Parliament panel clears Hormuz security bill for floor vote

Iran reviews US response

Iran’s seven-day proposal, outlined by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in New York, was sent to Washington through intermediaries and the United States subsequently provided its views on the plan, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Sunday.

“The proposal that Mr. Araghchi outlined in New York, Iran’s seven-day plan, was sent to the United States through intermediaries, and they provided their views on the plan,” Gharibabadi said.

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  Iranian press sees diplomacy alive but narrowing after US response

The US response is being reviewed inside Iran and Tehran will communicate its final position through the appropriate channel once that process is complete, Gharibabadi said. Iran was also maintaining readiness for “other scenarios,” he added.

Parliament deputy speaker Hamid-Reza Haji Babaei separately said negotiations with Washington were taking place, while expressing little confidence that they would ultimately produce an understanding.

“Negotiations with the United States are in fact underway now,” Haji Babaei said.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said US proposals had recently been conveyed through Qatar, although he did not know their details.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said US proposals remained focused on the nuclear issue and Iran had already responded. He also rejected President Donald Trump’s remark that Washington did not know who represented Iran in negotiations, saying a six-member committee under the Supreme National Security Council was overseeing the process.

Lawmakers differ on further talks

Despite the exchanges, parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said there were no unresolved substantive issues requiring new negotiations.

“We are, in my view, at a post-negotiations stage both on the Strait of Hormuz and on the conditions,” Ghashghavi said.

Another committee member, Ebrahim Rezaei, said Iran would not retreat from its conditions and presented diplomacy and military pressure as the alternatives facing Washington.

“The Americans must either surrender to our diplomats or surrender to Iran’s missiles. We have no other proposal for them,” Rezaei said.

Nuclear debate continues as rial falls

The nuclear program remained part of the diplomatic debate. Baghaei said Iran remained bound by its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for as long as it remained a member.

Parliament will consider a possible withdrawal from the NPT while maintaining uranium enrichment, parliament board member Alireza Salimi said.

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  US ‘feedback’ leaves Iran debating the price of diplomacy

Iran is also considering a Russian offer to take custody of its uranium enriched to 60%, with a final decision to be based on its national interests, Baghaei said.

The diplomatic maneuvering coincided with further pressure on Iran’s currency, with the US dollar rising above 2.7 million rials on the free market on Sunday.

The statements put the focus on Tehran’s review of Washington’s response, with Iranian officials differing over whether the next step requires further negotiations or a decision on proposals already exchanged.

The dollar traded at 2.723 million rials on the open market earlier on October 4, up 1.3% from the previous day.

The euro climbed above 3.06 million rials and the British pound surpassed 3.59 million rials.

US pressure targets oil revenue

Washington has sought in recent weeks to restrict the Iranian government's financial lifelines through a naval blockade, efforts to prevent Iranian oil exports and measures targeting channels used to move oil revenue.

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  Iran’s rial hits another record low under economic and military pressure

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on October 3 that Iran would have no oil cargoes on the water this week and would earn no revenue from such shipments, describing it as a first.

Bessent described the US military campaign, naval blockade and economic isolation of the Islamic Republic as interconnected elements of Washington’s strategy.

Iranian parliament deputy speaker Ali Nikzad had earlier said the United States would “never” be able to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.

Government moves to curb currency slide

Iranian authorities are seeking ways to contain the currency’s decline and inflation as economic pressure increases.

Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported on Sunday that five Iranian banks were selling up to $10,000 to each person over 18 at a rate of 2.57 million rials per dollar on the second day of an official foreign currency program.

The banks participating in the program are Mellat, Tejarat, Melli, Saderat and Saman, according to Tasnim.

Lawmaker Mehdi Kouchakzadeh criticized the central bank program during an online parliamentary session on Sunday, questioning why it had been introduced at what he described as a time of severe foreign currency shortages.

“Other than their friends, dealers and thieves, who can afford to buy this $10,000?” Kouchakzadeh said. “This is money for butterfly skin patients and struggling people that is going into the pockets of capitalists and thieves.”

Kouchakzadeh called the policy a “crime” and urged parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to prevent its implementation.

The physical management of foreign currency was of “fundamental importance,” Ghalibaf said in response, promising to pursue the issue.

