No immunity for those threatening Israel, Netanyahu warns

Iran’s president gave the first public account of a recent meeting with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since the strikes that killed his father and reportedly wounded him.

Masoud Pezeshkian said the meeting lasted nearly two and a half hours and was held in what he described as a close and cordial atmosphere.

“What stood out to me more than anything else in this meeting was the manner, outlook and deeply humble and cordial approach of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution,” Pezeshkian said.

He added that Khamenei’s approach turned the discussion into “an atmosphere based on trust, calm, empathy and direct dialogue.”

Pezeshkian also linked the meeting to the need for unity inside the leadership, saying Khamenei’s conduct could serve as a model for the country’s management system.

“When the highest-ranking official in the country treats officials and individuals with such moral conduct, humility and a people-oriented spirit, this behavior can naturally become a model for the country’s administrative and management system,” he said.

The account comes weeks after sources told Iran International that Pezeshkian had repeatedly sought an urgent meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei but received no response. The sources said a “military council” of senior IRGC officers had imposed a security cordon around the new Supreme Leader and prevented government reports from reaching him.

Taliban and Iranian officials have collaborated on developing a mobile application capable of monitoring users inside Afghanistan, sources told Afghanistan International.

Sources in Afghanistan said the application was believed to have surveillance capabilities that could expose smartphones and internet-connected devices to monitoring systems linked to the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence.

A London-based cybersecurity expert said suspicious applications could collect sensitive information, including location data, contacts, messages, browsing history and device access permissions.

German intelligence officials have privately warned that the risk of Iran-linked attacks in Germany is more serious than the government has publicly acknowledged, according to senior German officials cited by the New York Times.

The officials said state intelligence agencies had pushed political leaders to issue stronger public warnings about possible attacks linked to the Islamic Republic.

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The officials said state intelligence agencies had pushed political leaders to issue stronger public warnings about possible attacks linked to the Islamic Republic.

A spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry said evidence of Iranian plots in Germany “has increased” during the conflict and that authorities were investigating planned Iranian operations, including against critics of Tehran living in Germany.

Senior officials also told the newspaper that European intelligence agencies had identified around 50 suspected plots linked to Iran-connected underground groups operating in Germany before the war began.

German investigators were assessing whether Iranian proxies were involved in an attack last month on an Israeli restaurant in Munich in which assailants smashed windows and threw explosive devices into the building, according to the report.

The newspaper also cited German officials as saying Iranian intelligence officers threatened and assaulted some anti-government protesters during a large demonstration in Munich earlier this year.

German officials said many of Iran’s most prominent targets in Germany were Jewish institutions, with two believed to be the subject of current plots by Iran’s leadership, according to the New York Times.

The report also said German investigators were assessing whether Iranian proxies were behind an after-hours attack last month on an Israeli restaurant in Munich, where assailants smashed windows and threw explosive devices inside.

German intelligence services have detected a growing connection between Iranian agents and organized crime in recent years, including links to biker gangs and human traffickers, officials told the newspaper.

Two officials said Iranian agents had at times approached European criminals with Iranian roots, whom they viewed as easier to recruit.

The facility, including a power substation and an alloy steel production line, was hit twice during Israeli-US attacks earlier this year, causing major disruptions to production and operations at the complex.

The report said only about 2,000 employees – mainly management and administrative staff – have returned to the site since the attacks during the war involving Iran, the US and Israel that began in late February.

Many workers have reported a sharp drop in income. Specialized technical staff who previously earned more than 100 million tomans a month – about 1 billion rials, or roughly $568 – are now receiving wages close to the legal minimum, around one-fifth of their previous pay, according to the report.

The pay cuts come as management seeks state support and unemployment insurance. Workers told Rouydad24 they fear these reduced wage calculations will permanently lower their future insurance benefits if formal mass layoffs are eventually finalized.

From steel production to the gig economy

With production lines largely inactive, a labor exodus is underway. Many former steelworkers in Isfahan have turned to driving for ride-hailing platforms to survive, while others have migrated to factories in Yazd and Khorasan provinces in search of steady work.

The uncertainty has triggered a surge in online job-seeking channels specifically for former Mobarakeh project workers. This shift highlights a deepening labor crisis in a sector that was already struggling with skilled worker emigration before the conflict began.

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Mobarakeh Steel is one of Iran’s most strategic and profitable assets, and experts warn the fallout could destabilize the broader economy. Current estimates suggest it will take at least four years for the facility to return to its pre-war operating capacity.

While the head of the government’s information office insists that salaries for over 30,000 workers are being paid in full, the company’s own public relations office was more cautious, telling Rouydad24 that while they could not confirm specific allegations, "war conditions naturally change everything."