Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called Monday on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council to swiftly and unequivocally condemn the US attack on the Darkhovin nuclear power plant.
The family of 37-year-old executed protester Mohammad Amini Dehaghani has told Iran International that he was tortured into making a false confession, denied effective legal representation and deprived of the chance to appeal his death sentence.
Amini, a father of two, was detained during nationwide protests in January 2026.
His relatives and other sources who spoke to Iran International could not be named for fear of retribution by Iranian authorities.
Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency announced on July 15 that Amini had been executed after being convicted of moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” and corruption on Earth over allegations that he set fire to the governor’s office and damaged public property in Dehaghan county, Isfahan province.
His family said authorities had earlier accused him of involvement in a separate arson attack on a Bank Mellat branch in Dehaghan. They rejected the allegation, saying he was at home when the fire occurred and played no role in it.
Amini, who was from Dehaghan, was the father of 13-year-old Raha and one-year-old Mahva. His relatives described him as quiet and someone who kept out of trouble, adding that his wife and two daughters were the focus of his life.
He was executed two weeks before his 38th birthday.
Arrested after IRGC summons, denied legal representation
Amini received a telephone call on the evening of January 19 asking him to report to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to provide an explanation, his relatives said.
“We have a video of you,” officers told him, sources told Iran International.
Amini was arrested after reporting to the IRGC and never returned home.
His family hired a private lawyer, but the lawyer was not allowed to meet Amini or given full access to the case file, his relatives said.
After the death sentence was issued, the family’s lawyer said he had appealed. But when relatives contacted the Supreme Court, they found that no appeal had been registered, the family said.
When the lawyer sought an explanation, the Dehaghan prosecutor told him: “There was no need for you to be informed about this.”
The family said it believed judicial authorities deliberately concealed the death sentence to deprive them of the opportunity to appeal or pursue other legal avenues.
Tortured into false confession
Amini was severely beaten during interrogations and tortured with an electric stun device to force him to make a false confession incriminating himself, his relatives said.
The family also said that he was given insufficient food and held in unhygienic and poor prison conditions.
During the first weeks of his detention, Amini was in poor physical and psychological condition and struggled to understand what was happening around him, his relatives said.
Several days before his execution, he was transferred to solitary confinement.
‘Tell everyone I am innocent’
During their final prison visit, his relatives said they saw him in a critical condition.
He was unable to walk, and officers had to hold him under his arms to bring him into the visiting room. His body was trembling, and he appeared to have almost no strength left.
“Tell everyone I am innocent,” Amini told his family during the visit.
After the execution, Iranian authorities refused to allow his body to be buried in his hometown of Dehaghan, his family said.
He was instead buried under government supervision at Isfahan’s Behesht-e Rezvan cemetery, with only a small number of close relatives permitted to attend the funeral.
Amini remained hopeful until the final days of his life that he would be released, sources told Iran International.
He had received a certificate recognizing his good conduct and called his wife from prison every day.
Amini asked her to record videos of their younger daughter, Mahva, so that after his release he could watch the moments of her childhood that he had missed.
Nearly 100 US service members were injured in Iranian strikes on bases across the Middle East since July 7, CBS News reported, citing US officials.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to CBS News that 96% had returned to duty, adding that the vast majority of the injuries were minor concussions.
“They are determined to get back in the fight,” Parnell said.
Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi said in an interview with Reuters that the US-led war against the Islamic Republic was a “necessary step” to prevent further bloodshed and give Iranians a better chance of ending clerical rule.
In the interview recorded in Paris on July 14, Pahlavi linked the military campaign to the January 8 and 9 protests, when demonstrators answered his call for nationwide action and were met with a brutal crackdown.
He said the scale of the violence showed that Iranians could not be expected to return safely to the streets while the forces responsible remained capable of crushing another uprising.
“We cannot expect people to be able to safely return to the streets to take on the final battle” without protection or the means to neutralize forces hostile to them, he said.
Pahlavi argued that US and Israeli strikes had weakened the Islamic Republic’s repressive apparatus and helped “equalize” the balance between the government and protesters.
“The campaign that started as a result of the massacre — that led to the intervention by the Israelis and the American forces to strike the regime — was an element that was perhaps a necessary step to avoid further bloodshed,” he said.
The protests began in late December after a sharp fall in the rial deepened economic and political discontent. As demonstrations spread, Pahlavi called on Iranians to take part in nationwide action on January 8 and 9 by gathering in the streets or chanting from their homes.
Millions joined the protests across Iran before security forces opened fire on demonstrators and authorities imposed sweeping internet restrictions.
Documents, medical records, field reports and testimony reviewed by Iran International indicate that at least 36,500 people were killed on January 8 and 9, making the crackdown one of the deadliest episodes of state violence against protesters in modern history.
Pahlavi said the killings demonstrated the limits of peaceful protest against a government willing to use overwhelming force against its own population.
“On January 8 and 9, people went to the street still peacefully, just chanting the slogan,” he said. “When that happens, you cannot expect that by the same method of nonviolence, you can achieve the same result with the way this regime is behaving.”
The United States and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran on February 28, striking Revolutionary Guards facilities, missile and drone units, military command centers and other state targets.
Pahlavi said the attacks had weakened the institutions responsible for suppressing dissent and could help prevent another massacre.
“When you have the mechanism of repression of the regime weakened as a result of those strikes, those are added help,” he said. “Those are the kind of outside interventions that may be required.”
He said the intervention could ultimately save lives that would otherwise be lost in another confrontation between protesters and the security forces.
“It’s really a matter of trying to protect more lives from being lost under this regime that is demonstrating that it has no limit in terms of how far it’s willing to go to kill its own citizens,” he said.
Pahlavi nevertheless stressed that foreign governments should not decide who would govern Iran after the Islamic Republic.
“It is not for a foreign government to decide who or what should be the alternative for Iran,” he said. “That’s up to the Iranian people.”
He said his campaign, which began after the 1979 revolution that overthrew his father, had always centered on Iranians’ right to determine their own political future.
“I’ve never asked for any kind of endorsement from any leader or governments,” he said.
‘A bridge to destination’
Pahlavi has presented himself as the leader of a temporary transition rather than a candidate seeking to predetermine whether Iran should become a monarchy or a republic.
“My position as a transitional leader is, I’m not the destination, I’m a bridge to the destination,” he said.
He said his role would be to act as a neutral arbiter and oversee a political process in which Iranians could debate and choose the country’s future system.
“I’m not taking sides, either for a monarchy or for a republic,” he said. “My job is to make sure that there’s a healthy debate and that in the end people decide what it is that they actually would prefer to have as the final form.”
Pahlavi said his coalition included former leftists, republicans and people once affiliated with groups that opposed his father’s government.
He said former members of the three major leftist groups Tudeh Party, the Fadaiyan-e-Khalq and the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) had joined his movement, presenting that as evidence that the opposition had become more unified.
“I don’t know how far more can you stretch the tent, including those people, to prove that in fact there is much more unity than ever, certainly inside Iran,” he said.
He added, however, that there were three groups with which he would not cooperate: supporters of the Islamic Republic, the MEK as an organization and separatists.
“There are certain lines that I’m not going to cross,” he said.
Pahlavi also rejected violence, intimidation or criminal conduct by people claiming to support him.
“I believe in pluralism. I believe in tolerance. I believe in civility, in debate, in argument, in comportment, respect, and no hostility of any kind,” he said.
He said anyone who violated those principles would not be considered a supporter and should face legal consequences if their conduct was criminal.
Pahlavi also acknowledged concerns over statements made by people associated with his political team, saying stricter internal protocols were being introduced.
He said those close to him would have to exercise greater caution because their remarks could be interpreted as representing his movement.
‘A democratic culture’
Turning to Iran’s political future, Pahlavi said most Iranians wanted secular democracy, the rule of law and protection of human rights, but warned that building a democratic political culture would take time.
“What I think will take some time, and I mean that in the most honest way possible, is to bring about a democratic culture,” he said.
Pahlavi also clarified earlier statements about contacts with members of Iran’s security forces.
He said individual members of the Basij, the Revolutionary Guards and the regular military had contacted him discreetly over the years to express opposition to the Islamic Republic.
He denied, however, that he had been in direct communication with the IRGC’s senior command.
“It’s not like, in fact, talking to the IRGC command. Not at all,” he said.
Pahlavi said he had advocated for the IRGC to be designated as a terrorist organization for at least a decade because of its role in repression at home and military operations abroad.
He described the Guards as the central institution keeping the Islamic Republic in power and said increasing pressure on it remained a key part of his political strategy.
Pahlavi is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Shah, Iran’s last monarch, who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power. The royal family left Iran shortly before the revolution, and Pahlavi has lived in exile since then.
The United States is preparing the next phase of military campaign against Iran in coming days, i24NEWS reported citing an Israeli security source.
The operational plans are already ready and are awaiting US President Donald Trump's decision regarding the next steps, the report said.
Iranian interior minister Eskandar Momeni arrived in Pakistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry said on Monday.
Pakistani interior minister Mohsin Naqvi welcomed Momeni and a delegation of Iranian officials at the airport, telling him that he hoped Momeni had “brought good news,” according to a foreign ministry statement.
“We also hope for progress on the regional solution,” Naqvi added.