Iran detains cargo ship over oil pollution in Persian Gulf, authorities say
Iranian authorities detained a bulk carrier on Monday after it allegedly discharged oily waste directly into the Persian Gulf, the Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Department said.
The vessel, which was carrying sugar, discharged a mixture of used oil, engine-room bilge water and industrial sludge into the sea, according to the department.
Currents dispersed the pollution into several small slicks, which cleanup teams contained, it added.
CENTCOM handout: US Sailors conduct night flight operations aboard USS George Washington as the ship sails in regional waters supporting operations in the Middle East.
US and Iranian forces exchanged attacks on Sunday after a week of intensive regional diplomacy failed to break the deadlock between Tehran and Washington, marking a renewed military escalation following heightened economic pressure.
The fighting resumed when US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, the first known American attack on Iran since late July.
A US official said Revolutionary Guards forces had been preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the attack killed and wounded several Iranian fighters and civilians and vowed retaliation.
Hours later, the IRGC said it had launched a combined ballistic missile and drone attack on two US air bases in Jordan, claiming “heavy damage” to technical and maintenance infrastructure and areas where fighter jets were stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq and King Hussein Air Base.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the damage claimed by Iran.
The renewed exchange came after a flurry of mediation efforts last week raised hopes that the two sides might find a path back toward negotiations.
Senior officials from Pakistan, Oman and Qatar visited Tehran within days of each other, with talks focused on de-escalation, the Strait of Hormuz and reviving stalled US-Iran diplomacy.
Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, visited Tehran on Thursday, following visits by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and Pakistan’s army chief.
Iran and Oman had also been discussing a temporary navigational corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran insisted any reopening would depend on Washington lifting its blockade and meeting other Iranian conditions.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Thursday that Washington was not seeking talks with Iran.
‘Devastating response’
Iranian officials hardened their rhetoric following Sunday’s US attack.
IRGC spokesperson Sardar Mohebi called the strike a “strategic and fatal mistake” by the Trump administration in the course of its economic war, warning that Washington would face consequences “in both the economic and military arenas.”
Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said no attack “at any level” would go unanswered and threatened a “devastating, more painful and instructive” response.
The escalation came as Washington continued enforcing its blockade. US Central Command said Sunday that its forces had redirected 83 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two as of August 30 to ensure compliance.
Commercial traffic through Hormuz remains sharply depressed.
The number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait fell to five per day over the weekend, shipping data showed Monday, although the actual figure may be higher because some ships have switched off their tracking systems.
The return of military strikes quickly spilled into energy markets. Oil prices jumped more than 2% in early Monday trading following the Larak attack, with Brent crude rising 2.5% to above $90 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate gaining 2.4%, Reuters reported.
A Revolutionary Court in Isfahan has sentenced 10 protesters to death and six others to prison terms of up to 25 years over the nationwide demonstrations in the central Iranian city, according to an activist-run Telegram news channel.
Khabaraneha, run by Iranian political activist Mehdi Mahmoudian, said Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court issued the initial verdicts against 16 people detained in connection with the protests that began in late December 2025.
Those sentenced to death are Taraneh Rahimi, Navid Elyasi, Mehrdad Boeri, Abolfazl Dadgostar, Armin Gholami, Mehdi Mansouri, Ahmadreza Saeedi, Mohammadmehdi Asadi, Parsa Jafari and Mehdi Jafari, also known as Mehdi Khosravi.
Romina Rahimi and Milad Boeri were each sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Hamed Mehralian received a 15-year term. Setayesh Saedi, Sajjad Abedi and Ali Boeri were each sentenced to five years, Khabaraneha reported.
In addition, all 16 defendants were sentenced to five years for “assembly and collusion,” five years for “incitement” and one year for “propaganda against the establishment,” according to the report.
The case has become known as the “Isfahan Shohada Square” case and stems from protests in the area during the January uprising.
Khabaraneha said one of the female defendants was assaulted while in detention and filed a complaint over the incident, but that the court issued its verdict without examining the complaint.
Ahmadreza Saeedi also told judges during the trial that he had been tortured during interrogation, the channel reported. Khabaraneha said there had previously been reports of restrictions on lawyers’ access to the case file and of defendants being tortured to extract confessions.
Radio Farda reported in July that the case was connected to the deaths of Abbas Kamrani, a 37-year-old Revolutionary Guards colonel, and another person described in case documents as “homeless.” It said the 16 defendants mostly worked around Shohada Street in Isfahan.
