UN rapporteur says military action on Iran ‘not a magic solution’
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran said she is strongly critical of any potential US military action against Iran.
"I am very critical of any kind of military action without the approval of the UN Security Council," Mai Sato said in an interview with Spanish newspaper, El País.
"When there has been military action elsewhere, it has not provided clear solutions. I do not see military action as a magic solution to resolve the problems in Iran," she added.
When asked whether the Islamic Republic had committed crimes against humanity during recent protests, Sato said, “It would be very irresponsible of me to say yes, because this is a very serious accusation that requires investigation.”
"Even if we ask ourselves 'Why can’t we define it that way?' The answer is that we don’t act that way in our own criminal justice systems either. I wouldn’t define someone as a murderer without a conviction for that crime, even if there are videos showing the alleged crime," she added.
In Iranian culture, the fortieth day after a death is a solemn threshold. Families and friends traditionally gather at the grave, laying flowers, reciting prayers and receiving visitors – a ritual of grief that is both private and communal, and that often carries religious undertones.
This week, cemeteries were only part of the picture as mourners map memory onto the sites of violence. With so many deaths concentrated in urban centers and around hospitals, intersections and residential streets, memorials have spread outward from cemeteries into the everyday fabric of cities.
Videos sent to Iran International and others circulating on social media show flowers placed not only on graves but on asphalt, sidewalks and hospital entrances – at the very spots where protesters were shot.
In Shiraz, relatives and close friends of Hamidreza Hosseinipour covered the boulevard where he was killed in petals. In Tehran’s Sadeghieh Square, citizens gathered at the traffic circle where demonstrators had been shot, laying flowers in what is normally a site of rush-hour congestion.
In Tehranpars district of the capital, mourners placed flowers and candles outside a hospital where wounded protesters were taken and where some died.
In Mazandaran province, black balloons were released into the sky.
Schools, too, became sites of commemoration. Videos show groups of schoolgirls lighting candles and singing patriotic songs, marking the chehelom inside classrooms rather than in mosques.
The sites of commemoration have widened beyond the places where many Iranians once expected mourning to unfold. Where people believe their loved ones fell, they now leave photographs, flowers or pieces of clothing.
Pavements become shrines. Traffic circles are transformed into temporary altars. Hospital gates turn into gathering points. The geography of grief has changed.
There are simply too many dead, and too many sites tied to their final moments, for remembrance to remain confined to cemetery gates.
Even when ceremonies do take place at graves, the atmosphere captured in recent videos differs sharply from older conventions of public mourning, where religious elegies used to set the tone. Today, music and movement have emerged as ways of carrying grief.
At Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran, footage shows families gathering and playing traditional musical instruments. In Najafabad, Isfahan province, mourners applauded and played music.
In Zanjan, kites were sent into the sky above the cemetery as names were read out.
In Shahreza, a video shows a traditional Qashqai dance performed during the fortieth-day memorial for 20-year-old Pouria Jahangiri, killed on January 8.
In Qarchak, near Tehran, mourners clapped in time to songs played for Hamid Nik, a resident who died after being hit during the crackdown. In another video from Najafabad, fireworks illuminate the night as people gather and chant.
In Mashhad, the memorial for Hamid Mahdavi – a firefighter whose act of carrying an injured protester on his back had spread widely online – took place not in silence but amid chants in the street: “For every one person killed, a thousand will rise behind them.”
These moments do not erase grief, they translate it.
The scenes appearing in recent weeks suggest a shift: not away from mourning itself, but away from a single, familiar language of mourning. Music, clapping, balloons released into the sky, kites and dance have become part of the ritual vocabulary.
After decades in which public mourning was steeped in official religious symbolism, the scenes in recent weeks suggest some are shaping something different: a mourning that is national in tone, public in form, and edged with defiance.
The fortieth day has long been a marker of closure in Iranian tradition – a moment when visitors thin out and life, at least outwardly, resumes.
But with flowers now laid on asphalt and candles lit at hospital doors, the boundary between mourning and daily life has blurred. The city itself has become the setting of remembrance – and, for many, the proof of how profoundly the culture of grief is changing.
Satellite images reviewed by Reuters show Iran has taken steps to repair and fortify several nuclear and military sites that were struck in last year’s conflict with Israel and the United States.
At the sensitive Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran, imagery indicates Iran has built a concrete structure over a newly constructed facility and covered it with soil. Analysts from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the work appeared aimed at shielding the site, identified as Taleghan 2, from potential airstrikes.
At the Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombed by the United States during last year’s fighting, images show that tunnel entrances have been backfilled with soil. Analysts said burying the entrances could make future airstrikes less effective and complicate any ground operation.
Near the Natanz enrichment site, satellite imagery shows ongoing efforts to strengthen tunnel entrances under a nearby mountain, with heavy equipment and construction activity visible.
Images also indicate repair work at missile bases near Shiraz and Qom that were damaged in previous strikes, including reconstruction of buildings and new roofing.
The activity comes as Washington seeks a negotiated deal with Tehran over its nuclear program while warning that military options remain on the table if diplomacy fails.
