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The UN Security Council convened on Friday morning to discuss a draft resolution concerning the snapback of sanctions on Iran, a process initiated after European governments declared the country in significant non-performance of the 2015 nuclear deal.
South Korea, as Council president this month, placed the text in blue earlier in September. It contains a single operative paragraph affirming that past sanctions remain terminated, meaning adoption would preserve relief measures under resolution 2231.
European ministers said in an August 28 letter that Iran’s actions left no credible alternative to triggering the mechanism. They pointed to more than 8,400 kilograms of enriched uranium—forty times the agreed limit—including several hundred kilograms enriched to 60 percent. “Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to reach an extension of resolution 2231,” the German Foreign Office said Wednesday.
A video circulating on social media shows security guards clashing with visitors at the Marble Palace in Ramsar, after a hijab warning escalated into physical confrontation and police intervention.
The palace is a historic Pahlavi-era building built in 1937 by Reza Shah Pahlavi as a royal summer residence.
Iranian outlets reported the incident took place about a week ago. In the footage, a man with blood on his face lies on the ground while a guard holds a pepper spray canister. Eyewitnesses said guards used pepper spray against young women, creating panic among visitors.
The visitors were from the religious city of Mashhad, according to Entekhab News, citing a local journalist. A guard confronted one of the women at the entrance, and when her headscarf slipped inside the museum, he pushed her, sparking a fight that drew in police, the report said.
Social media users noted the recording date as September 11, days before the third anniversary of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, detained in 2022 for alleged hijab violations.
Journalist and activist Masih Alinejad reacted on Instagram, writing: “This is the same government that stages concerts at night, executes by day, and assaults women over a few strands of hair.”
Wider crackdown
The video has renewed focus on violent enforcement of compulsory hijab, with calls for accountability and protection of women in public spaces. Confrontations have been documented before, with security forces, plainclothes agents, and civilians policing women’s dress. Rights advocates warn such practices intrude on privacy and fuel social violence.
Recent weeks have seen a wave of closures targeting businesses, cafés, hotels, and bookstores over alleged defiance of hijab rules. Rights group HRANA previously reported more than 30,000 women were stopped last year for non-compliance, and at least 536 commercial units were sealed.
Despite intensified state pressure, women’s acts of defiance persist. A video obtained by Iran International on September 16 showed a woman in Karaj standing unveiled atop a garbage container and shouting, “You have turned Iran into a prison.”
The Foreign Policy Committee of the Flemish Parliament in Belgium has called on Iran’s ambassador to clarify the fate of Ahmadreza Djalali, the jailed Iranian-Swedish academic whose whereabouts have been unknown since June.
“After three months without any news, concern about the condition of Prof. Ahmadreza Djalali is greater than ever. The MPs therefore want to obtain more information from the Iranian ambassador,” parliament chair Freya Van den Bossche and committee chair Bogdan Vanden Berghe said in a joint statement on Thursday.
Djalali, a disaster medicine specialist affiliated with the Free University of Brussels, was detained in April 2016 during a professional visit to Iran. In 2017 he was sentenced to death on charges of espionage and complicity in the killing of two Iranian nuclear scientists, accusations he and his family have consistently denied.
Earlier this year, he suffered a heart attack while held in Tehran’s Evin prison. After the Israeli bombing of that facility, he was transferred with other detainees to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. From there, according to accounts shared by his family, he was taken away separately. Since June 23, there has been no trace of him.
Pressure builds in Belgium
Last week, the committee and parliament speaker Van den Bossche met Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, to discuss his situation. Following that meeting, MPs unanimously agreed to summon the Iranian envoy.
Djalali’s case has drawn international concern, with European institutions and human rights organizations urging Tehran to halt his death sentence and release him on humanitarian grounds.
For Belgian lawmakers, his disappearance has heightened alarm not only about his health but also about the Iranian authorities’ treatment of dual nationals, many of whom remain imprisoned under contested charges.
