Bessent warns countries and companies to ‘stay away’ from Iran

Some arrive in their own cars to buy drugs before losing their homes, sleeping in their vehicles and, in some cases, becoming homeless within weeks, according to social workers interviewed in the newspaper’s field report.

“We are now encountering a different group of women, women who sometimes had relatively normal lives until middle age, had families and children and were not even drug users before entering these spaces,” Sepideh Alizadeh, a social worker, told the daily.

There are no recent official figures showing how many homeless women live in Tehran or allowing the increase described by social workers to be precisely measured.

From homes and cars to drug sites

At one drug-use site in wasteland near Tehran’s Azadegan Highway, men and women queued to buy heroin from a dealer operating from a cavity among large rocks, paying in cash or by card before consuming the drug nearby.

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Among them were women whose appearance still differed markedly from people who had spent longer periods living at such sites.

One woman was living in her own car and using heroin there. A social worker pointed her out before she placed a metal pipe to her lips and drove away in her white sedan with another drug user.

“She still hasn't ended up like the others at the site and lives in her own car,” the social worker said.

Others described women following a similar trajectory, initially driving to the area to buy drugs before sleeping in their cars and eventually losing them.

People gathered at the site also described a young woman who had given birth several weeks earlier in one of the makeshift rooms scattered across the wasteland.

“Her baby was born right here at the drug site, but she has disappeared since that day,” one person there said.

Another man said the woman had gone into hiding because she feared the authorities would take the child away.

“She disappeared because she was afraid of the welfare authorities,” he said. “They say the baby was born addicted, but nobody knows where they are now.”

Shargh said attempts to locate the mother and baby were unsuccessful, including a visit to a makeshift room off the highway where people at the site believed they had been hiding.

Poverty and the inability to afford housing are increasingly exposing women to such environments, including some who had not previously used drugs.

The risks can extend to entire families. In another case described by a social worker, a couple and their young child were living in a vehicle until social emergency services intervened and transferred the child to the state welfare organization because of the conditions.

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Middle-aged women increasingly visible

Tehran has no up-to-date figures for its homeless female population, but available data point to a broader problem with homelessness in the capital.

Tehran municipality identified about 24,000 homeless people in 2021. Calls concerning homeless families increased in early 2025, and a Tehran City Council spokesman later pointed to an increase in visibly dependent drug users in parts of the capital.

Social workers say middle-aged women have become more visible at drug-use sites in recent years, particularly since the 40-day war with the US and Israel.

Many women encountered at such sites in previous years had already experienced addiction or other forms of severe social instability. Social workers now describe seeing women who maintained homes and families into middle age before financial pressures left them without secure housing.

Some initially live in cars, pickup trucks or temporary shelters. Without early support, homelessness can expose them to drug use and accelerate a descent that becomes increasingly difficult to reverse.

Violence and barriers to treatment

Women living at drug-use sites face heightened exposure to violence, theft and exploitation and can have less ability to defend themselves or escape confrontations.

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Efforts to clear established gathering places can worsen their vulnerability by dispersing people to more remote areas where harm-reduction services are harder to access, the report said.

For those seeking to stop using drugs, access to voluntary treatment presents another obstacle.

The decision to seek treatment may last only a matter of hours before withdrawal, hunger or a return to the same surroundings leads someone back to drug use, social workers told Shargh.

Treatment costs, administrative procedures and admission restrictions can prevent people without money from receiving help during that window, even as resources remain available for compulsory treatment programs.

No decision has been made on returning to full-scale conflict, but top aides to US President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the war relatively contained until the election as Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress.

“We are keeping the pressure on Iran,” one White House official said. “But November is a priority.”

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among the senior officials supporting efforts to keep the conflict relatively quiet until November, two White House officials told Reuters.

The sources said containing the war could limit its impact on Republican midterm campaigns and give the US military time to replenish depleted munitions. High gasoline prices have also contributed to public dissatisfaction with the conflict.

“The timetable has changed,” one senior White House official said. Another added: “The calendar is driving Iran.”

Reuters reported in August that the US military had used “virtually all” of its stock of some long-range precision missiles. The Pentagon, however, said the military had “everything it needs to execute” its mission.

The sources said Washington was focusing for now on intensifying economic pressure through sanctions and its naval blockade, seeking concessions in future negotiations that months of military action had failed to secure.

Trump warned on Tuesday that further Iranian action would bring a stronger US response.

