Oil prices edge lower as markets weigh Iran risks, US shadow fleet move - Reuters

Giving evidence at Woolwich Crown Court, Mostafa Sepahvand said the man, whom he named as “Ebi” and described as living in Wolverhampton, contacted him by video call in 2024.

Sepahvand said the caller showed him an Iranian flag and threatened to kill him if he did not listen. He told the court he had switched off his own camera during the call.

“He said we’re gonna kill your mother,” Sepahvand testified.

Sepahvand, 41, is on trial alongside Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57. All three deny charges under Britain’s National Security Act.

Prosecutors allege the men gathered information for Iranian intelligence to prepare for serious violence against at least one target, with Sepahvand expected to carry out an attack. The alleged targets included Iran International journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini.

Sepahvand’s testimony expanded on his account that he acted out of fear, which prosecutors have rejected.

He said the contact came after a video showing him discussing dental treatment was posted on a clinic’s Instagram page in 2024. He described Ebi as active on TikTok.

Sepahvand said he initially did not respond to the threats but reacted when the caller mentioned his mother.Asked what happened afterward, Sepahvand said his car window was broken and people entered his home in Westminster and moved items inside.

He acknowledged that he had not seen who broke the window or entered the property, but said he believed the incidents were linked to his exchange with Ebi, whom he said had his address. He also told the court that his mother’s home was raided.

Earlier in his testimony, Sepahvand described years of police pursuit and alleged abuse of his relatives in Iran.

He said he fled to Tehran around 2014 and adopted his brother Masoud’s name because of charges brought against him by a judge. Police subsequently visited his family home in Khorramabad every week looking for him, he said.

Describing an incident in 2018, Sepahvand said police pushed his mother to the floor and his brother became involved in an altercation with officers before being taken to a police station.

Other family members then confronted police at the station, he said, and further arrests followed.

Sepahvand testified that his brother was released after 10 days but developed mental health problems and became intensely fearful. He also alleged that a relative named Ardavan was tortured and that Ardavan and another relative, Hassan, were later hanged on charges he described as opposing the Guards and being an “enemy of God.”

Prosecutors have previously argued that Sepahvand undertook the surveillance for payment and help resolving a criminal conviction in Iran. Earlier sessions examined messages in which he discussed a promised £150,000 payment and assurances that his Iranian case would be resolved.

According to the prosecution’s account of their defenses, Javadi Manesh and Noori accept visiting locations and taking photographs and videos but say they did not know they were assisting Iranian intelligence.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Thursday issued an alert asking financial institutions to report potential Iranian government abuse of religious charity networks, including the diversion of khums, a religious levy paid by Shiite Muslims.

Treasury said organizations collecting such payments may act on behalf of prominent Iranian ayatollahs with ties to the government and may use informal financial channels, including hawala networks and cash couriers, to transfer money to Iran or Iran-linked actors.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will not allow the Iranian regime to continue its long history of abusing religious institutions to line the pockets of its elites and fund terrorism,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

FinCEN identified several red flags, including charities soliciting donations without apparent charitable activity; organizations receiving large donations from unknown sources over a short period before transferring significant sums to other nonprofits; attempts to evade reporting or recordkeeping requirements; and recipients with no clear business relationship to a charity withdrawing its transfers in cash or sending them onward.

The alert also says no single indicator establishes illicit or suspicious activity.

The alert does not identify specific religious centers in the United States or Europe as participants in the conduct described. But US and European authorities have previously investigated organizations with alleged institutional or financial links to the Islamic Republic.

These cases involved different allegations and legal proceedings and should not be treated as equivalent evidence of diverted religious donations.

Khums case in the United States

A US criminal case cited in the alert involved khums payments collected for transfer to Iran without the required US Treasury licenses.

In 2024, Muzzamil Zaidi and Asim Mujtaba Naqvi pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate US sanctions by collecting tens of thousands of dollars for transfer to Iran, including funds collected in the name of then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

According to the Justice Department, Zaidi received permission in 2018 to collect khums on behalf of several clerics. Zaidi and Naqvi subsequently collected religious payments as well as donations purportedly intended to help victims of the war in Yemen.

Prosecutors said the men arranged for money to reach Iran and Khamenei’s office by using friends, relatives and other associates to carry cash out of the United States. In one instance, 25 travelers on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq carried dollars that were subsequently taken to Iran. The amounts were structured below $10,000 to avoid scrutiny, according to court documents.

FinCEN cited the Zaidi and Naqvi prosecution in Thursday’s alert as an example of illicit transfers involving khums payments.

Alavi Foundation’s long-running US case

The broader question of Tehran-linked financial activity in the United States has also surfaced in the long-running litigation surrounding the Alavi Foundation and the 650 Fifth Avenue office tower in Manhattan.

