Iran air force chief says talks under threat are unacceptable

Iran’s armed forces general staff said in a statement on Tuesday that the country would respond forcefully to any “threat, plot, and excessive demand,” amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The armed forces, the statement said, would “stand powerfully and with steadfastness” and would meet threats “with a more crushing and broader response.”

The general staff also called on Iranians to take part in rallies marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi on Monday urged US President Donald Trump to order military action against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), saying strikes on the force are needed to support civilians protesting the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt on Salem News Channel, Pahlavi said only US military intervention could “level the playing field” between protesters and the state’s security forces, which he described as the government’s main instrument of repression.

“This is a genocide in the making. And the only thing that will equalize the playing field for these brave Iranians who are fighting for their own liberation is to have assistance that is needed help at this time to neutralize elements that the regime has used against its own citizenry to brutalize them the way they have,” Pahlavi said.

"This is the reason why the Iranian people have been anxiously awaiting the action that the president has promised he will do in support of the Iranian people that help will arrive," he added.

Pahlavi dismissed recent threats by Iranian authorities, including an AI-generated video depicting attacks on US naval forces, as what he described as propaganda from a weakening government.

New analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), published on Monday, shows that all known entrances to the underground tunnel complex at Iran’s Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center have been completely backfilled with earth.

"High-resolution commercial satellite imagery taken on February 8–9 indicates that the middle and southern tunnel entrances are fully covered and no longer recognizable, while the northernmost entrance has also been buried, blocking internal access to the complex," the report said.

According to the report, no vehicle activity was visible around the entrances at the time the imagery was collected.

The report said the work is a systematic effort to harden the underground complex against potential aerial attack and to complicate access by ground forces. The project was previously observed at the northern entrance and has now been extended across the entire site.

The report said that it is possible, though unconfirmed, that equipment or materials were moved into the tunnels before the entrances were sealed.

“Esfahan houses key facilities for uranium conversion, fuel fabrication and other nuclear activities,” the ISIS report said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard intelligence organization and the Intelligence Ministry have pressured families of those detained during nationwide protests to attend the state-organized February 11 rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution, sources close to the families told Iran International.

Security officials informed several families their presence at the February 11 march must be “verifiable,” including by taking photos and videos of themselves at the rally and sending them to security bodies, the sources said.

The sources said officials coupled the demand with threats and psychological pressure, telling families that only if they comply might their detained relatives be released, spared execution, or see their sentences reduced.

The reported pressure comes amid what Iran International has previously documented as an intensifying crackdown following nationwide protests, including mass arrests and a rise in reported deaths in custody. Observers have said the trend may signal a broader “purge” phase aimed at eliminating evidence of a bloody suppression.

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Ali Karami, 26, who was shot and killed by Iran’s security forces on January 8, had one wish: “If I die before my dog,” he said, “let her see my lifeless body.”

He said it in a video posted to Instagram in October 2024, narrating as he played tug-of-war with his dog, Ariel—laughing, absorbed in an ordinary moment of life.

After his death, the video spread widely across Iranian social media, capturing the public imagination as viewers returned to his words with disbelief.

Karami believed dogs understand death, and that without seeing him, she might think he had simply abandoned her.

He may have contemplated the possibility of dying young, but not like this—not shot in the street, his private reflection transformed into a national elegy.

Karami was an auto repair mechanic and a devoted dog lover who rescued stray animals. Originally from Kermanshah Province, in the country’s Kurdish region, he later moved to Tehran for school and work.

His Instagram account, @alikaramiservis, offers a window into his daily life—his pride in his craft, his affection for dogs, and his love of nature and music, including the songs of Dariush Eghbali.

It is also a record of one of the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets demanding freedom and were met with bullets.

Karami was reportedly trying to protect an elderly woman when he was shot and killed.

In many of his photos, Ariel—the dog he referred to as his daughter—is never far from his side. They play ball, cook, or simply share quiet time at the repair shop: fragments of an unremarkable, joyful life.

“She understands death,” Karami says in the October video. “If she does not see my lifeless body, she will think I abandoned her and will keep waiting for me to come back.”

“That’s a friendship without limits,” he adds. “Pure loyalty.”

Karami’s final post, dated December 30, shows him proudly displaying his work: a car he had restored at Sehand Car Clinic in Tehran.

From February 8 onward, the account appears to have been run by family members or friends. That day, they posted a tribute video showing Karami dancing, exercising, and spending time with Ariel. They also reposted the October video—his voice now echoing with an unintended prophecy.

This time, there was an ending.

The final images show Ariel lying at Karami’s gravesite.

Just as he had asked.

In the most tragic way, a fate he once spoke of—unknowingly—was fulfilled.