“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings,” he wrote on Truth Social.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales defended the administration’s strategy, saying: “President Trump has destroyed Iran’s military capabilities and is crippling what’s left of its abysmal economy with the most powerful naval blockade in world history and crushing sanctions.”

“The President will continue to advance America’s interests at home and abroad and will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” she added.

Saeed Golsorkhi, an athlete and powerlifter, was shot in the knee during protests on January 9 and taken to hospital, the sources said. Concerned he could be arrested there, Golsorkhi discharged himself and returned home to continue treatment.

Security forces and Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents raided the family home on January 11, assaulted relatives and used pepper spray against Golsorkhi’s mother, according to the sources.

The forces bound Golsorkhi’s hands while his wounded knee was still bleeding and took him outside, the sources said. They blocked both ends of the alley before shooting him at close range in the head and abdomen.

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  Iran court sentences 10 protesters to death in Isfahan

Golsorkhi’s mother and his young niece witnessed the shooting, and he died in his mother’s arms, according to the sources.

Iran International previously reported on January 28 that Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents raided Golsorkhi’s home and shot him dead in front of his mother after he chanted “Death to Khamenei.”

Killings in Shahroud

Golsorkhi’s death forms part of a broader picture of the January crackdown in Shahroud documented by Iran International.

Eyewitnesses previously told that security forces killed at least 200 people in the city on January 8 and 9. The deaths of 22 women were recorded at Bahar Hospital alone, according to those accounts.

Other accounts from Shahroud have described security forces firing directly at protesters and authorities imposing restrictions on the families of those killed.

Iran International previously reported that Hossein Gharib, a 32-year-old athlete from Shahroud, was shot dead by security forces on January 9. His body was released only after his family agreed not to publicize his death and to hold a burial attended by no more than 10 people.

Brother detained, family barred from public mourning

Golsorkhi’s brother, Navid Golsorkhi, was arrested after the killing and held in temporary detention for about a month.

The family was able to retrieve Golsorkhi’s body several days later after agreeing to hold his burial without a gathering or public ceremony. Golsorkhi was buried on January 15 under tight security.

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Security forces also blocked both ends of the street outside his mother’s home to prevent people from visiting the family to offer condolences, sources close to the family said. The family was not permitted to hold a public memorial.

The restrictions were not limited to Golsorkhi’s relatives. Iran International documented similar measures following the January crackdown, including bodies being returned at night, families being required to hold restricted burials and authorities preventing public mourning ceremonies.

Golsorkhi was a powerlifter and owned a clothing store in Shahroud.

People close to him said he admired the Pahlavi family and had an image of Reza Shah Pahlavi tattooed on his arm.

The program, codenamed C430L, began in 2023 and continued during this year's war with the United States and Israel, the FT said.

Its main focus is a ramjet propulsion system that would allow a cruise missile to sustain flight at several times the speed of sound, reducing the time available for US and allied defenses to detect and intercept it.

“For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US Navy vessels,” Jim Lamson, a former CIA military analyst focused on Iran, told the FT.

Iran has built and flight-tested the propulsion system, but there is no evidence that a Russian-assisted supersonic cruise missile has entered service, the newspaper said.

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  Iranian nuclear scientists made covert visit to Russia for laser tech - FT

Russian technical support

The FT said Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport arranged the program with missile developer NPO Mashinostroyenia.

Russian engineers made repeated trips to Iran before a contract was signed with Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics in November 2023, according to records reviewed by the newspaper.

By 2025, Russian specialists were analyzing Iranian flight-test data and advising Tehran on the ramjet's fuel system, combustion stability, air intake and engine nozzle.

“This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades,” Fabian Hinz, a senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research, told the FT.

“A programme like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia,” he said.

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  Russia sent missile experts to Iran amid conflict with Israel - Reuters

The Kremlin, Rosoboronexport, NPO Mashinostroyenia and the Iranian government did not respond to requests for comment from the FT.

Potential naval impact

Supersonic cruise missiles combine high speed with low-altitude flight, making them harder for air and missile defenses to detect and engage quickly.

That could be particularly significant in the Persian Gulf, where the United States and its regional allies operate advanced land- and sea-based defenses.

Hinz said Russian engineering support could be especially valuable because it would help Iran solve technical problems rather than simply provide finished weapons.

“Getting a 60-year-old engineer to fly over and problem-solve, using their experience, is hugely valuable,” he said.

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The FT said the program continued into 2026, with Russia preparing technical reports and both sides discussing a further phase of development.

A June 2026 Rosoboronexport letter showed talks were still under way over that next stage, though it was unclear whether it had begun.

