale. The bigger the weapon, the deeper it penetrates,” Chief Master Sergeant Frank Espinoza said.
“We keep all the munitions on the far side of the base to ensure we meet explosive-safety standards,” Espinoza added. Weapons loaders undergo 21 days of training to become certified to maintain and load the 30,000-pound bombs, which secure to the aircraft at two steel touchpoints.
Of the 14 bombs carried by the B-2s, 12 were dropped on the Fordow nuclear site in Iran, a facility reportedly buried under roughly 300 feet of rock inside a mountain.
The US Air Force has ordered a new generation of advanced bunker-busting weapons as it seeks successor technology to the massive ordnance used in the strikes.
The United States on Tuesday called on Iran’s leadership to move away from what it called bellicose rhetoric and focus on easing domestic hardships, saying Iranians deserve better after years of economic privations.
"The Iranian regime must focus on addressing the needs of its people instead of engaging in destructive war rhetoric," the State Department said in a post on its Persian-language account on X.
"After years of economic hardship and international isolation, the people of Iran deserve peace and prosperity."
Iranian officials, especially hardliners and military leaders, have repeatedly mooted striking Israel and the United States if attacked again following their surprise military campaign in June. Officials have also issued menacing rhetoric to dissidents abroad.
Last month, Iran's top security official Ali Larijani said the country must remain prepared for a fresh round of conflict as the war with Israel is not over despite a US-brokered ceasefire that put an end to a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.
The Islamic Republic needs to "create capacities so that the enemy will not be tempted to take action again," Larijani said in an interview with the Supreme Leader's official website.
His remarks were the latest in a series of sharp comments from leaders on both sides, with Israel’s army chief vowing readiness for further strikes and Iran’s General Staff warning of “a far stronger response” to any future attacks by the United States or Israel.
Meanwhile Israeli officials have frequently asserted that their military quarrel with Iran is not yet finished and continue to cite Iran as an alleged existential threat.
Iran’s navy test-fired a range of cruise missiles during large-scale drills last month, and the defense ministry warning of stronger response in any new war with Israel.
"Any miscalculation in the region will be met with a very strong response from Iran’s powerful armed forces,” it said in a statement.
"Senior officials of the regime have chosen to distract from internal challenges by instilling fear of external threats," the State Department said in its post.
"Iran’s leadership should instead prioritize actions that restore economic stability, improve living conditions, and rebuild trust with both its citizens and the international community."
Iran’s currency, the rial, now trades at nearly one million to the dollar, having lost almost a third of its value since Donald Trump won the US presidential election last November.
Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund's estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020, sending costs of living soaring.
Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran's currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
A poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month reported that just under 90% of Iranians described their level of satisfaction with government economic policies as low or very low.
A group of women chanted “Death to the dictator” in Tehran’s Sadeghieh neighborhood on Tuesday during the third anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, a video received by Iran International shows.
