Iranian media have been instructed to avoid portraying the renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s participation in US talks as a divide between the armed forces and negotiators, according to a Supreme National Security Council directive seen by Iran International.
The directive, addressed to media managers and editors, said the renewed closure of Hormuz came in response to what it called continued ceasefire violations and Israeli actions in southern Lebanon, while Iran’s negotiating team was heading to Switzerland.
It said the Islamic Republic was pursuing a “single strategy” that combines deterrence and military leverage with diplomacy to force the other side to implement its commitments and protect Iran’s national interests.
The directive urged media outlets to frame military actions not as a replacement for diplomacy but as its support, and to avoid presenting negotiations as a sign of retreat.
It also called on outlets to emphasize the “synergy” between military power and diplomacy in securing national interests.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett says he has drawn up a detailed plan to help Iranians topple the Islamic Republic, addressing growing frustration among dissidents that an emerging US-Iran deal could save and embolden Tehran’s hardline rulers.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to ultimately topple this horrible regime,” Bennett told Iran International correspondent Babak Eshaghi. “And I want to tell the Iranian people, the wonderful Iranian nation: Don’t lose your hope.”
“This terrible, disconnected, corrupt and evil regime will fall. You will be free,” he said.
Bennett, who is positioning himself as one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main challengers, said outside powers must be ready to help Iranians the next time they rise up against the Islamic Republic.
“What we’re going to do is ensure that next time the people of Iran rise up, we provide them the tools to win, communication and other tools,” he said. “This rotten regime will fall at some point.”
“Our job is to accelerate that,” Bennett added.
His comments come as many Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic have voiced frustration over the expected signing of a US-Iran memorandum on Friday, fearing that Washington and Tehran are moving toward an agreement that would preserve the ruling system after months of war, repression, blackouts and sanctions.
After the January crackdown, in which security forces killed thousands of protesters and detained tens of thousands, both Donald Trump and Netanyahu promised to support Iranians seeking to bring down the regime.
But the emerging deal has deepened concern among many anti-government Iranians that ordinary people paid the heaviest price while Tehran’s more hardline leadership survived and may now gain breathing space through diplomacy.
Bennett sought to answer that concern by saying he had prepared “an elaborate and detailed plan” aimed at bringing down the Islamic Republic.
“I’ve put together an elaborate and detailed plan whose goal is to ultimately topple this Ayatollah regime,” he said.
He said the plan would rely on “many tools, not only war,” including “economic tools, diplomatic tools, covert, overt operations,” as well as efforts to empower the Iranian people.
Bennett also warned that the expected US-Iran memorandum should not lead to an easing of pressure on Tehran unless any final agreement fully dismantles Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and regional proxies.
“It’s a temporary agreement. It’s far from over,” he said.
“We have to ensure that the final agreement is a good one,” Bennett added. “That totally dismantles the Iranian nuclear program, the ballistic missile program, the regional terror program.”
“That’ll be the ultimate test,” he said. “We can’t let up on the sanctions and on all the pressure on this horrible regime until that’s achieved.”
His remarks come amid unease in Israel over the emerging agreement. Channel 12 reported that Israeli officials asked Washington to see the draft memorandum, but the United States refused to share the text before the signing ceremony.
The reported refusal has fueled concern in Israel that the deal could fall short of Netanyahu’s stated demands, including the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, curbs on its missile program and limits on Tehran’s regional network.
Message to Iranian people and leaders
Bennett compared the Islamic Republic to the Soviet Union in its final years, saying authoritarian systems can collapse faster than expected.
“This regime will fall,” he said. “It’s a corrupt, disconnected and incompetent regime, very similar to the Soviet Union regime of the 1980s.”
“If you had asked me in 1985, will the regime fall? Who knows? But just four years later, it fell,” Bennett added.
“My message to the Iranian people is: Raise your heads. Be proud. Be strong. We are looking after you.”
He also issued a direct warning to Iran’s rulers.
“I would tell those leaders, those ayatollahs: Your time is running out. We are after you. We know exactly who you are. And you will not remain in power for long,” Bennett said.
“It might take a bit of time,” he added. “But your time is over.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have put their missile units on full alert after Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, with commanders requesting authorization from Mojtaba Khamenei’s office to launch missile attacks on Israel, two sources close to Iran’s military forces told Iran International.
In recent hours, senior IRGC commanders have sent a formal request to the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei seeking authorization to launch missile attacks on Israel, the two sources said.
Neither Khamenei nor his office has responded to the request, and it remains unclear whether the attack will be approved, the sources added.
The alert follows an earlier warning by Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, that northern Israel would be targeted by missile attacks if Beirut came under attack.
