Iran's national football team has received visas for its World Cup preparations in Mexico, but the US visas needed for its group-stage matches have yet to be finalized, Iranian sports outlet Varzesh 3 reported on Tuesday.
The visa documents for Iran's delegation have been delivered to Iran's embassy in Ankara, the report said.
Last month, Reuters reported, citing an Iranian football federation official that the team attended visa appointments in Ankara.
Varzesh 3 said the visa issue had been one of the main concerns for Iran's football federation in recent months and had led to the team's camp being moved from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday his country is determined to prevent individuals affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from entering the country as part of Iran's delegation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Iran is grouped with New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt, with its matches scheduled for June 16, June 21 and June 27.
Iran began its current training camp in Antalya, Turkey, on May 18 and beat Gambia 3-1 in a friendly last Friday.
The camp is scheduled to end on Thursday with a match against Mali before the team prepares to travel to Mexico, Varzesh 3 said.
Israel's new Mossad chief Roman Gofman took office Tuesday with a clear message: the campaign against Tehran is far from over, as Israel's outgoing spy chief and prime minister openly framed regime change in Iran as an achievable goal.
Gofman assumed leadership of Israel's intelligence agency with a vow to continue Mossad's covert campaign against Iran and its allies.
Israel's actions against Iran and its regional network had altered the balance of power in the Middle East, Gofman said at a welcoming ceremony.
"But the task is not yet complete. The heart of the Mossad lies in covert operations against its targets. We will safeguard that mission at all costs."
Standing beside him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the intent clearer, declaring that Iran's ruling system was destined to disappear.
"This regime of terror, whose fate is to pass from the world — and we will help it reach that destination — will not again threaten us with nuclear bombs and thousands of deadly ballistic missiles," he said.
The message echoed the farewell address of outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, who publicly framed regime change in Tehran as a possible objective.
"Regime change in Iran is a possible and achievable goal," Barnea said. "This is a possible mission, and it is clear that this will require determination, patience, and adherence to the goal."
That is the agency Gofman now inherits: one openly encouraged by Israel's leadership to keep Iran at the center of its covert war, and possibly to think beyond containment.
A soldier takes the reins
Unlike several previous Mossad directors, Gofman is not a career intelligence officer. Born in Belarus in 1976, when it was part of the Soviet Union, he immigrated to Israel with his family in 1990 and built his career in the military before serving as Netanyahu's military secretary.
His appointment has generated debate in Israel because he comes from outside the traditional Mossad establishment. Supporters see him as a battle-tested commander with firsthand experience confronting Iran and its allies, while critics question whether a close Netanyahu confidant without a traditional intelligence background should lead the country's premier spy agency.
Gofman also arrives with a reputation for personal bravery.
"He is a very brave man," Alex Winston, a news editor at The Jerusalem Post, told Iran International.
Winston pointed to Gofman's actions on October 7, when he rushed to join the fighting after learning of the Hamas attacks.
Security camera footage later released online showed him fighting Hamas at a junction in southern Israel before being wounded and evacuated for treatment.
"He literally got in his car, went downstairs to fight Hamas terrorists," Winston said.
Despite the questions surrounding his appointment, Winston believes Gofman's years of service and battlefield experience have prepared him for the role.
"The fate of Israelis around the world and the Jewish people around the world is now in his hands," he said.
What it means for Iran
For Israeli analysts who closely follow Iran, Gofman's appointment signals continuity, and perhaps escalation.
"Roman is a very hard guy against Iran," Beni Sabti, an Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told Iran International.
Sabti believes Gofman's upbringing in the Soviet Union shaped his views toward authoritarian regimes.
"We have to remember that he comes from Russia and his culture and childhood is full of experience from Soviet Union that seems so similar like the Iran regime," he said.
According to Sabti, Gofman's years as military secretary gave him an unusually close view of Israel's strategy toward Tehran. "He knows maybe more than anyone about the operations, about how Iranians think, what should Israel do."
Sabti expects Gofman to focus not only on Iran's nuclear and missile programs but also on Tehran's network of regional proxies, particularly Hezbollah.
"He has a knife between his teeth," Sabti said, using a Hebrew expression for someone relentless and aggressive.
The researcher predicted Gofman would seek to expand covert operations, intelligence gathering and agent recruitment while increasing pressure on Iran's regional activities and financial networks. He also expects the new Mossad chief to place a strong emphasis on countering Hezbollah and disrupting Iran's proxy network across the region.
Winston said confronting Tehran and preventing it from rebuilding its regional influence will remain the agency's top priority.
"We definitely have to deal with this problem. This is the utmost priority," Winston said.
"That's going to be his goal. That's his priority."
For some Iranians, Mossad has become more than an intelligence agency.
Sogand Fakheri, an Israeli-Iranian actress from the TV show Tehran, which chronicles Mossad agents inside Iran, said she regularly hears from Iranians looking for ways to help efforts against the Islamic Republic.
