Trump holds off planned Iran strike as Arab allies buy Tehran time

“As for those who chant that we should not negotiate — if we do not negotiate, what should we do? Fight until the end? We negotiate with dignity,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in an address to an event held in Tehran.

“It is not logical to say we will not negotiate,” he said. “We are capable of defending the nation’s rights with the people’s backing. We must speak logically and receive a logical answer.”

His comments come amid a fragile ceasefire in the six-week war between Iran and the US and Israel, with Pakistan-mediated efforts to reach a final deal unsuccessful despite exchanges of US and Iranian proposals.

Hardline figures have opposed further talks without major US concessions. Mohammad Ali Jafari, a former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said Monday no further negotiations should take place unless Iran’s conditions were met.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, deputy head of parliament’s National Security Committee, said Sunday talks would be futile unless sanctions were lifted and blocked Iranian assets were released.

Adversaries exploit division

Pezeshkian tied the push for talks with the United States to a broader call for national unity, warning that Iran’s adversaries could exploit internal divisions more effectively than military attacks.

“We stand with dignity against foreigners, we negotiate, and we will defend the nation’s rights,” he said.

“We will stand against any aggression with unity and cohesion,” he added. “They cannot occupy the country with missiles and bombs, but they can with division and conflict. We must try to ensure that this unity and cohesion is not broken.”

Reports of divisions among Islamic Republic officials have emerged on multiple occasions since the war began. On March 28, reports pointed to serious disagreements between Pezeshkian and Ahmad Vahidi, the Revolutionary Guards commander who is now said to be the most powerful figure in the force.

Informed sources told Iran International at the time that the dispute stemmed from “the handling of the war and its destructive consequences for people’s livelihoods and the country’s economy.”

Three days later, Iran International received reports that Pezeshkian was frustrated at being placed in a “complete political deadlock” and that he had even been stripped of the authority to appoint replacements for government officials killed during the war.

Acknowledging damage, hardship after war

Pezeshkian said officials must be honest about the pressure Iran faces and should not claim the country has escaped harm.

“It is not the case that we have not been harmed,” he said.

He said Iran had sustained damage to energy and industrial infrastructure following Israeli-US airstrikes.

“We must take on a war footing,” he said. “They hit 230 million cubic meters of our gas; they hit our power plant, petrochemical facility and Mobarakeh Steel.”

“One cannot claim that we have no problems and that they are being destroyed,” he added.

He said Iran would not back down but must manage the country with prudence.

“One cannot say the enemy is being destroyed and we are flourishing,” he said. “They have problems and we also have problems. We will by no means bow our heads.”

The acknowledgment contrasted with Iran’s public victory narrative after the ceasefire, even as the country's economy had been battered, prices had risen and factories, power plants, railways, airports and bridges had been destroyed.

Oil exports squeezed as fuel shortfall deepens

Pezeshkian said Iran was under mounting economic pressure, with oil exports constrained.

“They closed the route and we are not exporting oil either,” he said. “We cannot export oil easily. Saying that we have not encountered any problem is one of those statements.”

He added that strikes on Iran's gasoline production facilities had deepened the country's fuel shortfall, with daily output at 100 million liters against demand of 150 million liters.

“Our gasoline production capacity has decreased. They hit it,” he said.

Reuters reported that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports had cut Iran’s oil exports by more than 80% over April 13-25 compared with the same period in March, leaving growing volumes of crude stranded on tankers.

Iran exported 1.84 million barrels per day of crude in March, before the US military began blocking shipping traffic in and out of Iranian ports.

At least 2,707 people were executed across 17 countries in 2025, the rights group said in its annual report on the global use of the death penalty, describing the figure as the highest recorded since it began tracking executions in 1981.

Iranian authorities carried out at least 2,159 executions in 2025, more than double the figure recorded the previous year and by far the largest contributor to the global rise, according to the report.

“A shameless minority are weaponizing the death penalty to instill fear, crush dissent and punish marginalized communities,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said.

Drug-related executions drove increase

A resurgence of punitive anti-drug policies, Amnesty said, fueled much of the increase in executions globally.