Following the IRGC’s evacuation warning, Israel temporarily refrained from a broad attack on Beirut after mediation and direct pressure from US President Donald Trump, and tensions subsided for a time. But Sunday’s Israeli fighter jet attacks on Dahiyeh have once again sharply raised the possibility of direct conflict.
Earlier, Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for parliament’s National Security Committee, has also threatened Israel and declared that “tonight, one must await a response in the sky over the occupied territories.”
The sources said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are concerned that staying silent over Israel’s attacks on Dahiyeh would encourage Israel to intensify its attacks on Hezbollah.
Military commanders also believe that failing to act on declared red lines would severely weaken morale among Hezbollah’s shaken rank and file and endanger the Islamic Republic’s standing among its allied groups.
At the same time, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, has also threatened that Iran will target US bases and interests in the region in response to these attacks.
In contrast, Masoud Pezeshkian’s government, expressing serious concern about these movements, has warned that any hasty action by the IRGC will give Israel the necessary pretext for a heavy retaliation and drag the country into another full-scale and devastating war.
According to information received by Iran International, Pezeshkian’s administration believes Iran is not currently in a position to enter a new conflict, and that a wider war would halt sensitive ongoing negotiations with the US and make the economic and military situation extremely difficult to control.
Security forces opened fire on protesters, blocked medical aid and secretly removed bodies as they crushed demonstrations in Rasht, northern Iran, during January’s nationwide uprising, eyewitness accounts and documents sent to Iran International show.
Witnesses described security forces shooting at protesters, blocking aid to the wounded, demanding money from families before returning bodies, and pressuring relatives to hold secret burials and avoid public ceremonies.
The new accounts add to an Iran International public documentation campaign that has gathered testimony saying protesters in Rasht were driven into narrow market passages, trapped as fire spread and fired upon by security forces during January’s unrest.
The morning of Jan 9: a city in smoke, blood and fire
One eyewitness told Iran International that around 5 a.m. on January 9, heavy smoke and fire were still rising in the municipality area of Rasht.
The witness said streets leading to the municipality, including Namjoo Street, Imam Street, Shahrdari Street and the route from the bazaar toward Saqlan Square, were badly damaged and parts of the city had burned.
“On the morning of January 9, the city smelled of smoke. Traces of blood were clearly visible on Shahrdari and Saadi streets. The bloody handprints of protesters were on the city walls. Basijis in Sabzeh Meydan Square were busy erasing slogans with spray paint, and large parts of the bazaar had completely burned,” the witness said.
Bodies moved in pickup trucks and garbage trucks
An eyewitness told Iran International that on the morning of January 9, several municipal pickup trucks left Shahrdari Street, and the bodies of some of those killed were in the back of one vehicle, covered with cloth.
Iran International has also received multiple reports indicating that the bodies of some of those killed in Rasht were collected with garbage trucks and secretly transferred.
Witnesses said some wounded people were also among the bodies transferred to Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery in Rasht.
A source said one wounded person who had been transferred to Bagh-e Rezvan along with the bodies managed to escape and hid for a while in a nearby forest.
Transfer of bodies to an unmarked warehouse
New information received by Iran International shows that on January 8 and 9, the bodies of some of those killed in Rasht were transferred to a warehouse on Tehran Road, between Bagh-e Rezvan and Saravan.
The warehouse was painted red, white and green and had no specific sign or official marking.
The bodies were kept there temporarily before burial or transfer to other locations.
Witnesses describe DShK machine gun fire on protesters
Witnesses told Iran International that security forces used heavy weapons including DShK machine guns against people who had entered parts of the city’s military areas.
According to the accounts, the area around the Rasht governor’s office was one of the main sites where protesters were killed on January 8 and 9.
One eyewitness said Basij and Revolutionary Guards forces directed the crowd toward the governor’s office, placing protesters on a route where their ability to leave or retreat was limited.
The witnesses said armed forces shot at people after the gates of the governor’s office were opened.
The accounts indicated that the crackdown in Rasht was not limited to streets around the municipality, the bazaar, Namjoo Street and Sajjad Clinic, and that the area around the governor’s office was also a key site of shootings and killings.
Families told to pay for slain protesters’ bodies
Sources told Iran International that slain protesters' families faced severe security pressure.
Some families were asked to pay money to receive the bodies of their children, with the amount depending on the family’s financial situation, according to the accounts.
Some families were asked for several billion rials, equivalent to several thousand dollars, and in some cases more than 10 billion rials, or over $5,700 at the open-market rate, the sources said.
An eyewitness said one family was told to bring a box of sweets along with the payment before they could receive their loved one’s body.