Exiled prince urges international action
The office of Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi condemned the verdicts on Sunday, calling them “brutal and unjust” and saying they reflected an intensifying crackdown by the Islamic Republic.
Pahlavi’s communications office alleged that defendants had been denied legal representation and subjected to severe torture, including sexual violence against female detainees, to extract forced confessions.
“The world cannot stay silent in the face of these atrocities,” the office said.
The verdicts come amid a wave of death sentences against protesters in Isfahan. In a separate case known as the Alikhani Square case, Iranian authorities have executed five defendants since July.
Ghaem Hosseini was executed on Aug. 20, Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi on July 28, and Golmohammad Mohammadi and Erfan Esfandiari on July 19. The July 28 executions were carried out publicly in Alikhani Square.
Iranian police arrested a person accused of owing the country’s banking system more than €300 million after receiving foreign currency generated by exports, state media reported on Sunday.
Police identified the detainee only by the initials “A.L.” and described the person as one of the leaders of a network of financial intermediaries, known in Iran as “trustees,” used to transfer export revenues outside the formal banking system.
Authorities said the suspect had received foreign currency proceeds from exports over several years but failed to meet obligations to the banking system. The individual had gone on the run before being located and arrested by economic security police and sent to prison.
Majidreza Hariri of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce said on X that the detainee had served as secretary of the Iranian Association of Money Changers, a description that may point to Ahmad Lavasani, a former head of the group.
Iran’s central bank dissolved the Association of Money Changers in 2023, citing what it called violations and deviation from its objectives.
So-called trustees became increasingly important as sanctions restricted Iranian banks’ access to the international financial system. Individuals or companies with bank accounts or financial links abroad have been used to receive oil revenues, pay for imports and transfer foreign currency outside formal banking channels.
Zabihollah Khodaeian, head of Iran’s General Inspection Organization, told state broadcaster IRIB in July that some trustees had “betrayed” the country and that one intermediary had failed to return $200 million before leaving Iran.
The Tehran-based Sazandegi newspaper reported at the time that at least 15 trustees had become unreachable while holding billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenues, according to Hariri.
Sazandegi said the judiciary had opened 59 cases involving managers of trustee companies and issued prosecution orders in 43 of them. Authorities were also seeking Interpol Red Notices for 15 trustees who had fled.
Details about trustees’ identities, contracts, fees, financial guarantees and oversight are generally not made public.
Separately, an Iran International investigation found that relatives of some of Iran’s most powerful security figures, including the son of Mohsen Rezaei, were among nine people linked to an oil-sales network that sources said failed to return about $11 billion in proceeds to Iran.
Security forces confront protesters during demonstrations in Iran in January 2026.
A Revolutionary Guards veteran who fought in Syria helped command a deadly crackdown on protesters in Shahriar near Tehran, as security forces used coordinated lethal tactics across Tehran province during nationwide protests in January, an Iran International investigation found.
Witnesses and local sources identified Abbas Rasoulifar, a former Guards member with experience fighting alongside forces supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria, as directing operational groups deployed against protesters in Shahriar.
Parts of this investigative report are based on accounts from witnesses and local sources. The allegations are attributed to those who made them, and their inclusion does not mean that all details have been independently verified by the author.
Witness accounts from Shahriar and other cities around the capital describe security forces firing live ammunition from police stations, mosques and rooftops, deploying snipers and armored vehicles, and dividing urban areas into operational zones.
The accounts point to similarities between some tactics used during the crackdown and methods associated with urban warfare in Syria.
Shahriar religious site emerges as operations hub
The protests began with strikes by shopkeepers in Tehran before spreading rapidly to surrounding cities and much of Tehran province.
Demonstrations peaked on January 8 and 9 following a call by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, with a crackdown already underway turning particularly deadly during those two days.
In Shahriar, the locations of reported shootings and security deployments point to the vicinity of the Imamzadeh Esmail shrine as a center for assembling and dispatching forces.
The shrine hosted events associated with Iranian fighters deployed to Syria during the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, who visited the site several times.
Rasoulifar, the shrine's executive director, emerged as a central figure during Iran International's examination of people connected to the site.
