Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, a physician-turned-politician, said in the olden days a doctor working in a remote area made six thousand dollars a month while “as president, now I make a thousand dollars a month.”
Iran’s economy has faced accelerating inflation and a sharp currency slide in recent years, deepening pressure on households.
When Pezeshkian took office in July 2025, the exchange rate was around 600,000 rials to the US dollar. Today, it has weakened to more than 1,600,000 rials per dollar.
The United Nations said a congratulatory letter sent by Secretary-General António Guterres to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Revolution was a routine diplomatic gesture and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Tehran’s policies.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told Iran International that the message, sent on Iran’s national day, followed a decades-long protocol applied uniformly to all UN member states.
According to the spokesperson’s office, each country receives an identically worded letter on its national day. The messages are prepared in advance and do not signal any shift in the United Nations’ position toward a particular government.
“The letter should not be interpreted by anyone who receives it as an endorsement of whatever policies that government may be putting in place,” Dujarric said during the UN’s daily noon briefing.
The clarification came as Iran faces renewed scrutiny over crackdowns, arrests and reports of repression.
In recent weeks, families across the country have mourned losses, while human rights groups have documented detentions and what they describe as heavy-handed security measures.
News of the letter triggered backlash from activists and members of the Iranian diaspora, who argued that even if the message followed established administrative practice, its timing appeared insensitive given the political tension and public grief inside Iran.
They said the congratulatory tone risked being seen as disconnected from the reality faced by many Iranians demanding accountability and political change.
State-affiliated media in Iran widely amplified the letter, portraying it as a sign of international legitimacy. The coverage further fueled criticism from those who say such messaging can be instrumentalized for domestic political purposes.
The United Nations has repeatedly raised concerns about Iran’s human rights record, including through reports by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and discussions at the Human Rights Council and General Assembly.
UN officials maintain that diplomatic protocol operates separately from the organization’s human rights monitoring mechanisms.
Still, the episode underscores the tension between institutional diplomatic practice and the sensitivities surrounding governments facing sustained domestic unrest and international criticism.
This keeps it firmly in straight news territory, sharpens the opening, clarifies the backlash, and tightens the language without shifting tone.
Free expression group ARTICLE 19 said China has spent more than a decade helping Iran build one of the world’s most restrictive internet control systems, supplying technology and a governance model used for censorship, surveillance and shutdowns.
The report released on Monday, titled “Tightening the Net: China’s Infrastructure of Oppression in Iran,” traces cooperation dating back to at least 2010 and says Chinese firms supplied or supported equipment and know-how used for internet filtering, deep packet inspection, centralized traffic management, and mass surveillance.
It named companies including ZTE, Huawei, Tiandy, and Hikvision, and describes how Iran built out a tightly controlled “National Information Network” designed to function as a domestic intranet while progressively limiting access to the open, global internet.
“In its pursuit of total control over the digital space, Iran borrows directly from the Chinese digital authoritarian playbook,” Michael Caster, head of ARTICLE 19’s China program, said in the report.
The organization said Tehran’s embrace of Beijing’s “cyber sovereignty” concept – the idea that governments should have near-total authority over online information flows within their borders – has helped normalize censorship and surveillance in international forums.
“Emulating China’s infrastructure of oppression helps Iran entrench power, sidestepping accountability and exercising full control over the information environment. That way, dissent is not just silenced, it is prevented from ever surfacing,” said Mo Hoseini, the head of the group’s Resilience department said.
ARTICLE 19 said the technology and institutional alignment have become more visible during major crackdowns, including the recent wave of protests that began late December.
The group said authorities responded with widespread violence and arrests, and then escalated to nationwide network interference on January 8, 2026, followed by broad disruption of internet, phone, and mobile networks by January 11, cutting off communications as security forces moved to suppress dissent.
The report said the latest blackout showed a level of centralized control that reached beyond social media and messaging, affecting essential services including banking, healthcare, and emergency response.
It added that Iran has repeatedly used shutdowns during earlier periods of unrest, including during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests and demonstrations in 2019-2020, but argued the 2026 disruption was broader and more aggressively enforced than previous episodes.
ARTICLE 19 said Iran also intensified efforts to restrict satellite connectivity. It said Starlink traffic was heavily disrupted during the crackdown and that the sophistication of the disruption suggested military-grade capabilities.
The report said authorities also seized satellite equipment door-to-door and imposed harsh penalties under a 2025 law criminalizing the possession of satellite internet terminals.
While the group said China’s direct role in the specific Starlink disruption was not confirmed, it argued that Chinese assistance has been central to the foundations of Iran’s internet control architecture, and that Beijing continues to provide a template for the state’s approach to “digital authoritarianism.”