"A lot of Iranians inside Iran sent me messages for so long that they want to help the Mossad and how can they do it," Fakheri, who is also an Iran analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) told Iran International.
"People want to join, people want to help the Mossad, people want to cooperate with anyone who would come to help them."
An Iraqi-Iranian man indicted over nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States told FBI agents he met Ali Khamenei in Iran three days before the war began and the supreme leader was killed, according to US court documents.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, has been charged in an eight-count indictment over what US prosecutors described as his work as an operative of Tehran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both designated by Washington as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Justice Department said Al-Saadi was involved in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli sites in London and an alleged attempt to arrange attacks on US soil.
Public court filings say Al-Saadi described close relationships with Iranian and IRGC leaders. He said he was “like a son” to Qasem Soleimani, the longtime commander of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020.
According to the documents, Al-Saadi said he regularly traveled with Soleimani and was supposed to drive him to meet Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, then the leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah, on the day Soleimani and al-Muhandis were killed.
Al-Saadi also told investigators he was close to Khamenei and had met him in Iran approximately three days before the conflict began on February 28 and Khamenei was killed, the court documents said.
According to the filings, Al-Saadi was transferred to FBI custody on May 14 and taken to the United States with several electronic devices, including an Apple iPhone referred to in the documents as the “Al-Saadi Phone.”
While in FBI custody, Al-Saadi waived his Miranda rights and told US law enforcement agents he was a leader of “the resistance,” which he described as including the IRGC and its proxies, among them Kata’ib Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
He also told investigators he was responsible for media and psychological warfare against the United States, as well as strategy and military intelligence, the documents said.
Prosecutors said Al-Saadi’s phone and social media accounts contained evidence of his longstanding support for the IRGC, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as his role in planning, carrying out and promoting attacks in Europe.
The Justice Department said the phone contained videos and photos of Al-Saadi meeting with leaders of the IRGC, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Houthis, images glorifying the IRGC and Hezbollah, and material showing him as a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander with access to machine guns and other weapons.
One video cited in the filing appears to show Al-Saadi with Soleimani and Akram Abbas al-Kabi, a US-designated terrorist described by prosecutors as one of the main IRGC Quds Force operatives in Iraq, in what appeared to be an underground operations center.
The court documents also say Al-Saadi joined FaceTime calls with attackers as some European attacks were being carried out, filmed the attacks in real time, helped create and distribute propaganda videos, and discussed the timing of attacks with a Kata’ib Hezbollah contact.
In one case, prosecutors cited a video from April 18, the day of an attack on a synagogue in London, showing Al-Saadi and several other men on a FaceTime call projected on a large screen with the logo of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya in the background.
The filing says one man on the call instructed the attacker in English, telling him to take a lighter, “light it” and “throw the fourth one.”
The Justice Department said Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which claimed responsibility for several attacks, was a front for Kata’ib Hezbollah and other US-designated terrorist organizations.
Al-Saadi faces charges including conspiring to provide material support to Kata’ib Hezbollah and the IRGC, conspiring to provide material support for acts of terrorism, attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiring to bomb a place of public use, attempted destruction of property by fire or explosives, and financing terrorism.
The charges are accusations, and Al-Saadi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday night that the foundations of Iran’s ruling system had “cracked” and that it would eventually fall.
Speaking at a farewell ceremony for outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, Netanyahu said Iran had already paid a heavy price, according to a statement form the prime minister’s office.
“The foundations of this terrorist regime in Iran have cracked. It will never return to what it was, and I tell you – it will fall in the end,” Netanyahu said.
He also warned that anyone plotting against Israel would fail and pay a heavy price.
“Let anyone who plots evil against Israel know that their schemes will fail. The price they will pay will be heavy indeed,” he said.
Netanyahu praised the Mossad as one of Israel’s major global “brands” and thanked Barnea for 30 years of service, including five years as its director.
Barnea urges regime change in Iran
The outgoing Mossad chief also said Israel should remain committed to toppling Iran’s ruling system.
Barnea said the Islamic Republic was at its weakest after the recent war and that Israel should “complete the job.”
“I believed, and I still believe, that a change in the reality in Iran by virtue of toppling the regime is a possible and achievable goal,” Barnea said.
He said such a goal would require “persistence, a cool head, and commitment to the mission.”
“This mission must remain as our top priority,” he added.
By suspending talks with Washington over Israel's campaign in Lebanon, Tehran has raised the stakes of postwar diplomacy and posed a critical question: is it successfully increasing its leverage, or overplaying its hand?
President Donald Trump announced Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks following a flurry of calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intermediaries linked to the Iranian-backed group.
Hours earlier, however, Iran suspended talks with Washington, citing Israel's military operations in Lebanon and threatening to open new fronts in the conflict.
The diplomatic turmoil comes as Israel carries out its deepest military operations in Lebanon in more than two decades.
Tehran argues the operations violate the broader ceasefire framework established after the US-Iran war, while critics counter that Iran helped create the crisis by insisting Lebanon be included in ceasefire discussions and then backing Hezbollah attacks that prompted Israel's response.
Turning Lebanon into leverage
For some analysts, Iran's actions suggest a regime that believes it emerged from the war with more leverage than many expected.
"I fear that the Iranians are doing what they're doing because they feel that they have the upper hand," Yaakov Katz, an Israeli-American journalist and author of While Israel Slept, told Iran International.
Katz said Tehran may see itself as having weathered the conflict relatively well. The regime survived, its military remains intact despite significant losses, its nuclear program remains unresolved and Washington is still negotiating with it.
From that perspective, Iran may believe it can broaden the scope of diplomacy beyond its nuclear program and force the United States to account for developments in Lebanon.
That is precisely what concerns Katz.
"It's a disaster to connect the two," he said.
If Washington accepts Lebanon as part of the negotiating framework, Katz argues, Tehran could repeatedly use Hezbollah's confrontation with Israel as leverage whenever future diplomatic disputes arise.
The concern comes as Trump balances two competing objectives: preventing a wider regional war while preserving a diplomatic path with Tehran.
On Monday, Iranian-linked media warned that Tehran could expand pressure to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another vital global shipping route, while tensions remain elevated in the Strait of Hormuz. The threats renewed concerns about global energy supplies and the economic fallout from a broader regional confrontation.
The price of Tehran's red lines
Eric Mandel, founder of the Middle East Political and Information Network, believes the Lebanon crisis, threats to maritime shipping and suspension of talks are all part of a broader Iranian strategy.
"This is a coordinated strategy that they are using," he told Iran International. "The biggest part of it is that they are looking to delay."
Mandel argues Tehran is attempting to stretch out negotiations while increasing economic and geopolitical pressure on Washington.
The goal, he says, is to test whether the Trump administration is willing to sustain a prolonged confrontation or whether concerns over oil prices, shipping disruptions and economic instability will eventually force concessions.
He believes Iran benefits from uncertainty.
"I think what Iran wants overall is to create a global recession," Mandel said.
Danny Citrinowicz of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies and former head of the Iran branch in Israeli military intelligence sees the situation somewhat differently.
While Katz and Mandel largely view Tehran's behavior through the lens of leverage and strategy, Citrinowicz argues that ideology remains a central factor.
He says Iran does not view Hezbollah, its missile arsenal and its enrichment program as bargaining chips that can simply be traded away. Rather, they are core pillars of the Islamic Republic.
"They cannot sit aside and not retaliate. That is their mentality," Citrinowicz told Iran International.
From Tehran's perspective, he argues, failing to respond to Israeli operations in Lebanon would amount to abandoning a strategic commitment to Hezbollah and undermining principles the regime considers fundamental to its survival.
That distinction may prove critical as Washington weighs its next move.
For Katz, Iran is attempting to exploit Trump's desire for a deal by transforming Lebanon into a bargaining chip. For Mandel, Tehran is deliberately prolonging the crisis to increase pressure on the United States. For Citrinowicz, Iran's actions are driven less by tactical calculations than by ideological red lines it believes it cannot abandon.
What all three agree on is that Lebanon is no longer a side issue. It has become a central test of the fragile diplomacy between Washington and Tehran.
If Trump pressures Israel to halt operations, Tehran may claim it forced Washington's hand. If he does not, Iran appears prepared to use Lebanon, Hormuz and potentially other fronts to argue that the ceasefire framework has already collapsed.
Either way, Tehran appears willing to increase the costs associated with both diplomacy and confrontation as it seeks to shape the next phase of negotiations.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted an official letter of resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International.
In the letter sent on Sunday, Pezeshkian stressed that the president and the government have effectively been excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs, the source said.
Pezeshkian added that under such circumstances he is unable to run the government and carry out his legal responsibilities, and for that reason has requested to step down immediately.
It is not yet clear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will accept the president's resignation, but the contents of the letter point to a deep and unprecedented rift at the highest levels of power.
This comes after months of tensions between the government and the Islamic Republic’s military-security institutions. Iran International previously reported that the IRGC had gradually restricted many presidential powers and effectively taken control of key parts of the government.
According to informed sources, the situation has left Pezeshkian’s administration trapped in a political and executive deadlock, preventing diplomatic negotiations from moving forward and the completion and implementation of desired changes to the cabinet structure.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency denied Iran International’s report, citing an informed government source as saying President Masoud Pezeshkian had not resigned and was continuing to carry out his duties.
Separately, Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head of communications and information at the president's office, dismissed the report in a post on X and said Pezeshkian would not step back from serving the people.