Witness accounts and other findings show that Rasoulifar commanded operational groups during the January crackdown and personally fired a handgun at protesters. Forces under his direction were dispatched across Shahriar from a base near the shrine, according to the investigation.
The base sits in a residential area behind the shrine and next to a boys' high school. Sources said it served as an assembly and preparation point for personnel sent to confront protesters.
From Syria to Shahriar
Rasoulifar, born in 1963, joined the Basij in 1979 and the Revolutionary Guards in 1984, according to published accounts of his background. He has longstanding ties to the Guards and participated in several operations during the Iran-Iraq war.
Abbas Rasoulifar, a Guards member with experience fighting alongside forces supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria
Javan newspaper, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, documented Rasoulifar's presence in Syria in 2017 as one of the Iranian personnel called by the Islamic Republic as "defenders of the shrine," a misleading title reserved for the forces that were sent to Syria.
At the time, the Quds Force and allied forces were fighting alongside Assad's forces on several fronts in Syria.
Rasoulifar's deployment establishes his involvement in Iran's military operations in Syria, although the available evidence does not establish precisely which battles or urban operations he participated in.
His name has also surfaced in connection with earlier domestic crackdowns, including in 2009 and the November 2019 protests in Shahriar. Witnesses have also accused him of involvement in the killing of protester Nader Momeni in Shahriar in 2019.
Similar tactics reported across Tehran province
Iran International's examination of witness accounts shows that security operations across several cities in Tehran province shared common features, raising questions about the extent to which the crackdown was centrally coordinated rather than shaped by individual decisions by local units.
In Eslamshahr, police and riot-control forces went on alert in Zarafshan and Bagh-e Feyz on January 7 as strikes began.
As protesters moved toward the Saveh road the following day, police vehicles fired flares, according to witnesses. The accounts indicate that the flares were used to illuminate gatherings and help other units locate protesters.
Witnesses in Vavan, near Eslamshahr, said live ammunition was fired that night from the roof of a mosque and around Khomeini Square. Similar accounts of religious buildings being used as firing positions later emerged elsewhere.
In Parand, in Robat Karim county, witnesses said armed personnel speaking Arabic fired directly at protesters from inside mosques and bases on January 8. Some witnesses identified them as members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, though Iran International could not independently confirm their identity.
Witnesses also described forces apparently retreating to draw protesters toward Parand's Police Station 18 on January 8 and 9 before firing live ammunition once part of the crowd entered the surrounding area. Witnesses said protesters were killed in the shooting.
Snipers, armored vehicles and power cuts
In Pakdasht, southeast of the capital, security forces deployed a large armored vehicle and firearms against protesters around Mamazand and Allameh Street on January 8, according to witness accounts.
Clashes continued the following day, when witnesses described intense gunfire, including machine-gun fire by Basij and Revolutionary Guards forces.
In Gharchak, electricity around Kalantari Square was cut on the evening of January 8 before shooting began from inside a police station, witnesses said. Snipers positioned on the roof and different floors of a restaurant in Khomeini Square also fired at protesters in the darkness, according to local accounts.
Local sources put the number of people killed there in the dozens.
In Varamin, southeast of Tehran, vehicles equipped with loudspeakers played religious chants at high volume as security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition on January 9, according to witnesses.
Shahr-e Qods, also known as Ghaleh Hassan Khan, south of Tehran, experienced severe internet disruption and a power outage on January 8. Witnesses said snipers positioned on the roof of the Milad commercial complex and armed groups fired at protesters on January 8 and 9.
Some witnesses again identified Arabic-speaking personnel as members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces.
Local accounts said dozens were killed. Among those identified was Ilya Qodsi, who was fatally shot in the head.
Witnesses describe abuse away from protests
Accounts from Pardis and Bumehen, in the east of the capital, describe violence extending beyond shootings at demonstrations.
Mohammadreza Moradgholi, a 19-year-old protester, was detained on the evening of January 8 and taken into a security forces' vehicle, according to one account. The source said that personnel killed him by cutting a blood vessel.
Another account said security forces searched a young man's phone near the Pardis toll station on January 9 and detained him after finding a photograph of Pahlavi.
Personnel severely beat the man and forced him to swallow two pills before leaving him on a street around midnight, according to the account.
Witnesses in the area also described loud religious chants accompanying baton beatings, direct gunfire and tear gas.