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  As the rial sinks, Iranians seek shelter in almost anything else

Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei attended a meeting of the government’s economic coordination headquarters on October 3 and said the country was going through one of its most difficult periods.

Despite the deepening economic crisis and growing pressure on citizens, the Islamic Republic continues to pursue policies that have fueled confrontation, particularly its standoff with the United States and its nuclear program.

“We have a decision that I’ll make about Iran,” Trump told reporters. “Iran has been decimated, so the only question is it’ll either be the easy way or the hard way.”

Trump also said Iran was “virtually giving up” any plans to obtain a nuclear weapon, while reiterating that Tehran would never be allowed to acquire one.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a clearer indication of what the harder option could involve, saying the Pentagon was working to ensure Trump retained “all the options he needs on the table” if Iran refused to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

“Iran will never, ever, ever have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said, describing Trump as “hell-bent and determined” to prevent it.

Pentagon preserves military options

Hegseth declined to say whether the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, dispatched from San Diego last week, would be sent to the Middle East, saying his job was to give Trump the widest possible “decision space.”

He said Iran was trying to rebuild missile and other military capabilities damaged by US strikes but argued that damage to its defense industry had slowed that effort.

The military pressure has remained concentrated around the Strait of Hormuz, where Hegseth claimed Washington, rather than Tehran, now controlled the waterway. He described the US blockade as “ironclad” and said traffic was moving back toward pre-war levels.

Commercial vessels, however, continue to face attacks.

Iranian state media reported Saturday that another oil tanker had been hit in the strait. The IRGC-affiliated Fars News identified the vessel as the Ore Vinst and claimed it had been traveling under US escort when it was targeted while heading toward Oman.

The United States has not reacted to the claim yet.

The incident followed a series of attacks on ships transiting Hormuz even as Washington has escorted vessels through the waterway and sought to restore energy flows.

US says pressure campaign is cutting Iran’s revenue

The blockade is also intended to deny Tehran the oil income Washington says it needs to rebuild its military capabilities.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran would have no oil shipments at sea this week and therefore no revenue from those cargoes, describing the blockade and subsequent economic isolation as the next stages of a campaign that began with US military strikes.

“We had kinetic [action], we destroyed their navy, their air force, substantially depleted their drone and missile capability,” Bessent said.

“Then we went to what the president calls the Iron Wall and the blockade,” he added. “And now we have Operation Economic Outcast and we are isolating them economically like it’s never happened before.”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also said Iranian oil exports had been “stopped completely” and cited a Bloomberg report putting inflation at almost 90%.

Iran’s government has acknowledged increasing economic pressure while rejecting Washington’s claim that its strategy is succeeding.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday his government had adopted a “new posture” to manage what he described as exceptional conditions.

“The enemy’s plan in recent months has been to cut the country’s vital arteries with the aim of putting pressure on the Iranian people,” he wrote on X.

Pezeshkian said the pressure had increased but argued that government measures and public cooperation had prevented Iran’s adversaries from achieving their objectives.

Diplomatic channel remains open

Trump’s pending decision comes with diplomacy still technically alive but with no clear sign of a breakthrough after the latest contacts between Washington and Tehran.

The conservative Sobh-e No newspaper which is close to Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reported Saturday that Iran was reviewing a US proposal conveyed through Qatar setting out a roadmap and timetable for further negotiations.

The paper said Tehran continued to demand that Washington first meet its commitments, including sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian funds, and that Iran’s principal conditions remained unchanged.

Those contacts follow talks in New York that failed to produce an agreement, with the two sides remaining divided over the terms for ending the war and reopening Hormuz.

For now, Trump has continued to present the choice as Iran’s: accept a deal under mounting military and economic pressure or face what he calls the “hard way.”

The prison in Karaj in western Tehran was one of the sites of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. The exact nationwide toll remains unknown amid official secrecy, but rights groups estimate that around 5,000 people were executed across Iran.

Gohardasht was central to the prosecution of Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prison official sentenced to life imprisonment by a Swedish court in 2022 for war crimes and murder over his role in the executions there. His conviction was upheld on appeal, but Sweden released him in June 2024 in a prisoner exchange with Iran.

Authorities have presented the prison’s redevelopment as a project to provide cultural facilities, university space and parks following its closure in 2023.

