Iran International
As Washington says a deal with Tehran is drawing closer, Iran’s supreme leader on Tuesday echoed his slain father’s call for Israel’s destruction while Hezbollah intensified drone attacks on northern Israel, raising questions over the timing.
In a fiery Hajj message, Mojtaba Khamenei described Israel as a “cancerous tumor” nearing the “final stages” of its existence, praised the October 7 attacks and repeated his father’s prediction that Israel would not survive beyond 2040.
The statement came as Hezbollah sharply increased attacks on Israel’s northern border, including explosive drone strikes near civilian communities, and as the Trump administration signaled progress toward a possible deal with Tehran.
The parallel escalation has raised questions over whether Tehran may be trying to strengthen its hand in talks with Washington, using Hezbollah as leverage while publicly hardening its posture toward Israel.
On X, Iran analyst Arash Azizi described Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement as “remarkable for how extremely eliminationist it is toward Israel, even by the regime’s standards.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to Mojtaba Khamenei's remarks by invoking the fate of his slain father and pointing to the new supreme leader’s absence from public view since the February 28 attack, which killed several members of his family and left him injured.
“Sounds familiar. I remember someone with a similar surname who used to say it. BTW, where are you?” Sa’ar wrote.
Hezbollah as leverage against US
Reuters reported Tuesday that Israeli troops had expanded ground operations beyond a demarcation line established after the April ceasefire, while Hezbollah claimed attacks on Israeli forces using explosive drones, rockets and artillery.
For Sarit Zehavi, founder of the Alma Research and Education Center, the timing of Hezbollah’s escalation is no coincidence.
“There is no doubt they are doing that under the order of Tehran,” Zehavi told Iran International.
“They intensify the attacks while there is a lot of pressure on Iran to get a deal and the gaps between the Americans and the Iranians are really big,” she said.
Zehavi argued that Iran is using Hezbollah as leverage against Washington, either to pressure the United States into concessions or to prolong negotiations while the Islamic Republic rebuilds.
“They are using Hezbollah as a leverage of pressure on the Americans."
The escalation is already having deadly consequences inside Israel. Zehavi’s cousin’s son, Staff Sgt. Noam Hamburger, 23, was killed last week by a Hezbollah drone strike near the northern border, weeks before he was due to complete his military service.
“In the process people are being killed,” Zehavi said.
Zehavi said Hezbollah’s escalation may also be intended to provoke a wider Israeli response in Lebanon, allowing Tehran to blame Israel if the diplomatic track collapses.
“They are dragging Israel to attack in Beirut at this specific time,” she said, “and that way blame Israel for any dead-end in the negotiations.”
The report described how menstruation remains shrouded in shame and silence for many Iranian girls, particularly in smaller towns and poorer communities, where limited education and cultural taboos leave adolescents unprepared for puberty.
One student in a village near Miandoab told Shargh she avoided leaving her classroom during breaks out of fear classmates would notice blood stains on her clothes. Another girl believed she had cancer when she experienced her first period.
“Absence from school is one of the first reactions many girls have when they experience menstruation,” a teacher identified as Nazanin told the newspaper. “The less awareness there is in the family, the more common this behavior becomes.”
Rising costs force unsafe alternatives
Inflation, the report said, has sharply increased the cost of sanitary pads and other hygiene products, particularly affecting women in low-income and marginalized areas.
Somayeh, a 38-year-old worker in a food packaging workshop near Tehran, said long shifts and limited bathroom access often force her to delay changing sanitary products for hours.
“When you have to choose between buying food for your children or sanitary pads for yourself, you choose food,” she said.
Social worker Mahya Vahedi said some women have turned to cloth and other non-hygienic substitutes because they cannot afford sanitary pads, leading to infections and untreated wounds.
“Buying hygiene products has become a luxury for many families,” Vahedi said.
Unlike several countries that provide free menstrual products in schools and public spaces, Iran offers almost no free access to sanitary products in schools, universities or public facilities, the report said.
Debate grows over menstrual leave
The report also highlighted growing debate around menstrual leave policies in workplaces.
Shima, an office worker interviewed by Shargh, said menstruation remains difficult to discuss openly at work despite the physical pain many women endure.
“How can part of the workforce spend several days each month working through pain and bleeding with no recognition of those conditions?” she said.
Political economy analyst Anisha Asadollahi said menstrual leave has become a point of tension between gender equality demands and Iran’s labor market realities.
Some critics, she said, fear additional labor protections for women could discourage employers from hiring them, citing past labor policies that unintentionally reduced women’s employment opportunities.
But Asadollahi argued recognizing menstrual leave remains important because workplace norms are still built around “the male body as the standard worker.”
“Giving up rights because of fear of discrimination only strengthens unequal structures,” she said.
Citing field reports from several provinces, the outlet said essential daily items including sterile gauze, specialized wound dressings, catheters, catheter bags, syringes, lubricating gel, tissues and medication for pressure sores have seen steep price increases.
The cost of these supplies, according to the report, has at least doubled or tripled over the past two months for people requiring long-term care.
The continued economic crisis has reduced access to critical medical equipment, worsening pressure sores and undermining the quality of daily care for patients, Khabar Online said.
The outlet warned that the monthly welfare payment of 25 million rials ($15) allocated for hygiene supplies no longer covers rising care costs and could lead to worsening health conditions and higher treatment expenses for people with disabilities.
In recent weeks, Iranians have told Iran International of soaring inflation, medicine shortages, sharp price increases, deepening recession, widespread job losses and disruptions caused by internet outages.
“One family cannot even find medicine for their child anymore,” one citizen said in a message to Iran International, adding that internet restrictions had cut people with mobility impairments off from their only link to society.
‘Disabled people pushed back to the Stone Age’
Some people with spinal injuries have begun reusing disposable hygiene items because of rising costs, leading to infections and secondary wounds, Behrouz Morovati, head of the Campaign for Disabled People, told Khabar Online.
Morovati said soaring diaper prices have forced some families to use makeshift alternatives such as cloth and rags.
“Because of limited access to hygiene supplies, the normal lives of disabled people have been pushed back to the Stone Age,” he said. “Even wounds that could be controlled through regular care have deepened in many cases, increasing the risk of infection, hospitalization and irreversible complications.”
Morovati had previously warned in December 2025 that 95% of people with disabilities in Iran were living below the absolute poverty line.
Patients describe mounting pressure
Khabar Online also spoke to several people with spinal cord injuries about the impact of the economic crisis on their daily lives.
Mahmoud, a resident of Qazvin with a degree in business management, said people with spinal injuries require at least four catheters and four syringes a day.
“Each catheter now costs between 120,000 and 150,000 rials and each syringe around 50,000 rials,” he said. “Those two items alone cost nearly 30 million rials ($17) a month.”
Pressure sores, he added, require daily washing, sterilization and dressing changes, which have become increasingly expensive.
“Some days I have to leave longer gaps between dressing changes or use non-standard supplies to control costs, but that only worsens my condition,” Mahmoud said. “Pain and fear of infection have become part of my daily life.”
Zahra Moradi, a psychology graduate living in Karaj, said women with spinal injuries face additional challenges under worsening economic conditions.
“Access to hygiene products during menstruation, bladder and bowel complications and limited access to healthcare all affect women’s overall health,” she said.
High medical costs and limited services, Moradi added, have also led to emotional and social distress, feelings of shame and declining self-confidence among women with spinal injuries.
