Norway jails ex-US embassy guard for spying for Iran and Russia

The exhibition, organized by the US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), featured a Shahed-136 drone recovered in Ukraine and was intended, according to the group, to highlight Tehran’s role in aiding Moscow’s military campaign. Sikorski attended the event during a visit to London for meetings with British officials.

Earlier that day, Sikorski told reporters that a recent Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was “tactically stupid and counterproductive,” saying it had only strengthened Western resolve against Moscow. The Polish minister said the drones appeared to have been launched deliberately from Russia and coordinated with Belarus.

Mahmoud Heidari, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for Mediterranean and Eastern European affairs, summoned Polish Chargé d’Affaires Marcin Wilczek and conveyed what he called Tehran’s “strong protest” over the London event. Heidari rejected what he described as “baseless and repetitive accusations” about Iran’s drone program and expressed regret over Sikorski’s involvement.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the move to exhibit the drone violated diplomatic norms and repeated politically motivated allegations about Iran’s role in the Ukraine conflict.

Iran denies supplying drones for use in the war, saying it sold a limited number to Russia before the invasion began. Western governments and Ukraine say Shahed-type drones, designed in Iran and now produced in Russia under the name Geran, have become central to Moscow’s air assaults. The Financial Times reported in July that the modified drones have tripled their success rate in hitting targets.

Polish officials have not publicly commented on the summons, but Warsaw has cooperated with UANI and Ukrainian forces in transferring a similar drone to the United States earlier this year for display at a political conference attended by US President Donald Trump.

“We are lying on wealth yet remain poor because of ourselves — the managers, officials, politicians and lawmakers — not America,” Pezeshkian said at a meeting of education managers in the central city of Isfahan. He urged local authorities to depend on people’s capacities instead of waiting for the state to act. “If you rely on the government, nothing will change in fifty years. But if you trust the people, you can achieve anything,” he said.

Pezeshkian said the growing desire among young Iranians to emigrate was troubling and reflected a loss of faith in the country’s future. “Why should our children think about leaving?” he asked. “Going abroad to study and learn is not bad, but believing that they must go and never return is a disaster,” he said. The president urged young people to gain knowledge overseas and bring it back to serve their homeland.

Warning over internal conflict

Iran’s main threat comes from domestic divisions rather than from the United States or Israel, Pezeshkian said. “I am not afraid of America or Israel. I fear our own disputes,” he said. “If we fight each other, we do not need enemies. We destroy ourselves.”

Pezeshkian voiced similar concerns on Wednesday, saying at a cabinet meeting that political infighting was a greater danger than foreign hostility, the state news agency IRNA reported. “I have no serious concern about plots by the United States or others, because their hostility is obvious,” he said. “But I am deeply worried about false divisions and efforts to blacken everything inside the country.”

Hardline lawmakers have opened impeachment moves against four of his cabinet ministers this month in what critics say is an attempt to paralyze his government. Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, has urged cooperation to restore public trust and ease growing hardship under renewed sanctions.

Detainees in the notorious lockup outside Tehran rejected their food rations for the third consecutive day, sources told Iran International.

Several inmates fainted on the third day of the strike, according to videos from inside the prison shared online.

"The Islamic Republic is carrying out a massacre in this prison," one inmate said in a video sent to Iran International, describing the continuation of the collective hunger strike in protest against death sentences.

The strike comes as Iran has executed at least 1,172 people this year, according to the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The protests began on Monday in wards 1 and 2 after the transfer of a group of prisoners to solitary confinement.

At least 19 prisoners had been moved to solitary confinement pending their execution this week, 11 of them on drug-related charges and three on murder convictions, according to US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The prison has seen a sharp rise in executions in recent weeks, according to HRANA.

'We will all be killed'

Prisoners in Ward 4 issued a statement describing the daily transfer of their cellmates to solitary confinement, saying they have “no choice left but to protest and go on strike.”

“There is not a single day when our cellmates are not taken to solitary confinement for execution. If we are left alone after these protests, we will all be killed,” the statement added.

Death-row inmates at the prison, in a separate statement published on Iranian rights activist Golrokh Iraee’s X page, said nearly 1,500 prisoners were on strike and called on the public to support their cause and gather outside the prison to protest the rising number of executions.

"These are the most agonizing moments of our lives and those of our families — suffering that has gone on for years. This situation has become unbearable for us," the statement said.

"Our only refuge as prisoners is you, the dear people of Iran. Execution is not our right... Take action against executions in Iran. Raise your voices. Gather outside the prisons and do not let them execute prisoners," it added.

Five executed in one day

Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency on Wednesday said that three men — Amirreza Ghobadi, Majid Hatami, and Sajjad Hatami — were executed at Ghezel Hesar prison after being convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) through armed robbery.

HRANA reported that two others convicted of murder were also executed on Wednesday in the same facility.

The five were among at least 19 inmates transferred to solitary confinement for execution.

One prisoner sentenced to death for the murder of Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a University of Tehran student, was returned to his ward after the victim’s family granted a two-month reprieve.

