European Parliament lawmaker Hannah Neumann said she had declined a meeting request from Iran’s ambassador to France, citing the government’s treatment of critics and efforts to target dissidents abroad and spy on European representatives.
“I have received a request for a meeting with the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic to France. I declined it,” Neumann wrote on X. “My door is open to the people of Iran. It is not open to those who represent and execute their repression.”
In her reply to Iran’s embassy, Neumann said the Islamic Republic “does not represent Iran or the Iranian people.”
“The Iranian people are the legitimate source of sovereignty in Iran. A regime that imprisons, tortures and kills people for demanding freedom cannot claim to speak in their name,” she wrote.
Neumann said the Islamic Republic pursues dissidents, journalists and human rights defenders abroad through “intimidation, surveillance, cyber operations, abduction and lethal plots.”
She said an Iranian-linked cyber-espionage operation had targeted her and her parliamentary office, attempting to access their communications and information about her work and contacts.
She voiced support for European Parliament President Roberta Metsola’s decision to bar Iranian diplomatic staff and representatives from the parliament, and said she would not move the meeting to an embassy or another venue.
“There will therefore be no meeting with Ambassador Nejad, inside or outside the European Parliament,” Neumann wrote.
She said her door remained open to Iranians and those fighting for “freedom, democracy and a free Iran.”
The accounts from Dastgerd Prison in the central city of Isfahan describe crowded wards, poor sanitation and severe obstacles to treatment, with several people familiar with conditions there describing the spread of meningitis and other infections.
“Meningitis and colds are rampant in the prison, and there are no pills or medicine,” a former prisoner told Iran International.
Around 10,000 people are being held at Dastgerd, compared with a standard capacity of about 4,000 to 5,000, according to information.
Food shortages compound overcrowding
Nutrition is so poor that many prisoners have become physically weak and more vulnerable to illness.
Breakfast is not distributed on some days, and lunch and dinner are rationed. Food can also be difficult to obtain from the prison shop, even as cigarettes remain consistently available and various drugs are easily accessible inside.
Some wards hold between 1,300 and 1,500 prisoners, another person familiar with conditions at Dastgerd said. The combination of overcrowding and inadequate sanitation has helped diseases spread.
Prisoners, particularly political ones, in some cases deprived of phone calls, treatment, medicine, adequate food, sanitation, correspondence and some judicial rights.
Iran International reported on July 21 that prisoners must register to visit the medical center. In rooms housing around 40 people, only two are allowed to seek medical attention each week.
Meningitis spreads as prisoner deaths mount
Several accounts received in recent months point to the spread of meningitis at Dastgerd. Iran International previously reported that the disease had reached several wards and that a number of prisoners were transferred to hospital.
Two prisoners had meningitis when one former inmate arrived at Dastgerd. One suffered a seizure in the admissions section and died, while the other died after being transferred to hospital.
The former inmate said prisoners had in previous years received meningitis and tetanus vaccines upon arrival, but the vaccinations were no longer being administered during the person's recent detention.
More than 70 prisoners have died from illnesses over roughly the past five months, according to another person familiar with conditions at the prison. At least 15 of those who had died by September 21 were from a single ward.
Prisoners suspected of having meningitis have in some cases been sent to hospitals for spinal fluid testing. Some were returned to Dastgerd before completing treatment and recovering.
The prison is also infested with bedbugs and other pests, according to accounts. Recent Iran International coverage documented bedbugs, fleas and ticks alongside increasing skin conditions and infections in the wards.
Blankets and bedding are heavily contaminated, one former prisoner said, with some inmates developing serious eye infections that leave them unable to open their eyes in the morning.
The person needed nearly two months of treatment after being released on bail, including regular injections and intravenous fluids during the first two weeks.
Fever, chills, body aches and infections of the lungs, throat, eyes and ears were widespread. Some prisoners contracted several illnesses at once, leaving them severely weakened.
Medicine shortages restrict treatment
Severe medicine shortages have compounded the health problems, while political prisoners can face particular difficulties gaining access to the prison clinic.
Denial of treatment has in some cases been used to exert pressure on political prisoners, according to one former inmate.
Prison authorities told inmates that the clinic had burned down, that medicine was unavailable and that there was no budget to buy supplies.
One prisoner offered to deposit 500 million rials into a prison account to pay for medicine. The offer was accepted, but most of the supplies subsequently purchased were acetaminophen and basic cold remedies, with insufficient antibiotics available for serious infections.
Families have also tried to bring necessary medication into the prison, only for authorities in some cases to refuse delivery or confiscate part of the medicine during inspections.
Sedatives, sleeping pills and drugs, by contrast, are widely available among prisoners, according to the former inmate.
Trump used his address to the United Nations General Assembly this week to call for Iran's “complete economic isolation,” while saying he believed a deal could come after the November midterm elections.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said Tehran would not surrender to US pressure but remained open to diplomacy.
The two sides held their first indirect talks in months on the sidelines of the UN gathering but remained far apart on how to end the war, including over Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Ludovic Hood, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who spent two decades as a US diplomat and previously served as special adviser for the Middle East to Vice President Mike Pence, told Iran International's Eye for Iran that the approaching elections may help explain the current pause.
“We have elections coming up in America that I think have partly bounded President Trump’s willingness to be more confrontational at this point in time,” Hood said.
He described the conflict as a “standoff” with “more chapters to be written,” saying Trump could face a decision over whether to escalate again after the midterms or as the United States enters the new year.
“He may seek to escalate again militarily,” Hood said.
Potential targets could include commercial and economic assets inside Iran owned by or directly linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he said, if Trump chooses to intensify the campaign.
Pressure without political change
Iran has suffered major military losses while contending with a US naval blockade and an expanding sanctions campaign. Yet nearly seven months into the war, those pressures have not produced fundamental political change in Tehran.
Hood cautioned against assuming that battlefield losses automatically translate into political change. Instead, he pointed to the cumulative impact of declining revenues, sanctions, domestic discontent and potential strains within the institutions responsible for protecting the state.
He described the Islamic Republic as “about as vulnerable as it’s been in 47 years,” pointing in particular to questions about the government's ability to continue paying salaries, including those of security forces.
“To me, a fifth uprising is a question of when, not if,” he said.
Hood said some people advising Trump have made the case that the collapse of the Islamic Republic is possible, while emphasizing that he was not predicting whether or when that would happen.
Washington has continued tightening economic pressure even as negotiations resumed in New York. New US restrictions on Iran's aviation sector have contributed to the loss of international routes, with additional Iraqi destinations restricting Iranian connections this week.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also urging Washington to maintain sanctions and the naval blockade rather than make concessions prematurely, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Both governments nevertheless oppose further US military escalation, according to the report.
Hood said the significance of Washington's economic campaign lies not simply in announcing additional sanctions, but in enforcing existing measures and steadily reducing the resources available to Tehran.
Despite the resumption of diplomacy in New York, no breakthrough has emerged. A senior Iranian official told Reuters this week that the two sides remained far apart.
That leaves Washington confronting a larger question: whether the pressure already imposed can fundamentally alter Tehran’s behavior, or whether the current pause will ultimately give way to another round of military escalation.
The answer may become clearer after November—when both Washington and Tehran appear to believe the political calculus could change.