The report describes Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace – established in 2012 and chaired by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – as structurally similar to China’s Cyberspace Administration of China, with both bodies overseeing centralized filtering, restrictions on foreign platforms, and the expansion of state-approved domestic alternatives.
It said Iran’s National Information Network increasingly mirrors features associated with China’s “Great Firewall,” including embedded surveillance and mechanisms to compel service providers to share data or throttle traffic.
The organization said the spread of surveillance and censorship tools risks entrenching repression inside Iran while eroding broader norms of internet freedom.
It also called for stronger export controls and sanctions enforcement targeting suppliers of surveillance and filtering technologies, greater corporate transparency, and increased support for secure circumvention tools and resilient connectivity options for Iranians during shutdowns.
The Canadian Senate held a hearing on Tuesday on a new immigration and border security bill with much of the discussion focusing on individuals allegedly linked to the Islamic Republic living freely in Canada.
The bill, dubbed C-12, introduces strict asylum filing deadlines, shifts many decisions to paper-based reviews, expands border officers’ powers to search digital devices without judicial oversight, and allows the government to suspend visas and permits for public interest reasons.
Among those who testified were Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a lawyer and president of the International Centre for Human Rights, Timothy McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group; as well as representatives from Amnesty International and the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
“Thousands of Iranians have been killed in the streets simply for protesting, while at the same time individuals affiliated with the Iranian regime are able to live comfortably in Canada and benefit from Canadian values,” Zarezadeh said.
He called the bill’s emphasis on asylum deadlines a “misdirection” and said Canada already has tools to identify and deport Islamic Republicagents — the failure is in “weak visa screening systems prior to entry.”
Other witnesses argued that rigid one-year claim deadlines disproportionately harm genuine refugees, especially those traumatized or suddenly displaced, while security threats often enter with fraudulent documents and evade such barriers.
While the government emphasizes the need for swift passage of the bill to address US border security concerns, the Senate committee is currently synthesizing these expert testimonies to prepare its final report.
Canada last week condemned the killing of protesters and use of violence by Iranian authorities after a video shared by Iran International showed an armored vehicle operated by Iranian security force running over demonstrators in Ardabil, northwest of Iran.
Human rights advocates in Canada are urging the country’s national police to gather evidence on Canadians linked to Iran’s repression apparatus after thousands of protesters were killed in January.
The push comes amid mounting demands for accountability after Iran International’s Editorial Board confirmed that more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8–9 crackdown, the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history.
Advocates say Canada must ensure perpetrators cannot find refuge abroad — and that Iranian Canadians have a direct avenue to report evidence.
Weeks after Iran’s bloody January crackdown, intimate tragedies are emerging from the silence, among them the story of a young auto mechanic and his dog.
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.
Hundreds of messages sent to Iran International from Iranians inside the country urge US President Donald Trump not to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, warning that talks would legitimize repression and betray protesters killed by security forces.
The messages from people inside Iran appeal directly to Trump to abandon diplomacy and instead support what they describe as a nationwide struggle for freedom and democracy.
“If you want to help the people of Iran, what does negotiating with our enemies mean?” one message from Tehran said, adding: “Negotiations with this regime only buy time for repression.”
Other messages from inside Iran cite recent protests and the deadly response by security forces, saying negotiations would legitimize a government they say has blood on its hands.
“Negotiating with this clerical government means trampling on the blood of young people killed in the streets,” one message reads.
Messages received from the city of Qazvin warn that talks would demoralize protesters and undermine months of resistance. “We came to the streets to free Iran from these criminals,” one message said. “Trading with this regime is trading with the blood of the people.”
Several messages from Tehran reference Trump’s past statements and promises, saying many Iranians trusted his rhetoric about standing for freedom.
“You said you support liberty,” one message from Tehran reads. “Please be the voice of the Iranian people. We are dying in the streets for freedom.”
A message sent from Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan offers condolences to families of those killed and urges Trump to “stand with the Iranian nation, not the Islamic Republic.”
Other messages from inside Iran warn of what they describe as a long pattern of deception, saying past deals with Iranian authorities helped ease international pressure on the Islamic Republic even as repression continued at home.
Some messages stress that the protest movement will endure even without foreign assistance. “Even if there is no outside intervention, we will stand together,” one message says.
'Not our representatives'
Across the messages, a shared demand emerges that world leaders not view the Islamic Republic as representing the Iranian people and avoid negotiations that could confer legitimacy on it.
“Please negotiate with the brave people of Iran, not with this suppressive regime,” one message says. “Do not turn a blind eye to these crimes.”
“Tell Trump that no one negotiates with a killer; killers should only be punished,” another message said.