Iran’s central bank said on Tuesday it had blocked bank the accounts of over 250 people suspected of money laundering a sum amounting to $1.6 billion, as the country attempts to consolidate its financial system amid harsh sanctions.
Central bank spokesperson Mohammad Shirijian said the individuals, using around 6,000 bank accounts, recorded a combined turnover of about 2,100 trillion rials ($1.6 billion).
Shirijian said about 130 trillion rials, or around $100 million, of the total was linked to the bank accounts of a 24-year-old whom he accused of involvement in “disrupting the foreign exchange market.”
He added that the cases of 13 people suspected of "disrupting the banking system and the foreign exchange market" had been referred to the judiciary.
Separately, Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, citing the central bank’s public relations director Mostafa Ghamari Vafa, reported that authorities had identified and blocked the accounts of three individuals, aged 24, 28 and 33, whose transactions totaled about 262 trillion rials ($201 million).
Tasnim said authorities had identified the trail of currency traders linked to the accounts and that the case remains under close surveillance.
Iran’s central bank issued a new directive in late September requiring banks to set annual transaction limits for customers based on their level of financial activity.
Under the directive, the annual transaction cap is set at 200 billion rials ($154,000) for salaried individuals, 50 billion rials ($38,400) for individuals without employment and five billion rials ($3,840) for inactive legal entities.
Shirijian's remarks come as Iran’s currency hit a fresh low on Monday of 1.312 million rials to the US dollar on the open market according to currency-tracking websites, reflecting deep economic woes in the country.
Tehran has sought to boost financial regulation and gain entry into anti-money laundering bodies in a bid to gain greater access to the global banking system as renewed international sanctions have dented its already creaky economy.
But in October the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rejected Iran's accession, saying Tehran would remain on its list of high-risk countries for failing to fully accept the body's rules on terror financing.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed an armed clash on the Zahedan-Fahraj road, saying “three law enforcement personnel and one ordinary citizen” were killed.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, the Guards’ Qods Ground Forces headquarters said security and intelligence agencies were investigating the incident.
The IRGC headquarters for the southeast is one of ten regional commands and oversees the largest geographic area, covering the provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan and Kerman, and commanding multiple provincial Guards units and key combat brigades in the region.
The rights group Haalvsh, which monitors unrest in the region, earlier reported that the Fahraj incident occurred at a checkpoint in neighboring Kerman province and said four security personnel – two intelligence officers and two police – were killed, with several others wounded. The group published video footage showing injured officers and bodies being transferred from the scene.
At the same time, a second confrontation involving armed assailants and Iranian forces was reported in the city of Iranshahr, also in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
In Iranshahr, Haalvsh said gunmen targeted three military vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday, killing and wounding an unspecified number of security personnel.
The group cited local sources and said roads leading toward Zahedan were blocked by military forces, leaving travelers stranded with no indication of when routes would reopen.
Iranian authorities have not released casualty figures for the Iranshahr attack, nor have they commented on the identity or motives of the attackers. No group has officially claimed responsibility for either incident.
The attacks are the latest in a series of armed confrontations in Iran’s impoverished southeast, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been plagued by violence involving Sunni Baluch militant groups and Iranian security forces.
Pattern of attacks and militant regrouping
In recent months, similar clashes have intensified. Last week, the Guards said four of their members were killed and three wounded in an attack by what they described as “terrorist and hostile groups” in the Lar area near Zahedan.
A day later, Haalvsh reported that a newly formed coalition calling itself the “Popular Fighters Front” claimed responsibility, saying it had ambushed a Guards convoy.
The Popular Fighters Front announced its formation earlier this month, presenting itself as a merger of several Baluch political and militant factions, including the PADA Baluch Movement, Harakat Nasr Balochistan, Jaish al-Adl, the Mohammad Rasulallah group led by Haji Vahed Bakhsh, and self-described “spontaneous Baluch fighters.”
In a video message posted online, a masked spokesman identified as Mahmoud Baluch said the coalition aimed to increase the effectiveness of resistance against what he described as oppression by Iran’s ruling system.
While the group’s manifesto emphasized civil, media and political action, it did not renounce armed operations and claimed responsibility for recent attacks.
Jaish al-Adl – designated a terrorist organization by both Iran and the United States – has emerged as the dominant force within the coalition, analysts say.
The group formed around 2012 after the execution of Abdelmalek Rigi, the leader of its predecessor, Jundullah, and has since carried out bombings, ambushes and suicide attacks against Iranian police, border guards and the Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian state-linked media have sought to downplay the significance of the merger, portraying it as a rebranding of weakened factions aimed at attracting foreign backing. Some outlets have alleged links to Israeli intelligence, a claim the groups deny.
Shift in strategy
Security analysts say the emergence of the Popular Fighters Front reflects an attempt by Baluch militants to broaden their appeal beyond a narrowly defined Sunni ethnic insurgency.
Recent statements from the group have adopted more inclusive language, addressing Kurds, Arabs, Turks and other minorities and framing their struggle in terms of shared political and economic marginalization.
The shift follows years of intensified counterinsurgency operations by Iranian forces in Sistan-Baluchestan, including arrests, cross-border pressure near Pakistan, and heightened surveillance. Despite this, militant groups have continued to demonstrate the capacity to stage deadly attacks.
Iran’s southeast remains one of the country’s poorest regions, with longstanding grievances over discrimination, underdevelopment and heavy-handed security policies.
These tensions flared during the nationwide protests of 2022, when security forces carried out lethal crackdowns in Baluch and Kurdish areas.
According to an article by US-based Al-Monitor news website this week, while transforming a Baluch-based insurgency into a national movement would require organizational depth and cross-ethnic networks that militant groups have historically lacked, the new coalition “adds a layer of political complexity” for Tehran.