Trump says Iran should strike deal or face June-style action

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Friday called on Middle Eastern countries to "thing big" and "not let this moment pass" for a regime change in Iran.

"I'm going to Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia next week. Here's the message, if we can get it through diplomacy, fine, but we've had it with this regime. Think big. The people are the difference," he told a panel moderated by Christiane Amanpour.

"When we started this debate, Crown Prince, the people had not spoken. They've spoken with their lives. How much more can they speak? They've been shot down the street like dogs. These are the people you want to help. These are the people that will change history."

"So, what I'm going to tell anybody will listen in the Mideast, don't let this moment pass. Be smart, but don't be locked down with fear and as to MBs and MBZ. Knock it off. Saudi Arabia, knock it off. I'm tired of this crap."

Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi in a townhall moderated by Christiane Amanpour openly called for international intervention to dismantle the Islamic Republic’s repression apparatus, saying Iranians are waiting for President Trump to act.

"I think the reason it hasn't happened yet is perhaps because, first of all, mobilizing for it is not an easy affair... But most importantly, I think President Trump realizes that he needs to convince the whole world that are given a diplomatic solution or diplomatic effort, a maximum chance," he said during the panel held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

"We will have to see to what extent Iranians, from their side, are willing to settle for what has been asked. I don't see it very likely that they will actually come even close to what are the demands, which will then say, look, by diplomatic means, we haven't managed to get it done," he added.

If US President Donald Trump does not deliver on his promises and lets the Iranian regime survive, “it will be a disaster," Republican Senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham told Politico Pub in Munich.

“It means you can’t rely on America. It means the Western World is full of crap. All they do is talk and when rubber meets the road they don’t do a damn thing.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday he met with exiled Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi in Munich on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

"Ukraine supports the Iranian people as they are fighting for their future; we also express our sympathy to all the victims of the Iranian regime," Zelenskyy said in a post on his X account.

"During our conversation, we focused on the situation in Iran and the areas where the Iranian people need support. We discussed the importance of strengthening sanctions against the Iranian regime and any other dictatorial regimes."

"We condemned the cooperation between Russia and Iran, in particular the supply of “shaheds” by the Iranian regime to Russia and the granting of licenses for their production," he said.

Zelenskyy described such a partnership as "a real threat not only to Ukraine but to the entire region."

"I thank the Crown Prince of Iran for supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It is vital to make every effort to protect human lives. Ukraine is ready to help on its part."

Freelancers across Iran lost foreign contracts and saw income dry up during January’s internet shutdown, digital workers told Iran International, as weeks offline cut their access to projects and payments in an economy already hit by global isolation.

Iran’s internet, throttled for 20 days during January’s mass killing of protesters, has been restored since earlier this month, but remains unstable, with VPNs and other censorship-bypassing tools now far harder to access than before the shutdown.

“The internet is not stable enough for me to confidently take on projects, and transferring money has become so complicated that the losses outweigh the income,” one electrical engineer working as a freelancer told Iran International, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Iranian entrepreneurs and freelancers are mostly shut out of global platforms and payment systems due to US sanctions, forcing them to depend on expensive workarounds that put their businesses at risk.

The engineer said that before the shutdown, earnings depended on the size and complexity of each contract.

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