Warnings over destruction of evidence

When the prison closed in August 2023, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization called for urgent action to prevent its demolition, warning that evidence of atrocities could be lost before the full scope of the crimes was established.

“Gohardasht Prison is the place where crimes against humanity were committed by those who currently hold key positions in the Islamic Republic,” its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said at the time.

“We still don’t know the full scope of those crimes and destroying the evidence is without doubt one of the key motivations behind its closure.”

The organization described the closure as part of a systematic effort to erase traces of state crimes. Its warning came after Nouri’s conviction, while his appeal was still pending.

Executions at Rajaei Shahr continued long after the 1980s. Iran Human Rights said at least 530 people were executed there on murder charges alone between 2015 and 2022.

The group also cited reported efforts to destroy or alter Khavaran cemetery in southeastern Tehran, where victims of the 1988 massacre were buried in unmarked mass graves. Victims’ families had appealed to the UN human rights chief to prevent destruction or interference at the cemetery, it said.

Authorities promise parks and cultural facilities

A Saturday report by Iran’s state-linked Student News Network described the falling watchtower as the end of a familiar urban landmark. It did not address the prison’s role in the 1988 massacre or the warnings about preserving evidence.

Officials have justified the closure by citing a law requiring prisons to move outside cities, alongside complaints about prison-related traffic and other neighborhood problems.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei ordered the closure in April 2023. The prison was emptied by August that year, with prisoners transferred to Ghezel Hesar, according to the state media account.

Demolition of the perimeter walls began in the final month of the Iranian year ending in March 2026 and intensified in September, the report said. The head of Iran’s prisons organization described their removal as necessary to settle the land’s future and enable new projects.

Authorities say the roughly 60-hectare site will include green space, a women’s park, a cultural center, an auditorium and an art gallery. They have also pledged to retain the main prison building for university and cultural uses.

None of this establishes that Trump has decided to resume attacks. But together, the developments would give him substantially greater military capacity at a time when diplomatic efforts to end the war have made little progress.

Vice President JD Vance chaired Friday’s meeting at Camp David, according to Axios, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, special envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine among those attending.

Three US officials told Axios that Iran and the conflict involving the Houthis in Yemen were discussed during the several-hour meeting. The White House has not disclosed what, if anything, was decided.

Trump convened senior foreign-policy officials at Camp David in June 2025, just days before Israel began its war with Iran, with several of the same officials attending. The parallel does not mean events will follow the same course, but it gives Friday’s meeting added significance.

More ships, aircraft and troops

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group are heading to the Middle East, carrying more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines, according to US officials.

The USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington are already in the region, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group. If the deployments overlap, the United States could have three carrier strike groups and two amphibious groups in the region by the end of October.

Some of the deployments may involve replacing forces that have spent months in the region rather than preparations for an offensive. But they would leave commanders with substantially more options if Trump orders operations to intensify.

Trump keeps military option open

The deployments come as negotiations between Washington and Tehran have stalled, with Qatar attempting to bridge differences between the two sides.

Trump told TIME this week that renewed US military action after the November midterm elections was “possible” if an acceptable agreement was not reached.

“I believe right after the election we’ll win, but maybe before the election,” Trump said Thursday, while describing Iran as “ready to fold up.”

Asked Friday what he intended to do next on Iran, Trump declined to elaborate, saying reporters would have “a big story” if he gave them the answer and adding: “You’ll see.”

Preparing for retaliation

Washington is also strengthening defenses against the kind of Iranian response that could follow renewed US attacks.

Additional Patriot air-defense systems have been deployed to protect critical energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while the growing naval presence provides further defensive as well as offensive capacity.

Iran retains missiles and drones and has demonstrated its ability to threaten shipping and regional infrastructure. The Strait of Hormuz remains a major vulnerability, as recent incidents involving commercial vessels have underlined.

A US maritime blockade has severely constrained Iranian oil exports, while the Treasury Department this week widened its Operation Economic Outcast sanctions campaign into Iran’s automotive and rail industries.

Military and economic pressure are therefore increasing even as Washington continues to pursue a diplomatic route.

The question is whether that force is intended to strengthen Washington’s hand at the negotiating table or to give Trump a military option if he concludes the negotiations have failed.