The witness said the request was part of a humiliating process of dealing with the survivors.
Families forced into secret night burials
Witnesses told Iran International that the families of some slain protesters were not allowed to wash their loved ones’ bodies, a standard Islamic burial rite performed before burial.
One eyewitness said security agents told a family the victims were “ritually impure” and had to be buried as they were, bloodied and still in their clothes.
According to witness accounts, burials were often carried out late at night or near dawn, with a limited number of family members present and under pressure from security forces.
The burial place of many of the victims is in the far sections of Bagh-e Rezvan in Rasht.
Families said they were repeatedly humiliated and threatened while receiving and burying the bodies.
A British couple imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison remain on hunger strike over access restrictions, raising health concerns as one of them is now barely able to walk, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.
Lindsay Foreman and Craig Foreman were arrested in January 2025 while traveling through Iran during an around-the-world motorcycle trip.
They were later sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges after Iranian authorities accused them of gathering information in several parts of the country, allegations they deny.
The couple lost their appeal against the sentence earlier this week, Reuters reported, citing their family.
The Foremans are being held in separate wings of Tehran’s Evin prison, which rights groups have long criticized over alleged torture and inhumane conditions.
The couple began a strike after being denied phone calls, visits with each other and meetings with their lawyer following an interview with the BBC World Service.
Health concerns grow as hunger strike continues
Prison officials have exerted various forms of pressure on the two detainees in recent weeks to force them to end their hunger strike, a source familiar with their condition told Iran International.
The source said both prisoners had lost a significant amount of weight and that the prison deputy had visited their wards only once during that period.
Lindsay Foreman is now barely able to walk after nearly three weeks on hunger strike, the source added.
The head of Evin prison has stopped nurses from entering the women’s ward, where nurses had previously been present regularly, the source said. As a result, Lindsay Foreman’s blood pressure has not been measured or recorded for about a week.
In recent days, Lindsay Foreman’s cellmates obtained a blood pressure monitor from the guard officer after protesting and following up on her condition, and measured her blood pressure at 8 over 5, according to the source, who is familiar with the situation of political prisoners in Evin.
Her transfer to the infirmary was also difficult because she had to be carried up about 30 steps to reach it, the source said. Despite her condition, prison officials refused to record her medical status or provide the necessary care and returned her to the ward.
The source also said officials had refused in recent weeks to allow Lindsay Foreman to receive glasses, vitamin tablets and some hygiene items she needed, measures the source said are usually approved after some time even in similar cases.
A source close to the family of one prisoner held in Evin told Iran International that one of Lindsay Foreman’s cellmates quoted her as saying: “We only spoke about the conditions we live in; about the executions we see and hear about, and the names of those announced every day. This is the reality of our lives. Now, because we said what is happening, we have been denied phone calls and visits, while we are far from our families and children. We did not say anything new; we only recounted what is happening every day in Iran.”
The source added that Craig Foreman, explaining the reasons for his hunger strike to his cellmates, said: “In addition to being denied calls and visits, many of my cellmates have been taken away in recent months for their execution sentences to be carried out and never returned. Five people have been executed from the room where I am being held alone.”
More than 50 days into the US blockade of Iran’s southern ports, Iraq’s Umm Qasr has emerged as a new hub for Iran-bound cargo, trade sources say, as Tehran’s first major workaround through Oman’s Khasab grows slower, busier and more expensive.
The Iraqi port is now being used to move some Iran-bound cargo, including cars, after shipments are first transferred from ports in the United Arab Emirates on vessels flying non-Iranian flags, sources with knowledge of the matter Iran International.
The shift adds a new layer to Iran’s effort to keep trade moving through indirect routes after the US blockade, which began on April 13, closed the main passages in the Strait of Hormuz to Iranian ships and vessels linked to the Islamic Republic.
Iran International previously reported that the small Omani port of Khasab, on the Musandam Peninsula near the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, had become one of the main alternatives for moving goods into Iran.
Cargoes that once moved through standard UAE-Iran channels have been transferred from Emirati ports to Khasab, then loaded onto Iranian vessels bound for ports on Iran’s southern coast.
But trade sources said the route has become slower in recent weeks as demand has risen.
The number of vessels gathering in Khasab has increased, while the port’s limited capacity has made loading and transfers more time-consuming and more expensive than in the first days after the ceasefire, the sources said.
Oman, which had previously imposed limited restrictions or charges on some cargoes, has also introduced new costs for certain goods in recent weeks.
One trade source said some shipments, including cars, are now subject to charges based on the value of the goods.
Against that backdrop, Umm Qasr, Iraq’s main Persian Gulf port, has become a complementary route.