US prosecutors alleged in the case that entities associated with the property concealed an ownership interest held by Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli. The litigation ultimately ended in a global settlement that the Justice Department announced in March 2026 would provide approximately $318 million to victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism.

Alavi admitted no liability or wrongdoing under the settlement and rejected allegations that it had operated as an agency or instrumentality of the Iranian government. The foundation said all claims against it and its properties were dismissed with prejudice and that it transferred its assets, including its interest in 650 Fifth Avenue, to a newly created, IRS-approved public charity and would cease operations once its affairs were wound down.

Scrutiny in Britain

Britain’s Charity Commission has separately taken regulatory action involving the Islamic Centre of England, a Shiite religious institution in north London.

The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry in 2022 over what it described as serious governance concerns. The inquiry followed an official warning related to two events at the center in 2020 that eulogized Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force who was under UK sanctions.

The regulator later appointed an interim manager after finding failures by trustees to comply with their legal duties and protect the charity’s assets.

In May 2025, the Charity Commission said it had found misconduct and/or mismanagement during its ongoing inquiry and ordered governance reforms. During the inquiry, a requirement in the center’s governing document for one trustee to serve as the official UK religious representative of Iran’s supreme leader was removed, and the occupant left the role. The regulator said the change addressed concerns about conflicts of interest and an apparent lack of independence.

The trustees disputed some of the regulator’s findings. The Commission also discharged the interim manager after she implemented specified improvements, leaving further reforms to the trustees.

The Commission said at the time that its statutory inquiry remained ongoing.

Germany shut down Khamenei-linked center

Germany banned the Islamic Centre Hamburg, or IZH, and its affiliated organizations in July 2024, saying the organization pursued Islamist extremist goals.

Germany’s Interior Ministry said IZH acted as a direct representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader and sought to bring about an Islamic revolution in Germany. Authorities searched 53 premises in eight German states, and four Shiite mosques were closed as a result of the ban. then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the measure did not apply to the peaceful practice of Shiite Islam.

German authorities subsequently ordered IZH head Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh to leave the country. Hamburg’s domestic intelligence agency identified him as the official deputy of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Germany.

Iran protested the German action and summoned Berlin’s ambassador in Tehran.

A focus on financial pathways

Thursday’s US alert does not allege that all Shiite charities or religious centers are conduits for Tehran. FinCEN explicitly said legitimate charities should have access to financial services and instructed banks to use a risk-based approach rather than treating the sector as inherently suspicious.

Instead, the alert focuses on how religious donations can potentially intersect with sanctions evasion and informal financial networks.

The US khums prosecution documented religious payments collected in the United States and cash carried toward Iran for receipt by the Office of Iran’s Supreme Leader. The cases in Britain and Germany are distinct: British regulators raised governance and independence concerns involving a center whose governing document had required a trustee to serve as the supreme leader’s official UK religious representative, while German authorities said IZH acted as the supreme leader’s direct representative.

FinCEN’s new alert asks financial institutions to look for indicators of potential Iranian government abuse of religious charities, including patterns that could indicate funds are being transferred to Iran or Iran-linked actors through informal financial channels.

The initiatives have won praise from conservative figures and media outlets, while raising questions about their financing, council oversight and the mayor’s priorities during wartime.

Under Zakani’s “Zero Inflation” plan, launched in late September, prices of 12 basic goods—including meat, rice, cooking oil, pulses and sugar—are to remain fixed for six months at municipal fruit and vegetable markets, Shahrvand supermarkets and the municipality’s online store, Shahrzad.

The scheme comes amid annual food inflation of nearly 130 percent.

Zakani said on television that the goods would be sold at cost, without profit, and that prices for a second six-month period would be announced after the first ended.

He portrayed the initiative as a response to what he called a US economic war against Iranians’ livelihoods. Financing would come from municipal funds, bank facilities and a Central Bank mechanism for settling foreign currency obligations, he said.

The mayor has also announced monthly municipal payments of 35 million to 40 million rials to families who have a child this year. Both initiatives have been widely advertised on billboards across Tehran.

Funding under scrutiny

Nasser Amani, a member of Tehran’s city council, said no formal bill had been submitted to the council and no specific budget approved for the price-freeze scheme.

Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a spokesman for former reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s government, questioned where the money would come from and why the national government was not adopting the scheme if it made economic sense.

Moderate conservative commentator Mohammad Mohajeri called the plan “empty and nonsensical,” warning on X that it would lead to a “historic disaster.” He urged Tehran’s prosecutor to intervene to prevent what he predicted would become corruption.

Critics have also questioned the fairness of limiting the initiative to Tehran while residents elsewhere face rising prices.

Zakani’s supporters argue that municipal intervention could help poorer households.

Conservative politician Abdolreza Davari wrote on X that lower-income groups would be the main beneficiaries, while the losers would be the “oligarchic network dominating the basic goods market” and Zakani’s political rivals.

