'Mockery of peace': Iran raps Nobel for honoring Venezuelan opposition leader

“Keeping war away from the country is one of the government’s key goals, and we are pursuing it through diplomacy,” she said in her weekly briefing. Mohajerani added that while improving living standards remains a major concern, Iran cannot suspend broader progress under international pressure and years of sanctions.

Her comments come amid shifting regional dynamics following a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended two years of conflict in Gaza. The agreement, backed by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, includes the release of hostages and prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he had resisted pressure to halt the war earlier, arguing Israel’s security depended on “eliminating the nuclear and ballistic threat from Iran” and “breaking the Iranian axis, of which Hamas is a central part.”

US President Donald Trump said Iranian authorities had recently expressed support for the Gaza deal and a willingness to “work on peace,” though Washington has maintained sanctions and tensions remain high following US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.

Democratic Senator Cory Booker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Iran International that Iran and its regional allies remained “the main obstacle to peace,” accusing Tehran of backing groups that threaten the new truce.

Iran, however, has said it supports any agreement that ends what it calls Israel’s “genocidal war” and ensures Palestinian rights, while continuing to urge what it describes as a regional solution based on “mutual respect and diplomacy.”

Hossein Alaei, the first commander of the Guards’ naval forces, said Israel had prepared its current espionage and military campaign decades ago. “The Zionist regime planned its attack on Iran twenty years ago and has concentrated one of its strongest intelligence networks on our country,” Alaei said in a televised interview, according to local media.

The conflict between Iran and Israel erupted after a surprise Israeli strike on Iranian military and nuclear sites on June 13. Tehran said 1,062 people were killed, including 786 military personnel and 276 civilians. Israel said it killed more than 30 senior Iranian security officials and 11 nuclear scientists. Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty Israeli soldier.

“I believe Mossad has set up its most powerful structure anywhere in the world inside Iran,” Alaei said. “They have done all the necessary organization and spent a lot of money on it.”

Since the June war, more than 700 Iranians have been detained on charges of spying for Israel. Executions of those accused of spying for Israel have risen in recent months, with at least 10 people put to death on such charges, according to Iranian authorities.

Alaei said Israel had combined human infiltration with advanced surveillance technology. “They have focused satellites over Iran and set up systems to gather information through all communication networks,” he said. “I think they have established facilities capable of monitoring all Iranian networks, even landlines.”

A recent documentary by Israel’s Channel 13 said one hundred Mossad operatives were deployed inside Iran to install and operate smuggled heavy missile systems. These systems were used to disable Iranian missile launchers and air-defense batteries during the opening phase of June’s 12-day war, the network reported.

The report said the agents’ operations were integral to Israel’s broader campaign against Iran’s military infrastructure.

“We are determined to reinitiate negotiations with Iran and the United States towards a comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement that ensures Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon,” the three European countries — France, Germany and Britain said in a joint statement.

They at the same time defended their decision to reimpose the UN sanctions on Tehran via the so-called snapback mechanism over Tehran's non-compliance with its nuclear obligations, urging all UN member states to enforce sanctions on Iran.

The reimposition of restrictions was the right step to address the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, they said.

“We call on all UN member states to abide by the restrictions reapplied by the snapback mechanism,” they said.

The three countries invoked the measure in August, just two months after Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, accusing Iran of failing to comply with its nuclear obligations, beginning a 30-day process that culminated in the sanctions' return.

US President Donald Trump earlier this year gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to reach a nuclear deal, demanding it end all domestic uranium enrichment. Tehran denies seeking a weapon and sees enrichment as a right.

On June 13, the 61st day since talks began, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which killed nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians.

On the ninth day of fighting, the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said "obliterated" the country's nuclear program.

The 12-day war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on June 24 but talks between Washington and Tehran have yet to resume.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly last month that Iran remains open to dialogue but that “the wall of distrust with Washington is quite thick and quite tall.”

Iran’s Afsaneh Nadipour and China’s Ren Yisheng were among seven experts selected on Tuesday for the council’s advisory committee, which is tasked with providing guidance on human rights issues.

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said the new appointments were “ludicrous,” questioning how governments accused of severe abuses could advise the UN on human rights.

"How do you expect countries such as China and Iran to advise this organization on human rights?” he wrote on X, adding that “one is exporting terrorism and jailing women, and the other is throwing ethnic minorities in concentration camps.”

Hillel Neuer, chief of pro-Israel watchdog UN Watch, told Fox News Digital that the United Nations “elected Beijing’s and Tehran’s loyal agents as ‘human rights experts’—without a ballot, without shame,” saying both “persecute minorities, jail anyone who speaks freely, and rule through fear and censorship.”

Iranian-American activist Lawdan Bazargan condemned Nadipour’s selection, calling it “a slap in the face to the courageous women of Iran.”

“She has served a regime that forces hijab, allows child marriage and imprisons women’s rights activists,” Bazargan wrote on X.

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the hawkish Washington-based thinktank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), also condemned the move in a post on X. “The Islamic Republic has been elected to the UN ‘Human Rights’ Council. The UN is a blight on humanity,” he wrote.

According to Amnesty International, China was the world’s leading executioner in 2024, followed by Iran in second place.

Amnesty said while Beijing keeps its execution figures secret, Iran was responsible for at least 972 executions last year—about 64 percent of the total of 1,518 executions globally.

This month, Iran has executed 72 people in the first nine days of October, bringing the total number of executions this year to at least 1,172.

In addition to executions, rights groups have documented widespread suppression of free speech and assembly in Iran, where activists, journalists and minorities face arbitrary detention.

In China, rights groups including Amnesty International have documented mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, along with systematic censorship and repression of dissent.

“He turned the US Department of Defense into the Department of War, believed in 'peace through strength,' launched a direct military attack on Iran’s monitored nuclear facilities, is now preparing for war with Venezuela, and gave the Israeli regime a free hand in the historic genocide in Gaza — yet he still expected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” Abbas Mousavi, deputy chief of staff to Iran’s president, wrote on X.

"From today on, may God have mercy on the world—this modern-day Don Quixote will probably not even bother pretending to be a peacemaker!" he added.

In August, Mousavi, faced criticism from hardliners in Tehran for addressing the US president as "Dear Mr. Trump" during a televised interview.

Iran's hardliners excoriated him for overlooking that Trump ordered the assassination of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Peace Prize to María Corina Machado on Friday “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The 58-year-old opposition leader, who remains in hiding, has been barred by Venezuelan authorities from running for office against President Nicolás Maduro.

In a message on X, Machado said her movement was “on the threshold of victory” and counted on “President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world” as allies in the fight for “freedom and democracy.”

"I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!"

Trump, who has long spoken publicly about his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, has received several nominations over the years, including one this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“In a period of just seven months, I have ended seven ‘un-endable’ wars,” Trump said during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month. “No president or prime minister — and for that matter, no other country — has ever done anything close to that.”

He raised the count to eight during a press conference on Thursday, adding the Gaza ceasefire announced Wednesday to his list.

The White House's communications director lamented the Nobel committee's decision, saying the "Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace".

Trump, Steven Cheung wrote on X, "will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives".