Tehran University forms committees after fatal lab blast

“Australia supports the decision of France, Germany and the UK (the E3) to trigger the ‘snapback’ mechanism under UN Security Council Resolution 2231,” a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson told Iran International.

The spokesperson said Iran must be held accountable for its “longstanding non-performance” of nuclear commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Australia called on Iran to return to talks and reach a diplomatic solution “which provides assurances that it can never develop a nuclear weapon.”

Canberra said it is obliged under international law to implement Security Council sanctions and will do so through amendments to domestic regulations, which may take time.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry said it was “deeply concerned” about Iran’s non-compliance and that work was underway on regulatory changes.

“As a UN Member State, New Zealand is bound to implement sanctions imposed by the UNSC,” the ministry said in a statement. “We advise New Zealanders to apply heightened due diligence in reviewing any ongoing transactions during this interim period.”

The United Nations sanctions, reimposed on Sept. 28, include restrictions on Iran’s nuclear and military activities, asset freezes on designated entities, and a duty to “exercise vigilance” when doing business with Iran.

Western powers say Iran left no choice

France, Germany and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement the reimposition of sanctions was unavoidable after Iran’s “persistent breaches” of the 2015 nuclear deal, citing enriched uranium stockpiles 48 times above agreed limits.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the sanctions were a “serious mistake” by Tehran’s rulers that harmed ordinary Iranians, but added diplomacy was still possible. “Iran must never come into possession of a nuclear weapon,” he told Funke media group, urging a “negotiated solution to resolve this issue permanently.”

The European Union also reinstated sweeping restrictions this week on Iran’s oil, banking, transport and trade sectors. Tehran has rejected the sanctions as illegal and said all restrictions under Resolution 2231 must expire on October 18.

Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a Kurdish political prisoner from Sanandaj in western Iran, was executed after more than 15 years in detention, the Mizan news agency reported. Hours earlier, the Hengaw human rights group said he had been transferred from Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, near Tehran, to solitary confinement for execution.

Mohammadi Khiyareh was first arrested in February 2010 and sentenced to death by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh—“enmity against God.” The Supreme Court initially overturned the ruling, replacing it with a 15-year prison term for alleged membership in opposition groups. However, following pressure from security agencies, the court reinstated the death sentence after a retrial.

Six ethnic Arab prisoners executed in southern Iran

Mizan also reported the execution of six people in Khuzestan Province on security-related charges but withheld their names, a move that rights groups said makes the cases “secret executions.” The men had been convicted of “killing police officers, communicating with Israel, separatism, bombings, and armed attacks,” the judiciary said.

Without presenting evidence, the judiciary accused them of involvement in attacks on a gas station in Khorramshahr, bank assaults, grenade attacks on a military center, and shootings at mosques.

The Karun Human Rights Organization later identified the executed prisoners as Ali Majdam, Moein Khanfari, Salem Mousavi, Mohammadreza Moghaddam, Adnan Alboshokeh (Ghobeishavi), and Habib Dris.

According to Karun, the men were arrested between late 2018 and early 2019 and later sentenced to death by the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court for alleged membership in opposition groups.

The defendants’ confessions appeared to have been obtained under unclear circumstances, Hengaw and the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) both reported.
These six Arab political prisoners were accused of killing two Basij members in Abadan, a police officer, and a conscript soldier in Bandar Imam Khomeini.

Amnesty International had earlier warned of imminent executions, noting that the defendants were denied legal representation during the hearings.

Surge in executions

Rights groups reported a sharp rise in executions across Iran in September 2025. Hengaw said it documented at least 187 executions during the month, while Iran Human Rights put the figure at 171, the highest monthly count in two decades.

Only 10 of those executions—less than six percent—were officially announced, Iran Human Rights said. Most were related to drug or murder charges, while three were for moharebeh or espionage.

The group warned that the surge marks an unprecedented pace of executions in the past 30 years, recording more than 1,040 executions in the first nine months of 2025—double the number during the same period last year.

Masoud Peyma, who has represented Qaneifard since 2017, said his client was arrested on March 28 after reporting to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Dallas to register a new address. Qaneifard had recently moved from California after accepting a teaching offer at a Dallas college, he said.

Instead of processing the address change, ICE detained him and sent him to a facility for undocumented migrants, according to Peyma.

Qaneifard is being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, which houses more than 700 people and has faced complaints of overcrowding and harsh conditions, US media have reported.

Between 2003 and 2012, he spent long periods in the United States on a student visa or making visits to the country, his lawyer added.

Previous arrest and failed deportation attempt

Peyma said Qaneifard first sought asylum in 2013 but left the United States before the case was resolved. He re-entered in 2017 via the Mexico border, applied for asylum, and was detained at an ICE facility in El Paso until July 2020.

During that detention, the US attempted to deport him through Azerbaijan in 2019, but Qaneifard refused to board a Tehran-bound plane, according to Peyma.

After his release, he lived in Washington and later in California under an “Order of Supervision,” which allowed him to remain in the country but required regular check-ins with ICE.

Peyma said Qaneifard has never married, has no record with the FBI, and has never been employed by US government agencies. He has supported himself in recent years through teaching, writing and giving interviews.

Risk of forced return

Peyma said ICE contacted Iran’s Interests Section in Washington six months ago, asking for travel papers to deport Qaneifard, but Tehran has yet to respond.