Syria experience raises questions over crackdown
Across the cities examined, recurring features included the use of rooftops and elevated positions for gunfire, power cuts, operational zones, live ammunition and coordinated deployments from fixed bases.
Iran International's findings indicate two particular similarities with urban warfare methods used in Syria: dividing cities into operational sectors and assigning units responsibility for controlling designated areas.
Rasoulifar's military background in Syria and his role organizing operational groups in Shahriar provide a direct personnel link between Iran's foreign military campaigns and the January crackdown.
Taken together, witness accounts from cities of Tehran province depict a crackdown in which lethal tactics appeared repeatedly across Tehran's heavily populated outer cities, extending methods of armed urban control to the capital's surrounding belt.
Iranian students take an exam at a testing center.
Iranians described cancelled language tests, soaring costs, visa hurdles and internet restrictions as obstacles increasingly putting study abroad beyond reach, in messages sent to Iran International following new US sanctions.
“Are Trump’s sanctions targeting the Iranian people or Islamic Republic officials? We are looking for a way to escape this situation, but it seems all the doors of the world have been closed to us,” one citizen wrote.
Iran International asked its audience to share their experiences of barriers to studying abroad after new sanctions led to restrictions affecting international language tests for Iranians.
An analysis of responses on Instagram showed that the cost of studying and moving abroad, compounded by the falling value of Iran’s currency, and the cancellation of international language tests were the most frequently cited concerns.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, indefinitely suspended General License G on August 24 as part of the Trump administration’s latest campaign to intensify economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.
Students take an exam at a testing center in Iran.
The license had since 2014 provided the legal basis for US universities, testing companies and other American entities to offer a range of educational services to Iranian people.
The Duolingo English Test subsequently announced that it would stop providing services from September 1 to people residing in Iran and holders of Iranian identification documents.
Rising costs narrow options
Financial pressures were the most common concern raised in responses to Iran International.
Respondents cited the rising cost of foreign currency, language tests, university applications, tuition, airline tickets and exit bonds as major obstacles to pursuing education overseas.
“With the euro at 2,400,000 rials, visas not being issued to Iranians, war and rising prices, the very high cost of exit bonds, terrible airline ticket prices, internet problems and language tests are all barriers to migration for us in Iran,” one respondent wrote.
Another described being caught between the expense of leaving Iran and the cost of remaining.
“We are imprisoned in Iran. We have neither the money to leave Iran nor the money to live in it,” the respondent wrote.
Some respondents also pointed to rising living expenses after reaching their destination countries, adding another financial hurdle even for those able to secure admission and leave Iran.
Years of preparation disrupted
The suspension or restriction of international language tests was the second major theme to emerge from the messages.
Some respondents said they had switched to TOEFL or the Duolingo English Test after IELTS became unavailable at various periods in Iran, only to see those alternatives restricted as well.
“After several years of studying for TOEFL, getting a high GPA and working to build a good résumé, I was one step away from taking TOEFL, and now the test is no longer being held,” one respondent wrote.
Another said the cancellation of a TOEFL exam was announced on the morning it was due to take place, after years of preparation and with an embassy appointment approaching.
The Duolingo English Test, launched in 2016, has become an alternative to TOEFL and IELTS for some Iranian applicants. The online test can be taken from home and costs less than some other international English proficiency exams.
Several respondents said the latest restrictions showed how sanctions were affecting ordinary Iranians seeking academic opportunities abroad.
“Why should ordinary people be targeted by sanctions? People in Iran are not allowed to take TOEFL and Duolingo tests inside Iran; they are not even allowed to escape this country,” one respondent wrote.
Iranian passport adds to barriers
Some identified their Iranian nationality and passport as another obstacle to academic opportunities abroad.
They described university positions being closed to Iranian applicants or applications being rejected without what they considered serious consideration of their academic records.
“I think the first problem for many people in Iran who want to migrate is the financial cost, followed by the barriers to being accepted as an Iranian,” one respondent wrote.
Another pointed to lengthy security screening of Iranian applicants at embassies, saying delays can prevent students from reaching universities in time to begin their programs.
Internet disruptions cost opportunities
Internet restrictions inside Iran were another recurring concern in the messages, particularly because applications depend on access to university websites, email and international financial services.
One said Iran’s internet was cut off on January 8, a day after an admissions interview with a university in Britain.
The respondent said two weeks without access to email or the university’s website ultimately resulted in the loss of the study opportunity.
