Iran's judiciary said six officers had been indicted over the abuse of a teenager in Tabriz, but did not include sexual assault among the charges despite video that showed the boy being sexually humiliated by police.
Mizan, the judiciary's news agency, said on Thursday the officers faced charges including “violating citizens' rights,” “creating public distrust toward the armed forces” and “intentional assault.”
The outlet described the case only as “inappropriate treatment of an individual” and did not mention that the person was a teenager.
Video circulated on social media showed several uniformed officers beating the teenager as others laughed, insulted him and filmed the abuse. At one point, an officer appeared to expose or touch the boy's buttocks while others watched.
The footage triggered widespread anger on Iranian social media, with much of the outrage focused not only on the violence but also on the officers' joking and apparent sexual humiliation of the teenager.
As President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived for the UN General Assembly, the messages came in with a phrase that recurred until it became the story's own name: the "killers in suits." The demand attached to it was the same almost every time. Arrest them.
Voices from Iran draws on messages sent to Iran International by people inside the country. Names are withheld for their safety.
The demand
A writer from Fardis, on the western edge of Karaj, pointed to the latest human rights reports and asked why officials responsible for crushing 40,000 protesters in January were not being detained in New York.
Another wrote simply that now they were there, this was a good chance to arrest Pezeshkian and Araghchi.
The UN fact-finding mission on Iran said in its new report that many of the violations committed in the crackdown on the January 2026 protests, including murder, imprisonment and severe deprivation of liberty, amounted to crimes against humanity. Its chair, Sara Hossain, said the true number of victims could be "significantly" higher than the government's own figure.
One writer suggested that while the officials were at the United Nations, footage and documents of the killings should be handed to the same body. Others addressed Donald Trump directly, asking him to act on the crackdown rather than host or negotiate with the delegation.
And several turned to Zohran Mamdani, who as a candidate for mayor of New York said he would have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli prime minister set foot in the city, citing the International Criminal Court warrant against him.
"The mayor of New York who wanted to arrest Netanyahu," one wrote, "does he by any chance not intend to arrest the criminals in suits who sit on the Supreme National Security Council and whose signatures are on the massacre of January 8 and 9?"
The visas
A second thread was anger at what writers called the West's double standard: condemning the repression while receiving the men accused of it.
"My question is this," one wrote. "Didn't Mr. Trump always talk about the January massacre? So why has he given visas to the ringleaders of the killers of Iran's children?"
The State Department has said that admitting the core members of the Iranian delegation was an obligation Washington carries as host of the United Nations, and that the delegation's movements were restricted. The US government also agreed to Araghchi's request for a security detail during his stay.
"Bodies attached to the United Nations say the leaders of the Islamic Republic have committed crimes against humanity," another writer addressed the president. "Why are they now freely, and even under your escort, in America and at the UN?"
Not everyone expected an arrest. One writer said it was probably beyond the West to detain the officials, and proposed instead that Iranians abroad gather outside UN headquarters.
'A puppet'
The other constant in the messages was that Pezeshkian does not decide anything, and that his presence at the UN is a performance of the system that does.
Writers called him a marionette, a wind-up doll, and the tea boy of the power mafia, and called the trip a circus staged for legitimacy.
Some pointed to how little it achieved. One wrote that for years the Islamic Republic's only gain from attending the UN had been shopping in New York, and that Trump had taken even that away.
Last September the State Department restricted the Iranian delegation's access to wholesale and luxury stores during its stay.
Beneath the mockery ran a fear. Several writers worried that a deal might be struck, and that the file on the killings would be pushed aside for it.
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s decision to leave the government’s “hands open” in negotiations reflected significant strategic judgment.
“If the Supreme Leader has deemed it expedient and left the government’s hands open in the negotiations, that is an important act of prudence,” Safavi said in a televised interview.
He also pointed to coordination between Iran’s military and political leadership and said he hoped decisions by the Supreme National Security Council would help prevent another war.
The remarks provided rare public confirmation from a senior military figure that Pezeshkian’s government has the leadership’s approval to pursue negotiations. They followed a day of indirect exchanges between Iranian and US delegations in New York, though major differences remain over Washington’s naval blockade and Tehran’s conditions for ending the conflict.
The prospect of diplomacy also exposed competing views inside Iran over how far Pezeshkian should go.
Lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei and the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim and Fars news agencies criticized Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff. Rezaei questioned its authorization and called it a “sign of weakness,” while the outlets argued that it rewarded Washington and eased pressure on the United States.
Reformist politician Gholamhossein Karbaschi, meanwhile, said the president should meet Trump to help resolve the country’s problems, echoing a similar appeal from senior reformist figure Mehdi Karroubi.
Lawmaker Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani went further, predicting that a Pezeshkian-Trump meeting would take place in New York.
“In my view, the meeting between Pezeshkian and Trump will take place,” he said. “Last year, Pezeshkian decided to meet, but the Americans did not show up.”
Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, also advocated acquiring a nuclear weapon before leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“Buy or build the atomic bomb, then say you are withdrawing from the NPT,” he said, while acknowledging that senior officials were not currently seeking withdrawal.
The competing statements illustrated the political constraints surrounding the New York diplomacy: Pezeshkian is said to have received apparent backing to negotiate, but officials and political factions remain divided over direct contact with Trump and the concessions Iran should seek or offer.
Those talks are unfolding as US economic pressure begins to narrow Iran’s international connections. Iranian airlines continued operating some foreign services Wednesday after a US deadline aimed at grounding the country’s fleet by threatening sanctions against companies providing fuel, ground handling, ticketing and other services.
Bloomberg cited flight-tracking data showing at least six flights leaving Iran for destinations including Bangkok, Phuket, Shanghai and Kabul after the restrictions took effect.
But the pressure appeared to be uneven rather than ineffective. Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said flights to Baghdad and Muscat had been canceled, while Azerbaijan suspended Iranian airline services and Turkish Airlines halted its flights to Iran until at least March 2027.
The restrictions add urgency to Tehran’s diplomacy by extending the economic confrontation beyond shipping and oil into civilian aviation. At home, however, authorities sought to show that wartime damage was being repaired.
An Oil Ministry official said around half of the damaged capacity at the South Pars gas field had returned to service and that the remaining planned restoration work would be completed before winter.
At the same time, a report of a deeper Iranian military role in Yemen showed how the conflict continues to extend across the region. IRGC personnel were on the ground helping the Houthis seize Yemen’s Red Sea coast from pro-government forces, the Associated Press reported, citing 10 officials and soldiers.
The report said Iranian personnel helped direct a rapid 115-kilometer offensive, marking Tehran’s most direct intervention on behalf of the Houthis since Yemen’s civil war began in 2014. Houthi forces also penetrated the communications of the National Resistance, allowing them to monitor movements and sow confusion.
That reported intervention could complicate efforts to contain the conflict while Tehran and Washington negotiate. Iran is signaling that its government has authority to pursue an agreement, but its regional military posture and the expanding sanctions campaign continue to generate pressure that could either drive diplomacy forward or deepen the confrontation.
Tar balls have been reported in several parts of Hormozgan province, including Soro and Golshahr in Bandar Abbas, with additional sightings reported in Hormuz and Minab, ISNA said.
Habib Masihi Taziani, head of Hormozgan’s environmental protection department, told ISNA that the amount found in Sirik was substantial and that experts were still assessing the extent of the contamination.
“The volume of tar balls in Sirik is significant,” he said, adding that authorities had begun work to manage the pollution with fisheries officials, port authorities, the Sirik governor’s office and the provincial crisis management agency.
Pollution reaches shrimp farming channels
The spread to the entrances of shrimp farming channels in Sirik has raised concern because aquaculture facilities there are directly connected to coastal waters.
Masihi Taziani told ISNA that conventional suction equipment was not effective for removing the tar balls.
“Collecting these oil masses with suction equipment is difficult,” he said. “Efforts are continuing to contain them and collect them using absorbent pads and other equipment.”
Tar balls are weathered remnants of petroleum products that can travel across the sea before washing ashore.
Officials warn pollution could persist for years
Ahmadreza Lahijanzadeh, deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment for marine affairs, told ISNA the tar balls could cause significant damage to coastal and marine ecosystems.
“These oil masses can cause considerable environmental damage, and the resulting pollution can affect coastal and marine ecosystems,” he said.
Lahijanzadeh said organic compounds and heavy metals contained in the material could gradually enter the water and spread through the marine environment.
“The effects of this type of pollution are not limited to the period when the tar balls are visible on the coast,” he told ISNA.
“The entry and accumulation of these materials can cause pollution to remain in the sea for a long time, even for years,” he added, calling for continued monitoring and measures to identify and contain it.
The latest sightings follow several oil pollution incidents along Iran’s southern coastline in recent weeks.
In August, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that oil had reached mangrove forests on Qeshm island after slicks appeared near Suza and Shib Deraz. Authorities said at the time that the source had not been determined.
Mehr news agency reported that the pollution had initially been detected along about one kilometer of coast near Suza before spreading toward Shib Deraz.
TankerTrackers.com later said the Qeshm pollution appeared to have come from an Iranian attack on the bulk carrier Minoan Pioneer off Oman on August 3, with the spill drifting across the Strait of Hormuz toward Iran. Iranian authorities did not confirm that assessment.
Tanker spills add to pollution concerns
A separate spill was reported off Oman after the tanker Caroline Bezengi, carrying Russian crude, ran aground.
The UN’s International Maritime Organization said oil from the vessel had begun reaching Oman’s mainland, while Oman’s Environment Authority said the slick covered about 150 square miles near the Hallaniyat Islands.
Reuters, citing maritime security sources, reported that the vessel’s crew had first reported difficulties off Yemen in June and that initial assessments pointed to an onboard blast.
