Frozen embryos advertised for sale online in Iran

Rising foreign exchange rates, sanctions and difficulties obtaining specialized equipment have become major challenges for the industry, where many mines still rely on traditional or semi-mechanized methods, said the report.

“There is an inverse relationship between the exchange rate and the provision of equipment; the more expensive foreign currency becomes, the less financial capacity employers have to provide safety,” Ebrahim Rahimian, executive secretary of the Tabas Workers’ House, told ILNA.

Many components used in mine monitoring and safety systems are imported and have no domestically produced alternatives, Rahimian said.

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  Iran oil workers protest pay conditions at offshore platforms, Assaluyeh

Employers, he added, still have options to obtain equipment if they prioritize worker safety, including raising the necessary funds to purchase imported products at market exchange rates.

Deadly record in Iran’s mines

Workplace accidents, according to ILNA, remain a persistent problem in Iran, with coal mines among the most dangerous workplaces because of the conditions involved in underground extraction.

A collapse at the Parvadeh Tabas Coal Company mine killed a worker on April 29 in one of the latest fatal accidents.

A methane explosion at a coal mine in Tabas killed 53 workers in September 2024, drawing renewed attention to safety standards in Iran’s mining industry.

The economic pressures affecting mine operators have intensified as the rial has lost value, making imported machinery and specialized equipment more expensive.

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Sharp currency fluctuations have also complicated financial planning for businesses as Iran contends with sanctions and persistent inflation.

Underground mines need advanced monitoring

Coal miners working underground require more than personal protective equipment such as boots and gloves, Rahimian said.

Advanced systems, he added, are needed to continuously monitor gas concentrations and pressure in layers above underground workings, providing information directly connected to workers’ safety.

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  Iranian workers report layoffs, months of unpaid wages

Workers at mining companies in Tabas, Kerman, Zarand and Jiroft continue to operate using traditional or semi-mechanized methods, with only one company providing an exception, according to Rahimian.

Training is another essential part of reducing the dangers workers face underground, particularly in preparing them to respond to emergencies, he said.

“Continuous training and retraining is the minimum right of the workforce and must not be stopped at any cost.”

The combination of aging mining practices, costly imported safety technology and mounting economic pressure has left workers exposed to hazards that previous deadly accidents have already demonstrated can carry severe consequences.

Trump told Fox News he was in a “deciding mode” over Iran and expected “very big things” soon. The network described the options under consideration as military action, allowing economic pressure to continue or reaching an agreement.

“My question is, if and when, do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave,” Trump told Fox News.

Trump also said he would probably be open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the UN General Assembly, leaving diplomacy on the table despite his warnings.

Hormuz remains central

Iranian officials continued to present the Strait of Hormuz as a source of leverage. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded to a September 17 JPMorgan oil-market report that said the bank no longer had a baseline view for how the conflict would end.

“This endgame cannot be modeled. It will be opened, and Iran's hand is already on the lever,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

JPMorgan said assumptions underlying its earlier outlook had been overtaken by events and that it could no longer confidently model an endgame.

“For the first time since the start of the Iran conflict, we don't have a baseline view. We simply don't know how to model the endgame,” the report said.

Pressure around the waterway was also visible in maritime traffic. US Central Command said its forces had redirected 109 commercial vessels to ensure compliance by September 20.

A separate maritime security update from the UKMTO-linked Joint Maritime Information Center recorded four tankers involved in attacks or suspicious activity near the Strait over the past week. Two cases were recorded on September 17 and another two on September 18.

The economic consequences remain significant for Persian Gulf producers. QatarEnergy chief executive Saad al-Kaabi said normal gas operations could resume within weeks of the Strait reopening, but warned that disruption to shipments of critical equipment could delay the country’s expansion plans.

Iran keeps diplomatic channel open

Iranian officials also emphasized their willingness to negotiate. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran did not want war and considered conflict harmful to both the country and the wider world, but would not yield to force or intimidation.

“We do not want war and conflict and consider them harmful not only to the people of our country but to the world. At the same time, we will in no way yield to force and bullying,” Pezeshkian said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left for New York with a diplomatic delegation to attend the UN General Assembly, state media reported. Araghchi made a brief stop in Qatar before continuing to New York.

Some lawmakers, meanwhile, raised the prospect of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and changing the country’s nuclear-weapons policy.

The developments highlighted the competing signals coming from Tehran as President Donald Trump’s administration weighed its next move in the nearly seven-month war. Trump returned to the White House from Camp David on Saturday evening, a day earlier than scheduled, without an official explanation.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said it had received information that Washington, with approval from some regional countries, was preparing at a meeting in Europe to resume action against Iran.

