Students rally at major Iran universities in protest

Security controls were stepped up on Sunday morning at the Seyed Khandan campus of Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran as students prepared to gather for the 40th day memorial for people killed in protests, the Khajeh Nasir newsletter reported.

Access to the campus was limited to one entrance and a number of Basij members entered the campus after coordination with security forces, according to the student newsletter.

The Basij agents were seeking to identify students and build disciplinary or legal cases, and to steer the planned gathering toward violence, the newsletter added.

Iran’s state media does not take televised confessions and is not present at detention sites, the head of Iran’s state broadcaster said on Sunday.

Peyman Jebeli rejected reports that Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting extracts confessions, saying confession-taking is not a media function.

He added that any confession or interrogation is carried out by the relevant judicial or security authorities, and that IRIB broadcasts only images and materials supplied to media outlets by those authorities.

Critics say IRIB routinely insults and discredits opponents, airs coerced confessions, and broadcasts allegations of foreign ties against dissenters.

Recent attempts by the broadcaster to discredit a widely shared video showing a father searching for his son’s body among hundreds of victims backfired, further eroding its credibility.

For many Iranians, the episode recalled 2022, when state TV aired coerced statements from relatives of Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old protester, to falsely claim she had committed suicide.

Iran and the United States remain divided over the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief in their indirect talks, but there is a possibility of reaching an interim agreement in early March, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

The official said Tehran could “seriously consider” a mix of steps aimed at addressing concerns over its nuclear program, including exporting part of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), diluting its purity level, and participating in a regional consortium arrangement.

However, the official stressed that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) “must be recognized” in any deal.

“Iran and US views differ over the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief,” the official said, without elaborating on the specific gaps.

The official said indirect talks between Tehran and Washington are expected to resume in early March and that “the possibility of reaching an interim deal exists” if differences can be narrowed.

On economic issues, the official said Iran would not hand over control of its oil and mineral resources to the United States.

At the same time, the official added that US companies could participate as contractors in Iran’s oil and gas fields, indicating potential scope for limited commercial engagement under a future agreement.

US Senator Lindsey Graham is urging President Donald Trump to move forward with military action against Iran, warning against advisers counseling restraint as the White House weighs its options, Axios reported.

Graham told Axios that “several people” around the president are advising him not to bomb Iran, but said such voices underestimate the risks of inaction.

“I understand concerns about major military operations in the Middle East given past entanglements. However, the voices who counsel against getting entangled seem to ignore the consequences of letting evil go unchecked,” Graham was quoted as saying.

The report comes as two US aircraft carriers and hundreds of warplanes are positioned in the region and Trump has been presented with military options that include targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son, according to Axios.

Senior advisers told the outlet the president has not yet made a final decision.

Graham, who recently visited Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, said he believes there is an opportunity “to bring about historic change” in Iran, but acknowledged that opposition to military action within Trump’s circle appears to be growing.

"But it's increasingly clear to me that voices opposing entanglement and the risk associated with decisive action are getting louder. Time will tell as to how this plays out."

Axios reported that some of Trump’s advisers are urging him to delay strikes and instead use the military buildup as leverage to extract concessions from Tehran.

Iran has signaled it is willing to delay uranium enrichment under strict UN nuclear watchdog supervision but insists its facilities remain on Iranian soil, Israel Hayom reported, as Washington weighs military strikes if talks fail to progress.

Citing Western sources familiar with the negotiations, the newspaper said Tehran conveyed the message to the United States via Oman after Washington expressed dissatisfaction with proposals presented in Geneva.

Under the reported offer, Iran’s enrichment facilities and centrifuges would remain in place but would not be activated during an interim period and would operate under International Atomic Energy Agency oversight.

The proposal is under review in Washington but falls short of US demands, Israel Hayom said.