Lawsuit alleges US chipmakers enabled Iranian drones in Ukraine

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.

The 2025 National Security Strategy reflects a narrowing of what Washington now defines as its core national interests, Taleblu said, with Iran mentioned just three times despite being labeled a central threat in Trump’s 2017 strategy.

“There’s a focus on the homeland, the Western Hemisphere, strategic competition with China and getting Europe to do more,” said Taleblu, an analyst for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington DC, adding that Iran is absent from the list of top-tier threats outlined in the document.

The strategy released this month emphasizes reducing US involvement in the Middle East in favor of focusing on great power competition with China, threats in the Western Hemisphere and urging Europe to shoulder more security responsibility.

Iran appears to have slipped down Washington’s priority list following last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which the United States briefly joined.

“It seems like, at least for the Trump administration, they’re content to take that victory lap,” Taleblu said on Eye for Iran, saying the White House is attempting to declare success and move on following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The NSS suggests Washington is ready to “turn the page” on a region that has dominated US foreign policy for decades, he added, and it credits Trump’s energy policies, regional diplomacy and limited use of force for creating political space to step back from the Middle East.

US strikes on Iran included the use of 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs carried by B-2 stealth bombers.

While President Trump has said Iran’s major nuclear sites were “obliterated,” US intelligence assessments indicate the program was set back but not completely destroyed, according to officials cited in US media reports.

Iran is believed to possess more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium whose whereabouts remain unknown, and Iranian officials have said they rebuilt its missile capacity and would respond forcefully to any future attack.

“Iran may be weakened, but it is down and not out,” Taleblu added.

The strategy document implies that major regional crises — including the Gaza war, the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, Houthi attacks from Yemen and instability in post-Assad Syria — are either resolved or on track toward resolution.

The document does not appear to assess that Iran could strongly reverse recent setbacks to its nuclear program and its so-called Axis of Resistance coalition.

While Taleblu credited the Trump administration for reviving elements of its maximum pressure campaign of sanctions, he criticized what he called gaps. Iranian oil exports have reached record highs, and the administration has not issued a single new human rights designation related to Iran in 2025.

“While the regime is threatening the life of this very president and the first family, it is beyond me to be thinking about peace and prosperity without a clear strategy to contain Iran further,” Taleblu said, “There is a lot of room for improvement when I look at both this document and the administration’s track record this year.”

Emergency services said two passengers in the taxi and nine bus passengers died shortly after the accident. The crash also injured at least 11 others with multiple traumas, all of whom are currently in urgent care.

The Scania intercity bus, operated by the Royal Safar Isfahan company and travelling from Esfahan toward Tehran, overturned around 22:10 local time near kilometer 80 of the Esfahan–Natanz route, then collided with a passenger car, official media cited local police and provincial officials as saying.

The Iranian Red Crescent said the remaining occupants suffered injuries of varying severity and were taken to hospitals in Natanz, Shahinshahr and Isfahan.

Police account

A senior traffic police official told state media that the preliminary hypothesis is that the driver’s drowsiness and loss of control caused the bus to veer into the opposite lane, overturn and strike the car, but added that the final conclusion will depend on full technical and safety assessments.

Authorities said the scene has been cleared and traffic restored, while forensic and road-safety teams continue to inspect the vehicle, road conditions and possible mechanical factors.

Officials have said that if any negligence by the bus company, driver or other parties is confirmed, the case will be pursued through legal channels.

Iran’s Vice President on Tuesday in Tehran recalled a similar deadly accident in October in northern Iran, rejecting the driver fatigue theory.

“Is the driver to blame, when it’s apparently noted that this accident occurred about 20 minutes after he passed the police station? That would mean drowsiness, which is being raised as the issue, was not involved,” Mohammad Reza Aref said in a speech.

“A few months ago in Semnan we had a similar case, when they were going from the dormitory to class and the same thing happened and students were killed,” he added.

At least 26 students have died in 13 accidents involving university buses across Iran over the past decade, the daily Ham-Mihan reported earlier this year, reviving concerns about road safety and vehicle standards.

“We are in a propaganda war and a spiritual war,” Khamenei said during a meeting in Karaj on Monday which local media published the next day.

“The enemy understood that seizing this land and this country through pressure and military tools is not possible.”

Khamenei said Iran’s adversaries had shifted their focus to influencing public opinion and culture. His remarks appeared to refer to the United States and Israel.

Iran's two nemeses launched a surprise attack in June, culminating in US attacks on three key nuclear facilities. Though US President Donald Trump said the raids obliterated Tehran's capability, a dispute festers over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Tehran denies seeking a bomb but the United States along with other Western countries and Israel deny its intentions. Trump has vowed to attack Iran again if it restarts uranium enrichment and Iran has denied a punishing response in any war.

“If they want to interfere and achieve success, they must change hearts and minds,” he said. He said pressure on Iran was ongoing in the military, economic and media realms as well as in cyberspace and the foreign press.

“All of this is focused on one point, and that point is pressure on the resistance of nations, with the Iranian nation foremost,” he said. Khamenei said the ultimate goal of such efforts was to erode Iran’s revolutionary and religious identity.

“The enemy’s objective in our country is to gradually turn people away from the revolution, its goals and its memory,” he said. He called on supporters of the Islamic Republic to recognize what he described as the adversaries’ strategy and to strengthen Iran’s cultural and media response.

The veteran theocrat, 86, has long accused Tehran's adversaries of seeking regime change by sowing the seeds of protest and discontent. Iran for over a quarter century has quashed repeated rounds of widespread unrest with deadly force.

Authorities stepped up a crackdown on dissidents and alleged spies in the wake of the June conflict even as it has relaxed enforcement of certain Islamic cultural rules in the theocracy in a move opposed by some hardliners.

Khamenei's remarks come as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesman said last month that Tehran's archenemy, Israel, is in no position to launch a new war against the country, describing current rhetoric as psychological pressure rather than a genuine military threat.

Nayeb Askari, who is serving a 15-year sentence at Orumiyeh Central Prison in northwest Iran formally informed prison authorities that he had started a hunger strike and sewed his lips on December 13, France-based rights group Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said.

In a letter to prison officials, Askari said he had been barred from family visits for the past year without explanation and that repeated requests for temporary prison leave had gone unanswered. He launched the hunger strike after prison authorities failed to respond to his complaints, he added.

Askari, from Orumiyeh, was arrested on March 24, 2021, by intelligence agents from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was initially held at the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi detention center for three months, where he was allegedly subjected to physical and psychological torture, according to KHRN.

"He was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture in order to extract forced confessions," KHRN said. "He was also denied access to a lawyer and contact with his family during this period," the rights group added.

Askari's arrest followed his return to Iran from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq after receiving what the rights group described as a “safe-conduct letter” arranged through the IRGC.

Iranian authorities initially sentenced Askari to death in absentia in 2018 on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) linked to alleged membership in the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), according to KHRN. The sentence was later overturned, and the charge was amended to “armed insurrection” (baghi).

In October 2023, Askari was again sentenced to death on the same charge, prompting a brief hunger strike. The Supreme Court later overturned the ruling for a second time and referred the case to another court branch.

In mid-October 2024, Askari was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 900 million rials (about $700) on charges of “armed insurrection,” the rights group said.

KHRN said Askari has previously staged prolonged hunger strikes in detention, including a 32-day strike in 2021 to protest authorities’ refusal to transfer him to an external hospital for medical treatment.