There has been no information on the fate of the remaining prisoners transferred to solitary confinement.

Families join protest outside prison

On Tuesday night, families of death-row inmates gathered outside Ghezel Hesar Prison, holding photographs of their loved ones and chanting “do not execute” and “immediate abolition of the death penalty.”

The protest coincided with the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign.

The campaign entered its 90th week this Tuesday, with prisoners in 52 prisons across Iran joining the hunger strike.

The No to Execution Tuesdays campaign began in January 2024, launched by political prisoners in the prison to protest the rising number of executions across the country.

The initiative quickly gained momentum, spreading to dozens of prisons in Iran, including the women’s ward at Evin Prison, where inmates joined the weekly hunger strikes and issued statements calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Ghezel Hesar’s record of executions

Located in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Ghezel Hesar is one of Iran’s largest and most notorious detention centers, where executions are routinely carried out.

In a report marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty last week, HRANA said at least 1,537 people were executed in Iran between October 2024 and October 2025, including 183 in Ghezel Hesar — the highest number recorded in any prison in the country.

“I have no serious concern about plots by the United States or others, because their hostility is obvious,” Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting, state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying in a cabinet meeting.

“But I am deeply worried about the spread of false polarizations, divisions, and constant efforts to discredit and blacken everything inside the country.”

Hardline lawmakers have four of Pezeshkian’s cabinet ministers in their crosshairs for impeachment proceedings they launched this month, in what critics say is a bid to stall the government rather than to offer alternatives.

'People despair'

The conservatives have reportedly tabled motions against Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi, Roads and Urban Planning Minister Farzaneh Sadegh, Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri and Labor Minister Ahmad Maydari.

“Such behavior fuels anger, anxiety, and despair among the people. In these circumstances, we must all join hands and take positive steps together to overcome the difficult times ahead and give people hope,” Pezeshkian added, without specifically addressing the moves by his opponents.

The return last month of UN sanctions triggered by European powers has further hobbled Iran's economy after a punishing conflict with Israel and the United States in a 12-day war in June.

The reimposition of the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions by US President Donald Trump has also piled pressure on the government.

“I can handle foreign issues, but I am worried about our internal problems,” Pezeshkian added.

Chronic division

Ideological clashes have limited his ability to advance campaign promises to reduce diplomatic isolation and improve standards of living.

Despite repeated calls for unity, divisions over foreign policy and domestic priorities continue to stall cohesion within Iran’s political establishment.

Iran declined to attend the Gaza peace summit hosted by Egypt this week, signaling a deliberate diplomatic snub amid deep regional tensions.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iranian diplomats could not “sit with countries that have attacked the Iranian people and continue to threaten and sanction us."

The commentariat in Tehran remain divided about the wisdom of the snub. Some view the boycott as a principled stand against Western and Arab pressure, while others see it as a missed opportunity to influence postwar diplomacy in the region.

The book, titled “Israel Annihilation Plan: The Islamic Republic's Strategy for the Destruction of the Zionist Regime,” was presented at an event in Iran's holy city of Qom.

The presentation suggested that despite a Gaza ceasefire which could tamp down region-wide conflicts over the past two years, Tehran was far from retiring its hostility and harsh rhetoric toward its regional arch-enemy.

Alireza Panahian, a cleric close to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, praised the authors during the unveiling ceremony, calling the book a valuable step in elaborating on the views of Khamenei and his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini.

'Khamenei a hero'

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Khomeini, Iran has made opposition to Israel a core feature of its state ideology.

Under its founding leader, Israel was denounced as a “Zionist regime” lacking legitimacy, and it was cast as a symbol of Western imperialism in the Muslim world that must be annihilated.

Over time, this rhetoric has been echoed and expanded by his successor Khamenei, who has repeatedly called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and forecast its eventual demise.

In the ceremony held at Qom's Shrine of Hazrat Fatima Masoumeh, Panahian said “in the aftermath of the 12-day war (with Israel in June), the Supreme Leader’s name is recognized worldwide as that of a hero who stood up against the global order of domination."

Israel launched a surprise military offensive in June, striking Iran’s military and nuclear facilities as well as targeting top officials. Iran retaliated with salvos of drones and ballistic missiles.

'Israel's Irreparable defeat'

Author Ali-Asghar Mohammadi-Rad told attendees the book delved into "the theoretical and strategic foundations of Iran's plan to end the life of this regime, as well as an analysis of Israel's irreparable defeats in the recent battle."

"In the final chapter of the book, the connection between the recent 12-day war and the Islamic Republic of Iran's grand strategy of collapsing the Zionist regime is explained, and it is shown that this battle is part of the process of realizing that same strategic plan," he added, according to Tasnim news agency.

The book's back-cover blurb praises the October 7, 2023, attack by Tehran-backed Hamas militants as "a wake-up call for Iran and the entire world."

"The global public—poisoned by the stench of lies and worldliness spread by their rulers—needed to hear the cry of Palestine’s oppression, and the fabricated oppression of (Jewish people in) the Holocaust should sound for them as a bell of disgrace and a cry for freedom," it said.