US official says Iran regime figures cannot use US visas while repressing people

Hadi and Mahdi Anjidani are co-founders of TS Information Technology, a UK-registered branch of Iranian software firm Towse’e Saman Information Technology (TSIT), which develops Gap Messenger — a domestic Iranian alternative to Telegram. The company is registered at an address in West Sussex.

While Gap Messenger claims its service is encrypted and does not share data with third parties, Iranian digital rights researchers dispute this. FilterWatch, which monitors internet censorship in Iran, has accused the app of being among entities involved in the state’s online surveillance and suppression efforts, citing leaked emails from Iran’s attorney general’s office in 2022.

Mahdi Anjidani, TSIT’s chief executive, has publicly expressed pro-government views in Iranian media and has called for tighter controls on foreign messaging apps and VPNs. The Guardian said neither brother responded to requests for comment.

Gap Messenger operates within Iran’s state-controlled “national internet”, which authorities have promoted during repeated internet shutdowns amid crackdowns on protests, according to digital rights experts.

In Iran, Mahdi Anjidani has appeared in state and tech media, describing himself as a “child of the Islamic Revolution” and praising Iran’s leadership for overcoming sanctions. His social media accounts show meetings with senior figures, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian digital rights researchers cited by the Guardian said the scale and scope of the brothers’ business interests suggest close ties to the authorities, adding that permission to operate domestic messaging platforms in Iran is limited to a small circle with strong political backing.

Iranian security forces have vandalized the gravestone of slain protester Sajad Valamanesh and continued pressuring his family to portray him as a Basij member, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International.

The source said intelligence and IRGC officials had repeatedly threatened the family over the wording on the headstone, warning they would destroy it if it was not changed. “Yesterday, several people went and covered the inscriptions with glue and plaster,” the source said, adding that the family had earlier been forced into coerced confessions and is now being pressured to say Valamanesh was a Basij member killed by “rioters.”

Valamanesh, from Lordegan in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, was shot dead by security forces during protests on January 1.

The United States is maintaining its maximum pressure policy on Iran to restrict the government’s funding for military and nuclear programs, while keeping all diplomatic options open, State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said on Thursday.

"Instead of funding water, food, energy infrastructure, the regime there has wasted their wealth on terrorist proxies, on a nuclear weapons program that was obliterated by the President," Pigott told News Max.

"We're seeing a maximum pressure policy from day one of this administration to deny the regime the revenues to do those malign activities. And we see a force posture in the region, as the Secretary said, in order to defend America's interests," he added.

President Donald Trump said the United States has held and is planning further discussions with Iran, as Washington deploys significant military assets to the region.

Asked whether he has been in talks with Iran or plans to speak with the country, Trump said: “I have had, and I am planning on it. We have a lot of very big, powerful ships sailing to Iran right now. It would be great if we didn’t have to use them.”

“Well, two things. Number one, no nuclear, and number two, stop killing protesters. They are killing them by the thousands. I stopped 837 hangings two weeks ago. But they are going to have to do something,” Trump said when asked about the message he was sending to Iran.

The United States declared a national emergency over what Washington described as threats posed by the Government of Cuba on Thursday, including its support for hostile states such as Iran, Russia and China and armed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States. The regime aligns itself with — and provides support for — numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah," the statement said.

In the executive order, Trump said Cuba’s policies and practices constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy.