Iranians say wages vanish under rent, food and medical costs
Iranians in several cities described wages being consumed by rent, food and healthcare costs, according to messages received by Iran International on Wednesday.
Iranians in several cities described wages being consumed by rent, food and healthcare costs, according to messages received by Iran International on Wednesday.
A government employee in Dorud, in western Lorestan province, said a monthly salary of 20 million tomans, about $115 at the current rate, no longer covered basic needs.
“Half of this wage goes to rent, and the other half goes to medicine and doctors,” the message said. “Nothing is left for food and clothing.”
Another message said a salary below 50 million tomans, about $287, could no longer support a family of four, while one person said only three million tomans, about $17, remained from their monthly pay by the end of the month.
“With this situation, we have to fill ourselves with bread and water,” the message said.
Healthcare costs were also cited as a growing burden. A 51-year-old resident of Isfahan said an orthopedic visit cost one million tomans, about $6, and two prescribed scans would have cost four million tomans, about $23, each.
“I did not have the money, so I gave up,” the resident said.
Another message said medicine had become scarce and sharply more expensive, while insurance covered almost none of the costs of visits, treatment or tests. A monthly prescription that previously cost 200,000 tomans, about $1, had risen to 1.35 million tomans, about $8, the message said.
A separate message from Isfahan said most autism centers in the city had raised fees by 80%, leaving them far less crowded.
Others pointed to daily goods becoming unaffordable, citing a simple ice cream at 80,000 tomans, about 46 cents, and a 1.5-liter bottle of water at 35,000 tomans, about 20 cents.
“This is no longer inflation,” one message from Shahreza said. “It is swelling and bruising.”
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.
International internet access has largely returned to Iran, but users and experts say the network remains degraded, unstable and significantly worse than before the war.
Despite the easing of restrictions, many websites, apps and online services continue to experience disruptions, slow speeds and intermittent outages.
Experts say the current wave of disruptions appears highly systematic, targeting core internet protocols that underpin everything from VPNs and video calls to websites and cloud services.
While restrictions on international internet traffic have reportedly been lifted significantly, internet quality still varies widely by province, provider and mobile operator.
Users across Iran report that connectivity remains noticeably worse than it was in the month before the war, when access had largely been restored following a 10-day shutdown triggered by nationwide unrest in January.
Many cite extremely slow connection speeds, repeated cycles of disconnection and reconnection, and severe difficulties accessing foreign websites and online services that were previously available.
Broken network environment
Rather than a return to normal internet access, many users describe what they call a “faulty” or “half-broken” network environment that imposes a more complex form of restriction and traffic manipulation.
At the same time, users and technology observers say a substantial share of DNS-based restrictions introduced during the shutdown remain active. The unresolved filters continue to disrupt email delivery, notifications, cloud services and other internet-dependent applications.
Public frustration is evident on social media and in comments posted on online news platforms.
“We have never experienced a normal, stable, and real internet at any period of time,” one user wrote in a comment on the Khabar Online news website.
Another user wrote on X that the situation had pushed many people to buy Starlink terminals or Iraqi SIM cards, while others were considering emigration. “They cut it in one go and restore it drop by drop. One can’t even be sure that this level of access will continue.”
An online poll conducted by Gadget News, while not necessarily representative of the broader population, illustrates the extent of dissatisfaction. According to the survey, 48.4% of respondents said they could access the internet but experienced low speeds and malfunctioning filtering systems. Another 26% reported effectively having access only to Iran’s national intranet.
VPN access still disrupted
Many Iranian internet users rely on Apple’s App Store and Google Play to download VPN applications that provide access to thousands of restricted websites and platforms.
Although authorities have technically removed filters blocking the app stores, users report a frustrating catch-22: network conditions often prevent VPN applications from downloading updates or functioning properly.
One user on X summed up the mood succinctly: “They want to make people get fed up and give up using the international internet.”
Core internet protocols targeted
Internet expert Vahid Farid told Gadget News that User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic—which underpins latency-sensitive services such as voice and video calls, online gaming and live streaming—has been almost completely disrupted.
As a result, many VPN protocols have either stopped working altogether or become highly unstable.
According to Farid, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) traffic, which powers most websites and online services, is also experiencing persistent interference. The result is a cycle of VPN disconnections, stalled downloads and unreliable access to web services.
Farid said the apparent targeting of these protocols is effectively disabling widely available VPN tools and pushing users toward more complex and expensive alternatives, making access to the international internet both financially and technically burdensome.
Digital businesses struggle to recover
According to a report by Donya-ye Eghtesad newspaper, many digital businesses have been unable to return to normal operations because of the continuing disruptions.
Companies that depend on both domestic and foreign internet infrastructure report persistent difficulties maintaining critical services and data flows.
The restrictions have also affected search engine visibility, reducing traffic for e-commerce platforms, digital media outlets and startups that rely heavily on Google referrals.
Compounding the problem, network disruptions have interfered with the automated renewal of SSL security certificates. As a result, users are increasingly confronted with “Your connection is not private” warnings.
Industry observers say the alerts erode customer trust and further damage online businesses. Together with the broader disruptions, they reinforce a growing perception among users that while the shutdown may be over, many Iranians are still navigating a damaged version of the internet.
