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Around 200 striking contract workers from Iran’s South Pars gas field in Asaluyeh have been held by the IRGC in industrial warehouses since mid-January, the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
“A spokesperson for South Pars workers stated that detainees are being kept in large industrial warehouses with limited access to water and food during the day. Approximately 200 workers remain in detention, raising serious concerns among labor activists about their conditions,” the report said.
“Unofficial South Pars workers reportedly earn an average of about $125 per month and, in some cases, do not receive housing allowances, standard overtime payments, or other benefits,” the report added.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz criticized Iran’s election as vice-chair of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, saying the move underscored the need to “clean house” at the UN.
“This is why we have to clean house at the UN. We are putting in a reform agenda. President Trump’s direction – 3,000, by the way, UN Headquarters’ bureaucrats are now being cut, first budget cut in history,” Waltz said in an interview on Fox Business.
“Some of these committees are just unreformable. It’s why we’re not participating. It’s why we walked away from, for example, the Human Rights Council, where we’re seeing a lot of this ridiculousness,” he added.
Turning to Iran diplomacy, Waltz said any potential agreement would have to extend beyond curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Iran has to give up its enrichment capability. It has to give up its already enriched, highly enriched uranium… also its support for terrorism, and its long-range ballistic missiles, all of those things,” Waltz said.
Iranians and the government held rival ceremonies Tuesday marking the 40th day after the January 8–9 protest killings, with families staging independent memorials as officials organized a state event critics called an attempt to “appropriate” the victims.
Security forces opened fire and imposed internet disruptions as Iranians held ceremonies marking 40 days since the January protest killings, while officials organized state-led commemorations for those they described as “martyrs.”
In the Kurdish town of Abdanan in Ilam province, activists and witnesses said security forces fired live rounds to disperse hundreds of mourners gathered at a cemetery.
Videos and accounts shared online appeared to show people fleeing as gunfire rang out during chants of “Death to Khamenei.”
Unconfirmed reports said several participants were seriously injured and that a 22-year-old man, Saeed-Reza Naseri, had been killed.
Reports of clashes and gunfire also emerged from Mashhad, where social media users said security forces confronted mourners.
Internet access was severely disrupted in both cities, according to users and monitoring accounts, continuing a pattern seen during previous periods of unrest.
At the same time, the government organized its own official ceremonies, including a state event Tuesday at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Prayer Grounds attended by senior officials such as First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani and Esmail Qaani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
A parallel ceremony was held at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
State media and senior officials have described the January unrest as an “American-Zionist sedition.” Participants at the official ceremony chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and the event featured Quran recitations, religious eulogies and official tributes.
The official commemorations contrasted sharply with independent ceremonies held by families, which often included music, clapping and traditional mourning rituals.
Others questioned official claims that “terrorists” were responsible for the deaths, pointing to continued security pressure on families attempting to hold independent memorials.
Online, many Iranians accused authorities of attempting to control the narrative of the killings. “They kill and then send text messages inviting people to attend a 40th-day ceremony,” one user wrote on social media.
Despite the pressure, families of those killed held independent memorials in cemeteries across Tehran and dozens of other cities and towns. Participants in several locations chanted slogans including “Death to the dictator” and carried photos of victims, many of them young.
In Najafabad in Isfahan province, a large crowd marched toward a cemetery holding portraits of those killed. Demonstrators chanted: “We didn’t surrender lives to compromise, or to praise a murderous leader,” according to videos circulating online.
Users reported a heavy security presence at cemeteries nationwide, and in some cases closures intended to prevent crowds from assembling.
Rights groups and social media accounts said families faced pressure from security agencies to limit gatherings or avoid overtly political messaging.
The parallel ceremonies underscored the continuing divide between the state’s portrayal of the unrest and the experience of families and communities still mourning those killed.
US Vice President JD Vance says Iran is not yet willing to acknowledge some of President Donald Trump’s red lines following the latest round of negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
“In some ways it went well, they agreed to meet afterwards, but in other ways it was very clear that the President has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News.
He said Washington’s primary objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“Our primary interest here is we don’t want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. We don’t want nuclear proliferation. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, there are a lot of other regimes, some friendly, some not so friendly, who would get nuclear weapons after them. That would be a disaster for the American people,” he added.
Vance said the United States would prefer to resolve the standoff through diplomacy but stressed that all options remain on the table.
“We would very much like, as the President has said, to resolve this through a conversation and a diplomatic negotiation, but the President has all options on the table,” he said.
"But of course, the president reserves the ability to say when he thinks that diplomacy has reached its natural end. We hope we don't get to that point. But if we do that, will be the President's call," he added.
Switzerland’s foreign minister said he raised concerns over arrests and deaths linked to protests in Iran earlier this year in talks with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Tuesday.
"While acknowledging differing views on this matter, I emphasized the importance of protecting the civilian population from all forms of violence and upholding fundamental rights and freedoms," Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said in a post on X.
Cassis said he also welcomed the prospect of further rounds of US-Iran talks, saying continued dialogue is an important step toward regional de-escalation.