“The risk is real. If he is sent back, his life will be in danger,” Peyma said. “There is no reason for him to remain in detention after six months.”

The lawyer said Qaneifard’s case is being pursued on two tracks. “I have filed a petition in federal court in Texas for his release, given that more than six months have passed since his detention,” he said. “At the same time, a second lawyer has filed an appeal in the immigration court in Virginia with new documents to support his asylum claim.”

Peyma said Qaneifard’s earlier asylum request was rejected in 2018 for lack of evidence. “We hope the new materials on his recent political activities convince the appeals court that deportation would put his life at serious risk,” he said.

Other Iranians deported

The case comes after the United States deported a group of Iranians to Tehran in a chartered operation coordinated with Iranian authorities, the New York Times reported.

The paper said a US-chartered flight took off from a military airport in Louisiana, stopped in Puerto Rico to pick up more deportees, and then continued to Doha, Qatar, before passengers were transferred to another chartered plane to Tehran.

Iranian officials told the Times that ICE had initially said 120 people would be on the flight, but later notified them only 55 were on board, with the rest to follow. Many of those deported had spent months in US detention facilities with asylum claims rejected and accepted return because the alternative was deportation to third countries such as Sudan or Somalia, the Times said.

Immigration attorney Ali Herischi told Iran International that some deportees were political dissidents or Christian converts. He said they were shackled on flights, separated from their families, and their belongings and documents were handed to Iranian authorities. “That is very dangerous,” he said.

The New York Times reported the deportations followed months of talks between Washington and Tehran. US officials have not publicly confirmed the details.

The deportations were part of a larger operation that returned 120 Iranians from US custody to Tehran.

Ali Herischi, an immigration attorney at Maryland-based Herischi & Associates, told Iran International that one of his clients is a political dissident and the other a Christian convert.

Both had crossed into the United States from the border with Mexico to claim asylum. The dissident’s wife, who recently gave birth in the United States, is now caring for their three-month-old child alone.

“She is devastated,” Herischi said. “There’s significant uncertainty about the future and when they can reunite.”

Herischi said neither client consented to deportation, warning that their files, phones and documents were handed to Iranian authorities.

“Unfortunately, their belongings — including their files, evidence and cell phones — have been handed to Iranian authorities. That’s very dangerous.”

The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond an Iran International request for comment.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that a US-chartered flight carrying over 100 Iranians left a military airport in Louisiana, stopped in Puerto Rico to pick up additional deportees, and then continued to Doha, Qatar, before the passengers were transferred onto another chartered flight to Tehran.

Herischi estimates as many as 220 people were deported, though some were left in Qatar. The deportees, he added, were denied the chance to fully argue their asylum cases per rules during the Trump presidency that restricts claims by those who entered through the southern border.

‘Pick your poison'

Earlier this year, the United States deported another group of Iranians — many of them Christian converts — to Costa Rica and Panama, despite the risk of persecution they could face back home.

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  Deported by US, Iranian Christian convert stranded in Panama jungle camp

According to Herischi, deportees were sometimes presented with a choice: “ICE would say, 'either you consent to deportation to Iran, or we send you to Somalia or Sudan.' It was, 'pick your poison.' In the case of my clients, they didn’t even get that. They just said, you’re done, let’s go.”

The deportation flight, The New York Times reported, followed “months of negotiations” between Washington and Tehran, citing two senior Iranian officials involved in the talks and a US official with knowledge of the plans.

According to the Times, the State Department first approached Iran’s interests section in Washington about coordinating deportations three months ago. Iran had to verify identities and issue travel documents for some detainees.

Herischi said, “We need to know what has been exchanged in price of deportation of those individuals... Whether Iran had any influence on the list of deportees or set the priority of who is going to accept.”

The move, Herischi added, risks normalizing Iran’s human rights record and undermining America’s stated commitment to protecting persecuted minorities. “It’s like, oh, it’s just a normal country, why do we care? That’s not right.”

The ruling concerns Mohammadreza Mazloumi Aboukheili, 64, a former director of operations at the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, a state-owned firm reporting to Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum.

He had applied for a visa to visit his son in Ontario, but Canadian authorities determined he was inadmissible due to his senior role in "a regime engaged in terrorism and systematic human-rights abuses," according to the court ruling.

Mazloumi had previously visited Canada before Ottawa introduced a 2022 policy targeting high-ranking Iranian officials, the court decision cited by Global News said.

Immigration officials argued his position placed him only two ranks below Iran’s oil minister, undermining his assertion that he was a “middle manager.”

Mazloumi challenged the assessment, but the judge rejected his arguments, saying the government’s decision was reasonable and supported by evidence. The court found “no error” in how the visa officer handled the case, noting the executive knowingly served in a government accused of terrorism and repression.

The case reflects Ottawa’s broader effort to prevent senior Iranian officials from entering Canada.

Almost three years after the policy was introduced, authorities have stopped nearly 200 suspected Islamic Republic figures at the border.

However, deporting those already inside Canada has proven more difficult. Only one suspected official has been removed to Iran, while several others remain in the country due to legal challenges.

Oil revenues play a central role in funding the Iranian state, which Ottawa has accused of supporting groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, and supplying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Canadian authorities have also accused Tehran of targeting critics abroad, including activists and journalists living in Canada.

Mazloumi did not respond to a request for comment, Global News reported.