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  Abroad they talk, at home they hang

Nearly half of all known executions in 2025 – 1,257 cases – were linked to drug-related offenses, including in Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Kuwait.

Iran accounted for 998 of those executions, the highest number among countries identified in the report.

Saudi Arabia carried out at least 356 executions in 2025 and made extensive use of capital punishment in drug-related cases, Amnesty said.

The organization also reported increases in executions in several other countries, with Kuwait nearly tripling its total from six to 17 executions. Egypt’s number rose from 13 to 23, Singapore’s from nine to 17 and the United States from 25 to 47.

The report did not include the thousands of executions Amnesty believes continued to take place in China, which it said remained the world’s leading executioner.

Executing states remain minority

Despite the sharp rise in executions, Amnesty said countries carrying out the death penalty remained “an isolated minority.”

China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United States, Vietnam and Yemen have all carried out executions every year for the past five years, according to the report.

Four countries resumed executions in 2025 – Japan, South Sudan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates – bringing the total number of executing states to 17.

“It’s time for executing countries to step into line with the rest of the world and leave this abhorrent practice in the past,” Callamard said.

Amnesty highlights abolition efforts

The global trend toward abolishing the death penalty nevertheless continued, Amnesty said.

When the organization began campaigning against capital punishment in 1977, only 16 countries had abolished it. That number has now risen to 113, according to the report.

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  Iran executes at least five in week of wartime crackdown

Vietnam abolished the death penalty for eight offenses including drug transportation, bribery and embezzlement, while Gambia removed capital punishment for murder, treason and other offenses against the state.

The organization also pointed to legislative efforts in Lebanon and Nigeria aimed at abolishing the death penalty, while Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court ruled attempts to restore executions unconstitutional.

“With human rights under threat around the world, millions of people continue to fight against the death penalty each year in a powerful demonstration of our shared humanity,” Callamard said.

The operation, led by Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit, involved 19 countries and focused on content used to spread propaganda, recruit supporters and raise funds.

The material, Europol said, appeared across social media, streaming services, blogs and websites in several languages, including Persian, English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

The content, it said, included AI-generated videos glorifying the IRGC, political messaging, calls for revenge over Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and material linked to allied groups including Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Europol said the IRGC’s main X account, which had more than 150,000 followers, was withheld in the EU, while thousands of other links had been removed or were under review.

Investigators also identified cryptocurrency transactions used to support online operations, Europol said.

A report by Peyam-e Ma documents a growing trend in which 40–60 square meter apartments are being split between unrelated occupants as rent levels outpace incomes and turn standard tenancy into negotiated cohabitation.

Conditions reshape tenancy norms

In one case cited by the report, a landlord in a central district of Tehran asked for a deposit of 1,000,000,000 rials (about $550) and monthly rent of 50,000,000 rials ($28) for a shared arrangement, alongside strict conditions including limited visitors, full-time employment, and no pets.

The minimum wage in Iran is currently around $90 per month.

Another listing involved a 50-square-meter apartment where the owner offered reduced rent in exchange for domestic work. The monthly payment was set at 70,000,000 rials ($39), down from 120,000,000 rials ($67) if cooking duties were included.

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  Skyrocketing rents push Iranians back to parents’ homes, shared housing

A separate case involved a duplex property being partially rented out for a deposit of 3,000,000,000 rials ($1,667) and monthly rent of 150,000,000 rials ($83), with cohabitation offered to another couple.

From coping mechanism to structural pressure

A deputy head of Iran’s real estate brokers’ association told Peyam-e Ma that shared housing can be understood as a lifestyle choice seen in other countries, noting its historical presence in Iran as well.

But the report highlights a widening gap between that framing and current conditions, with landlords increasingly using cohabitation models to cover mortgage payments and living costs, while tenants accept reduced privacy in exchange for affordability.

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Exit from Tehran’s rental market

Brokers interviewed for the report say some tenants are leaving the capital altogether or returning to smaller cities as rents rise beyond sustainable thresholds. Others, particularly single occupants, are moving back into parental homes.

One housing expert quoted in the report warns that continued displacement from urban centres could accelerate informal settlement growth around major cities, describing it as an emerging phase of housing exclusion rather than a temporary adjustment.