“Every US base and interest in the region, without restriction or consideration, will be targeted by sustained, effective and painful attacks,” the command said.

It also warned that regional states supporting an American attack would be treated as participants and “could no longer expect restraint or leniency from Iran’s powerful armed forces.”

US diplomatic missions in nine Middle Eastern countries have meanwhile urged Americans to exercise heightened vigilance, warning of possible rapid escalation, flight cancellations and airspace closures. The alerts said Iran and Tehran-aligned groups could target US interests or locations associated with Americans.

The US military has also said it is strengthening regional air defenses, forming a coalition attack-drone unit and working with partners to keep the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters open.

Iranian officials responded with renewed assertions of control over the strategic waterway. IRGC deputy commander Mostafa Izadi said the strait remained under the control of Iran’s armed forces, while lawmaker Mohsen Zanganeh said restrictions there could impose significant economic pressure on the United States and other countries.

“The Strait of Hormuz is in Iran’s hands,” Zanganeh said, arguing that disruption would raise energy and production costs in East Asia and affect US technology companies with manufacturing operations there.

Against the military threats, Ghalibaf rejected the idea that Iran must choose between war and diplomacy.

“We must fight rationally and forcefully, and negotiate at the appropriate time with authority and reason,” he told a virtual session of parliament on Sunday.

Ghalibaf criticized two positions within Iran’s political establishment. He said one advocated war without presenting a credible path toward ending it and rejected diplomacy at the risk of drawing Iran into an open-ended conflict. The other, he said, underestimated the country’s capabilities and promoted accepting the adversary’s unilateral demands.

The first approach would keep Iran in a state of permanent crisis, while the second would sacrifice national resources and dignity, Ghalibaf said.

His remarks followed comments by Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, who said Tehran had sent Washington seven conditions for renewed negotiations. Rezaei told Al Jazeera that Iran was seeking an end to the war on all fronts, the release of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the US naval blockade.

Rezaei said Qatar had conveyed Iran’s terms and Tehran was awaiting Trump’s response. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said Turkey and other countries had presented new proposals to Washington and Tehran.

The diplomatic signals were accompanied by increasingly explicit statements by lawmakers about Iran’s nuclear policy.

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of parliament’s national security committee, said renewed negotiations with the United States would be meaningless and warned that Iran could reconsider its NPT membership if remaining in the treaty no longer served its national interests.

Azizi also threatened the International Atomic Energy Agency with “serious and regrettable responses” if it continued what he described as one-sided conduct.

Another lawmaker, Hosseinali Hajideligani, said remaining in the NPT brought Iran nothing but harm and urged parliament’s leadership to consider an urgent motion submitted by a group of lawmakers seeking withdrawal from the treaty.

“It is in our interest to withdraw from the NPT,” he said.

Tehran representative Kamran Ghazanfari went further, raising the possibility of a change in the country’s position on nuclear weapons if the survival of the Islamic Republic came under serious threat.

“If conditions change in such a way that we feel the existence of the Islamic Republic is seriously threatened, the leadership could take a position on nuclear weapons,” Ghazanfari said.

The comments stopped short of announcing a policy change. Rezaei said Saturday that Tehran remained committed to slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons and had not altered its doctrine, while adding: “We do not know what will happen in the future.”

The growing debate nevertheless marked a sharper public challenge to Iran’s longstanding declared nuclear position at a moment when military threats, maritime pressure and mediated diplomatic efforts were unfolding simultaneously.

Sasan Zare, spokesman for the Janfada campaign, said the main organisation of volunteers would be based around adults aged 18 and over, but acknowledged that younger people were also being brought into the initiative.

“The stronger their value system is formed from childhood, and the more familiar they become with concepts such as patriotism and self-sacrifice, the more significant the impact can be on their future,” Zare told the Iranian news agency ILNA.

Those registered with the campaign were over 15, he said, while women taking part in its training courses were over 18. For children below that age, Zare said the emphasis should be on patriotism, responsibility, first aid, safety and what he called a “culture of self-sacrifice and resistance.”

The Islamic Republic has stepped up a broad campaign to mobilise civilians since the US-Israeli war began in February.

The Janfada initiative was launched in late March, and authorities have since promoted registration through mosques, Basij bases and public events, alongside plans for military and emergency-response training.

The campaign has drawn scrutiny over the involvement of minors, with rights groups accusing Iranian authorities of recruiting children into the Basij and using them at checkpoints.

Amnesty International said in April that Iranian law allows children under 15 to join as ordinary Basij members, while those aged 15 and over can become active Basij members and collaborate with the Revolutionary Guards on assigned missions.

The rights group said it had verified evidence of children as young as 12 deployed at checkpoints and patrols, including some carrying rifles.

Iran International has separately received accounts from several provinces describing children and teenagers taking part in checkpoint operations and handling weapons at state-sponsored gatherings.

Asked specifically about teenagers being used at checkpoints, Zare said he did not know how such deployments were being carried out because checkpoints fell under the authority of local police and security bodies.

His campaign, he said, provided training related to urban and public security, while the units deploying volunteers would decide whether they were used at checkpoints.

Taraneh Rahimi, 20, is being held alongside her twin sister Romina at Dowlatabad Prison in Isfahan. Their cousin, Masoud Nourmohammadi, told Iran International’s Eye for Iran that Taraneh’s condition has deteriorated as her lawyers race to appeal her death sentence.

“Taraneh could not walk,” Nourmohammadi said. “The (hospital) doctor says you have to go to the hospital and be hospitalized and get an MRI to see what’s going on with your leg because it is in bad shape,” he said.

Nourmohammadi said the doctor considered the treatment urgent, but prison authorities refused to allow Taraneh to leave for hospital.

Her family also purchased medical equipment and medication for her and brought the supplies to the prison, he said, but authorities did not allow them to reach her.

The allegations come days after Nourmohammadi told Iran International that prison authorities had stopped providing Taraneh with food, forcing her to rely on leftovers shared by other prisoners.

“They stopped giving Taraneh food a few days back,” he said. “They ask her to use other people’s leftovers and eat those. Who does that?”

‘If you don’t confess, we’re going to rape your sister’

The new allegations come as lawyers for the twins have finally been given access to their case file after months of waiting, according to Nourmohammadi.

He said the lawyers found no substantive evidence tying Taraneh or Romina to violence during the January protests and are now preparing an appeal.

“Their consensus is that there’s no evidence against those two girls in the case,” he said. “The only thing that is left … is basically their confession.”

The family says those confessions were obtained through torture and threats of sexual violence.

“They told Taraneh, ‘If you don’t confess, we’re going to rape your sister in front of you,’” Nourmohammadi said.

He said lawyers are also filing a complaint over the alleged torture and sexual abuse of the sisters while in custody.

Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran have documented allegations of torture, coerced confessions and serious due-process violations involving defendants in the Shohada Square case.

Taraneh and Romina were among 16 defendants prosecuted over events surrounding protests in Isfahan in January. Ten of the defendants, including Taraneh, received death sentences, while Romina was sentenced to decades in prison.

The defendants faced charges including moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” destruction of public property, assembly and collusion against national security and propaganda against the state.

Rights groups have said none of the 16 defendants was charged with murder, despite prosecutors linking the case to incidents in which two people died.

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‘A few days left’ to appeal

Nourmohammadi said the family believes only days remain in the formal window for lawyers to appeal Taraneh’s death sentence, adding that the family remains deeply concerned that authorities could move more quickly.

“You never know with that regime,” he said. “Anything can happen. It’s unpredictable.”

The sisters were 19 when security forces arrested them separately on January 24, weeks after they joined demonstrations around Isfahan’s Shohada Square. They have since turned 20 in prison.

Before her arrest, Taraneh was an equestrian and horse trainer. She had previously undergone surgery on her leg following a riding injury, according to her family.

Nourmohammadi alleges interrogators knew about the injury and deliberately targeted the same leg during torture.

When the twins’ mother was eventually permitted to see her daughters after roughly three months without knowing where they were being held, Nourmohammadi said Taraneh was already limping.

He said she also had broken fingers and knuckles and alleged that both sisters had lost much of their hair after being dragged between cells by their hair.

‘She wanted a life for her kids’

The twins’ mother raised Taraneh and Romina as a single parent.

For roughly three months after their arrests, she did not know where her daughters were being held. Family members searched hospitals, courthouses and prisons, at times waiting outside detention facilities seeking information.

When their mother was eventually allowed to see them, Nourmohammadi said the twins had swollen faces, bruises and significant hair loss.

After Taraneh was sentenced to death, he said his aunt was so devastated that she has barely been able to speak.

Instead, she wrote a message about raising her daughters and working to give them a future.

“She was a single mom. She worked really hard for her kids,” Nourmohammadi said. “She wanted a life for her kids. She didn’t want a prison or execution and a rope around their neck.”