Iran hosts trilateral meeting with China and Saudi Arabia
Iran, China and Saudi Arabia held a trilateral meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, the third since their 2023 normalization agreement brokered in Beijing, state media reported.
Iran, China and Saudi Arabia held a trilateral meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, the third since their 2023 normalization agreement brokered in Beijing, state media reported.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi headed the Iranian delegation. A preparatory session with diplomats and experts from the three countries was held on Monday, according to ISNA.
The meeting reviewed progress in implementing the Beijing accord, which restored diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh after a seven-year rift and set out commitments to reopen embassies and expand political and economic ties.
According to China’s foreign ministry, the three sides called for an immediate halt to Israeli actions against Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, and condemned violations of Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The statement also said the parties look forward to expanding cooperation in various fields, including economics and politics.
The previous rounds of the trilateral committee were held in Beijing and Riyadh, where the sides reaffirmed respect for sovereignty and non-interference and welcomed China’s continued mediation to support regional dialogue.
Regional visits to Tehran
The Tehran meeting followed a flurry of recent diplomatic activity involving Iran and its regional neighbors. Last month, senior officials from Turkey and Saudi Arabia also visited Tehran for high-level talks widely seen as efforts to manage regional tensions through dialogue.
At the same time, new reports shed light on broader diplomatic exchanges behind the scenes.
According to an exclusive report by Iran International, the Trump administration responded to a message from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, conveyed through Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, by reaffirming its three preconditions for any talks with Tehran: a halt to uranium enrichment, an end to Iran’s support for regional armed groups, and restrictions on its ballistic missile program.
Reuters earlier reported that Pezeshkian’s letter to the crown prince, sent before his late-November visit to Washington, said Iran “does not seek confrontation” and remains open to diplomacy if its rights are guaranteed.
During that trip, US President Donald Trump said he was “open” to a new deal with Tehran, while Mohammed bin Salman pledged to “do our best to help reach a deal between America and Iran.”
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei later dismissed reports of Iranian outreach via Riyadh as “pure lies,” though it remains unclear whether he was briefed on the exchange or if Tehran chose to deny it after the US response.
“During just one week, emergency departments nationwide recorded over 170,000 pollution-related visits,” Raisi said on Tuesday, noting that cases had risen by 20 to 25 percent compared with normal levels. “Most of these patients came from the 11 provinces with the highest pollution, showing the scale of the crisis,” he added.
Raisi said the Health Ministry estimates the annual health cost of pollution at about $17 billion, and that more than 59,000 people died last year from diseases linked to poor air quality.
Citing World Health Organization data, Raisi said most Iranian cities suffer from dangerously high levels of pollutants. “Tehran had only 14 clean-air days last year, Isfahan 16, Mashhad 28, and Ahvaz just two,” he said. “This means a large part of the population is exposed to hazardous air nearly all year.”
He said particles smaller than 2.5 microns “enter the bloodstream quickly and are proven causes of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and severe respiratory disorders.”
Tehran suffers record air pollution, Shargh reports
The reformist daily Shargh said the current Iranian year, 1404, has been Tehran’s worst for air pollution in at least two decades, with more than half of all days so far classified as polluted. “In no previous year have the data been this dark,” wrote analyst Ali Pirhosseinlou in a Tuesday commentary.
He said the number of “acceptable” air-quality days has dropped to about one-third of the year, while at least four days so far have seen daily air quality index readings above 200 — considered “very unhealthy.”
“The situation is worse than at any time in the past two decades,” Shargh wrote. “There is no plan to control the sources of pollution. No effort to renew diesel fleets, improve fuel quality, or reduce traffic. Instead, the municipality has restricted access to air-quality data.”
The paper concluded: “This is not interpretation – it is reality.”
“Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I was summoned to these agencies because some fellow Jews posted comments and liked false content, causing misunderstandings among the country's intelligence agencies,” Najafabadi said in an open letter published on his Telegram channel.
Najafabadi called on members of the Jewish community in Iran to refrain from leaving comments or likes on social media that might cause suspicion.
“You are requested, if you have published any unusual, sensitive, or misconstruable comments or likes in cyberspace, to delete them as soon as possible,” the letter said.
‘Unfollow IDF’
“If you are a member of channels and pages of the Zionist regime, including Israel in Persian, and other hostile pages and channels, it is essential to immediately unfollow and cancel membership,” the letter added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintains a series of active accounts and channels on social media platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram in Persian.
“Continuing membership in the mentioned channels or failing to delete comments and likes could lead to judicial problems, and pursuing and resolving the issue in the future will become much more difficult,” it said.
The letter is the latest document in an extensive campaign by Iranian intelligence agencies against the Jewish community, which has intensified after a 12-day war with Israel in June.
Since the recent military confrontation with Israel, dozens of Iranian Jews have been arrested on charges of "collaboration with hostile regimes.”
Kamran Hekmati, a 70-year-old Jewish man from New York, a father and grandfather who runs a jewelry business and holds dual American-Iranian citizenship, is currently detained. Rights groups, colleagues, and friends say he is being questioned over a past trip to Israel.
Hekmati was sentenced to prison in Iran for a trip he made 13 years ago to Israel to hold a ceremony for his son.
According to Israeli media reports, before the 1979 revolution, about 80,000 to 100,000 Jews lived in Iran, but today their number has decreased to fewer than 10,000.
