Prince Pahlavi plans Australia visit to press government on Iran policy - The Australian

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.

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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  Iran fires back, but can missiles ease economic pain?

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.

“The government of the Republic of Peru has decided to sever diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Lima cited what it described as Iran’s repression of peaceful protests, restrictions on press freedom, discrimination against women and girls, and persecution of political opponents.

“Within the framework of its firm commitment to defending democracy, a fundamental principle of its foreign policy, Peru has observed with growing concern the deterioration of democracy in Iran, as documented by various United Nations mechanisms, particularly regarding the repression of peaceful protests, violations of press freedom, discrimination against women and girls, and the persecution of political opponents,” read the statement.

The ministry said Iranian restrictions and disruptions to international trade through Hormuz since March violated freedom of navigation, harmed energy markets and threatened global supply chains.

“The government of Peru views with deep concern the severe restrictions imposed by the Iranian regime, as well as the disruption of international trade through the Strait of Hormuz since March 2026, because they contravene principles such as freedom of navigation and the right of passage through straits used for international maritime transit, which cannot be subject to unilateral conditions, while also affecting navigational safety, the protection of human life at sea and the preservation of the marine environment, in addition to their repercussions for energy prices and the stability of global supply chains,” the foreign ministry said.

Lima also linked the diplomatic rupture to broader security concerns, accusing Tehran of fueling regional violence and denying UN nuclear inspectors’ access to facilities needed to verify that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.

“The government of Peru also strongly rejects Iran’s incitement to violence and the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East, as well as its obstruction of the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” it said.

Peru will maintain consular relations to protect the two countries’ citizens and interests. The decision was communicated to Tehran through Iran’s embassy in Ecuador, which also covers Peru.

Iranian authorities did not immediately respond to Peru’s decision.

Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court convicted Zarei of “corruption on Earth,” based on alleged acts including extensive political activity, producing false news, propaganda against the establishment, disrupting security and unauthorized entry into and exit from the country, according to HRANA.

The death sentence was communicated to him on August 23, HRANA said.

Zarei, around 27 and from Tehran, was arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents on April 28 after returning to Iran. His case was initially handled by Branch 3 of Tehran Prosecutor’s Office District 33, known as the Security Prosecutor’s Office, before he was transferred to Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on June 30.

He is currently being held in Unit 3, Ward 37 of the prison, according to HRANA.

Zarei lost sight in his right eye after being shot during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests. He was later detained in December 2023 while visiting the graves of protesters killed in the crackdown at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery and spent 33 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prison.

He subsequently left Iran and reached Germany on a humanitarian visa.

While in Germany, Zarei appeared on stage at a February 14 rally in Munich held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference alongside exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi who had called for the gathering.

Iranian authorities have increasingly used the death penalty against protesters and political dissidents. Amnesty International has accused authorities of continuing to “weaponize the death penalty to repress dissent,” saying politically motivated death sentences have followed grossly unfair trials.

Last month, Norway-based Iran Human Rights said 29 people arrested in connection with the January 2026 protests had been executed since March 19, in addition to two protesters from the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement. The group said hundreds of protesters were facing the death penalty and warned of an escalation in executions of political prisoners.

The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran has also said authorities are increasingly using fast-tracked group prosecutions to sentence protesters to death, describing the practice as part of a strategy to punish those who joined protests and deter future dissent.