Another analyst argues that prolonged multigenerational living has masked underlying demand for independent housing, particularly among younger Iranians delaying marriage or household formation due to cost barriers.

This suppressed demand, he said, is becoming more visible as household structures shift and single-person living increases, exposing shortages in affordable rental stock.

Rising pressure on tenants

Data referenced in the report from Iran’s statistics authority indicates that roughly 51 percent of Tehran residents are renters, underscoring the city’s dependence on the private rental sector.

With average monthly rents for standard apartments ranging between 180,000,000 and 270,000,000 rials ($100–$150), costs now far exceed minimum wages reported at around 166,000,000 rials ($92).

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  Tehran residents face eviction from hotels after war damage

Inflation in rent prices is recorded at 31.1 percent year-on-year, but market participants in the report say this figure reflects affordability limits rather than easing pressure, as tenants are unable to absorb further increases.

Poverty exposure among renters

Refering to a parliamentary research, the report says that around 27 percent of renting households fall below the poverty line under conventional measures, rising to roughly 40 percent when housing costs are included.

It also adds that the majority of low-income renters are concentrated in the bottom income deciles, with Tehran accounting for the largest share.

The spread of shared housing is therefore presented not as an isolated social shift, but as part of a broader tightening of access to independent accommodation in Iran’s largest urban centre.

The shortages follow repeated disruptions in the production and distribution chain of opium syrup, a drug widely used in Iran’s maintenance treatment programs for patients who cannot easily switch to alternatives such as methadone because of physical dependence or medical complications.

Experts and addiction treatment activists warned the shortages are no longer only a clinical problem but a broader social crisis with potential consequences for public health, crime and family stability.

“These medications are essential for patients and stopping access does not mean they stop using drugs,” addiction expert Habib Bahrami told Shargh. “In many cases they return directly to narcotics use, bringing social, economic and family consequences.”

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  Drug prices jump up to 400% as shortages strain Iranian pharmacies

Some clinics, according to the report, have seen supplies fall so sharply that only one out of every 100 eligible patients can obtain opium syrup.

Patients pushed back toward illicit drugs

Bahrami said shortages had already emerged before the recent regional conflicts and economic pressures intensified.

“Before the war we were already seeing reduced supplies,” he said. “In some medical universities, opium syrup distribution was nearly halted before the Persian New Year (late March) without explanation.”

Patients unable to obtain the medication, he said, often return to street narcotics markets to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms, undermining years of treatment and increasing pressure on healthcare.

Methadone syrup continues to be distributed more consistently, Bahrami said, but many patients cannot easily transition to substitute medications.

Supply chain problems deepen shortages

Activists and treatment providers offered differing explanations for the shortages, with some blaming administrative restrictions and others pointing to shortages of raw materials used in production.

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Abbas Deilamizadeh, head of the addiction recovery NGO Tavallod-e Dobareh (Rebirth Society), said insufficient access to raw opium materials has sharply reduced production and fueled the emergence of a black market.

“The shortage of raw materials has caused shortages in the market and created serious problems for patients,” Deilamizadeh told Shargh.

He argued that tighter state oversight of legal cultivation could provide a long-term solution.

“The only solution, in my view, is government-supervised poppy cultivation to supply the raw materials needed for this treatment method,” he said.

Addiction centers face mounting pressure

Treatment providers also warned that financial pressures and recent regional conflict have weakened addiction recovery services more broadly.

Deilamizadeh said many residential treatment centers are struggling with unrealistic state tariffs that fail to cover operational costs amid high inflation.

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  Iranians question official inaction over opium epidemic

“For a 30-day stay, less than 100 million rials ($55) is allocated per patient,” he said. “That amount does not realistically cover accommodation, utilities, staff and treatment standards.”

He also said voluntary admissions to treatment centers have dropped sharply in recent months because of insecurity and public anxiety linked to regional military escalation.

“Based on our experience, voluntary admissions have fallen by around 40 percent,” he said.

Bahrami said some centers discharged patients during periods of heightened military tension and avoided taking new admissions because of security concerns.

“When society is overwhelmed by war-related fears, vulnerable groups are pushed further to the margins,” he said.