Iran is expanding its network of schools abroad with two new institutions in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and the reopening of a school in Saudi Arabia, the country’s education minister announced on Sunday.
Iran's semi-official ISNA cited education minister Alireza Kazemi as saying that Iranian school in Jeddah has reopened after years of closure.
The move, Kazemi said, has "increased Iran’s educational influence in the region."
Iran’s only school in Saudi Arabia was closed in 2016 after Iran withdrew its diplomatic staff from the kingdom.
At the time, Iranian reported that the school had 15 students and two Iranian teachers, who returned to Iran along with the diplomats after the ambassador left Saudi Arabia.
In January 2016, Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016 following the storming of its embassy in Tehran during a dispute over Riyadh's execution of Shiite Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Nimr, who was one of the leaders of the Shiite protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011, had studied in Iran’s religious city of Qom.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the execution of Nimr "a political mistake and a great sin".
Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end their diplomatic rift and re-open embassies in a major deal facilitated by China in 2023.
Iran’s reopening of the school in Jeddah comes as Saudi Arabia plays a renewed intermediary role between Tehran and Washington, after President Masoud Pezeshkian asked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to convey a message to the United States to help prepare the conditions for resuming nuclear talks.
In 2020, Iran’s state-run English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that the education ministry was overseeing 95 Iranian schools in 43 countries. However, in 2022, Iranian media, citing the deputy head of the Centre for International Affairs and Overseas Schools, said the number of overseas schools had fallen by about half, without giving a new total.
Rouhani told former ministers and senior officials that Iran had entered a prolonged period of strategic uncertainty following the 12-day confrontation, arguing that the absence of clear deterrence has left the country exposed to regional pressures and foreign threats.
Rouhani said that “after five months have passed since the 12-day war, we are still in a situation of neither war nor peace, and there is no sense of security in the country. Whether actual security exists or not is another matter.”
He added that “when people do not feel secure, talking about economic growth, lowering inflation or attracting investment has little meaning. This feeling of insecurity – psychological insecurity, social insecurity, intellectual insecurity, mental insecurity – exists.”
He said national security in any country rests on deterrence and on stopping adversaries from initiating conflict.
Rouhani tied Iran’s own shortfalls in deterrence to regional instability, saying neighboring states still rely heavily on the United States and Israel for security. He said Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan do not control their airspace or security environments in ways that would limit hostile activity, and that this has reduced Iran’s strategic buffer zone.
“Unfortunately, we do not currently have broad regional deterrence. Our neighboring countries – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan – are, unfortunately, operating in environments largely shaped by the United States and Israel.”
He warned that this landscape has created what he described as unusually free access for Israel, saying “Israel moves up to our borders in undefended and open airspace” and “the sky up to Iran has become completely safe for the enemy.”
Rouhani said national cohesion and accurate assessments of Iran’s own capabilities remain essential for maintaining deterrence. He cautioned against overestimating Iran’s military or technological strengths and said misjudging adversaries could lead to strategic miscalculations.
Rouhani said renewed diplomacy remains essential even if political negotiations are difficult. “In politics, a complete dead end is very rare. We must make extra efforts to resolve issues.”
He said avoiding a renewed conflict ultimately rests with Iran, adding “whether war happens again is in our hands.”
“The continued drying and the cut in permanent flows have brought land subsidence and the death of Gavkhouni to a point of no return and even put drinking water on the threshold of threat,” said Dariush Golalizadeh, the provincial environment department chief.
“The Zayandeh-Roud played a key role in recharging aquifers and preventing subsidence. With multi-year drought and sharply reduced inflows, alongside heavier pumping from wells and wastewater use, subsidence has intensified alarmingly.”
Golalizadeh said the internationally listed Gavkhouni wetland downstream of Isfahan is turning into a dust hotspot. “When the wetland falls apart, it means there are serious problems in water and land management above it.”
He linked the ecological stress to livelihoods, saying orchards, urban green spaces and farmers have been hit across the basin. Authorities are now working on support programs for Isfahan’s eastern districts to soften the blow to agriculture, he said.
The official urged emergency measures to keep minimum flows to the river and wetland.
“At present, because of the sharp drop in river yield, drinking water is under threat,” he said. “We are looking to other sources, but rising temperatures and drought have cut inflows to a minimum.”