Deeper military ties

The program points to a deeper form of military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, with Russia helping Iran acquire the know-how to develop an advanced weapon system of its own.

Iran previously supplied Russia with Shahed attack drones used in Ukraine and helped Moscow establish domestic production.

The FT has also reported that Russia agreed to supply Iran with Verba shoulder-fired air defense systems, while Tehran acquired a high-resolution Chinese satellite later used to monitor US military facilities in the region.

“If the Russians are able to help the Iranians fix their technical problems, I think this would be one of the more impactful areas of Russian military-technical assistance to Iran in recent years,” Lamson said.

Masoud Pezeshkian was at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek when the news came in.

Two supertankers, each carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi crude loaded at the Juaymah terminal, were struck within minutes of each other as they sailed out of the strait off Khasab, Oman, according to the shipping intelligence firms Marisks and Kpler.

The timing was, at minimum, unhelpful to Pezeshkian, and it fits a pattern in which his intermittent push for de-escalation is contradicted within hours by events in the strait. Whether by design or coincidence, escalation in Hormuz has repeatedly arrived at the moments his diplomatic track needed quiet.

It did not stay at tankers. By Tuesday night the most significant exchange of fire in weeks was under way. US Central Command said it had struck Revolutionary Guards air defenses, radar, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites, with Iranian media reporting hits near the strait.

Iran said it struck American assets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq; Jordan reported intercepting 10 of 13 ballistic missiles, and a drone set a residential block alight in Kuwait City. The Guards claimed heavy American casualties in Jordan and Erbil. Two US officials told Reuters initial assessments found none.

The civilian toll was not in dispute. Five people were killed and dozens wounded near Sirik on the Hormuz coast, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, with the Mehr news agency reporting a four-year-old among the dead. Seven more were killed in strikes on Khuzestan province.

Pezeshkian, it should be said, was not offering peace. He paired his appeal for a mutual return to the Islamabad framework with a declaration that Iran remains prepared to fight, which is the standard formula and the reason his diplomacy has never been the alternative to the war camp that outsiders sometimes take it for.

Inside Iran the coverage and the anxiety pointed in different directions. Newspapers led on the fight over Hormuz and the arguments over the war and the nuclear file; the public was watching the exchange rate.

And when Pezeshkian's de-escalation push was defended at all, it was defended by his own side: outlets close to the administration were the only ones to amplify his son Yousuf and Vice President Jafar Ghaempanah, who spoke up for him.

Both sides want the same thing

What makes the collapse of the past week strange is that the two governments are asking for the same outcome.

At the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set out a dual-track strategy of financial pressure and calibrated military action, emphasizing economic isolation under Operation Economic Outcast over any broad expansion of the war.

Secondary sanctions and banking blockades, he said, are meant to force Tehran back to negotiations without committing ground forces.

That is, in substance, what Pezeshkian was asking for in Bishkek. Both capitals want a route back to talks. Neither can stop shooting long enough to find one.

A controlled cycle, for now

The shape of the conflict supports that reading. What is visible is a tit-for-tat pattern: targeted American strikes on Iran's mine-laying and air defense assets, localized Iranian missile and drone retaliation, both sides using maximum leverage without opening a sustained strategic bombing campaign.

Constraint is part of the explanation. Iran's war-damaged economy and degraded conventional forces have left it stretched, while the US Army has burned through much of its global stockpile of precision long-range missiles, as Reuters reported last month. Trump's own position is complicated by fuel prices rising ahead of November's congressional elections, and this week's strikes pushed oil to a five-week high and sent Asian stocks down.

The rhetoric has not adjusted. "I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing," Trump said, asking when Iranians would "rise up and fight." Iran's joint military command warned that any country aiding American action in the region would face "heavier, more widespread, and devastating responses."

Washington's attempt to assemble an economic coalition is meeting resistance from partners wary of further disruption to energy and trade, particularly amid tariff disputes. Major importers in Europe and Asia want maritime stability restored rather than prolonged hostilities.

In Bishkek, Xi urged all parties to end the conflict at Hormuz, warning that continued instability threatens energy routes for everyone, which is Iran's largest customer asking it, in public, to stop.

Qatar, which mediated the June ceasefire that swiftly unraveled, went further, holding Iran "fully legally responsible" for this week's attacks and their consequences.

Both sides are pursuing leverage rather than victory. The trouble with leverage is that it only works if the other side can concede, and nobody in Tehran has shown any sign of conceding on the strait.