Hardline newspapers Kayhan and Javan, the latter affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, have defended the initiative as an effort to improve livelihoods.

Javan accused critics of viewing every action by the mayor “through a political lens” and urged them to assess the plan’s economic and operational merits rather than speculate about future elections.

A platform for the presidency?

Zakani, a former lawmaker who has served as mayor since 2021, has sought the presidency four times since 2013. The Guardian Council barred his first two attempts. He was approved to run in 2021 and 2024 but withdrew before voting in both contests to support other conservative candidates.

Mehdi Aghrarian, another city council member, told the news website Khabar Online that he had challenged Zakani over his priorities.

“I told him that abandoning the municipality midway through your term, putting the plane on autopilot and heading off to pursue elections was not the right approach,” Aghrarian said.

He described Zakani’s activities as “performative governance” and offered this advice to the next council: “Please choose a mayor who does not want to become president.”

Khabar Online questioned whether Zakani was following the path of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who used the Tehran mayoralty as a springboard to the presidency. Reformist politician Ali Soufi drew the same comparison.

Zakani has faced controversy over other municipal initiatives, including the deployment of hijab enforcers and the establishment of so-called “repentance rooms” in metro stations.

After last year’s 12-day war, he made metro and bus rapid transit services free, continuing the policy despite opposition from the city council.

Praise at night-time rallies

A recently circulated video of Zakani attending a night-time pro-establishment gathering has added to speculation about his ambitions. In the footage, a young cleric urges the crowd to chant: “Zakani, hero! Thank you, thank you!”

The news website Rouydad24 questioned who was paying to promote Zakani at the rallies, which it described as increasingly factional.

Participants have chanted against figures including President Masoud Pezeshkian, parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, as well as former presidents and other prominent politicians, the website reported.

Zakani, by contrast, has received an unusually warm reception, it said.

The event held at the National Library complex in Tehran marked Khatami’s birthday and brought together figures advocating changes to Iran’s domestic and foreign policies.

The suspect allegedly warned that others would pursue the attack on former roads minister Abbas Akhoundi and named additional assassination targets, raising concerns about threats to other political figures.

The reformist coalition said on its Telegram channel that the man confronted Akhoundi’s driver as the former minister was leaving the seminar organized by Khatami’s Baran Foundation.

The driver managed to disarm the attacker during the confrontation, and security personnel and police intervened to arrest him, according to the account, carried by Iranian news website Entekhab.

The account did not identify the suspect or the other purported targets.

On Thursday, the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency, citing an unnamed security source, reported that the incident occurred several days earlier and remained under investigation.

The source said inquiries with legal authorities had so far found no indications that it was terrorist or organized in nature, and investigators were examining the possibility of a personal motive.

The source also accused foreign and opposition media of "exploiting the incident to deepen political divisions and portray Iran as internally insecure."

Akhoundi challenges official narratives

Akhoundi’s speech, titled “Global transitions, value chains and the architecture of Iran’s development,” challenged official portrayals of American decline and argued for an approach to security rooted in economic development and international engagement.

“Although America’s hegemonic power is diminishing, what is promoted in official media as ‘decline’ is not accurate,” he said. “We are facing the systematic containment of American power by emerging powers, not its destruction.”

He questioned whether Iran should use its position along global trade routes to generate prosperity or seek control over them, arguing that major economies, including China and India, would not tolerate prolonged insecurity along those routes.

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Akhoundi also called for a shift from “threat-based survival” to “development-oriented prosperity.”

“Yes, we have survived, but in poverty,” he said.

Akhoundi questioned the strategy of securing Iran through involvement beyond its borders, including in Yemen and Lebanon. He called for a regional security model centered on cooperation and economic prosperity, arguing that the ambition to dominate the region had become an obstacle to understanding Iran’s place in the world.

His argument included support for increased defense spending, alongside stronger political, social and economic foundations for security.

Khatami questions intervention on Palestinians’ behalf

Khatami, speaking at the same event, condemned Israel’s establishment through what he described as occupation and force, while arguing that decisions about the Palestinians’ future belonged to Palestinians themselves.

“Occupation does not confer legitimacy,” Khatami said. “That is a matter for the Palestinian people themselves.”

He distinguished moral support for people seeking freedom from intervening and confronting a powerful adversary on their behalf.

“For me to leave here, go there, put myself in the place of those people and confront a powerful force on their behalf, only for them to end up suffering greatly and choosing a different path — that is something I cannot accept,” he said.

The Reform Front’s account did not establish any connection between the speeches and the suspect’s alleged intentions.

Ali Hassan Sarwari and Tawab Mohsini gathered information about Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society, and monitored them in Berlin, according to evidence presented at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court.

Sarwari had participated in acts of "state terrorism by the Iranian regime," the presiding judge said.

The judge said Sarwari had traveled to Iran several times and met Revolutionary Guards intelligence and security operatives, including Ali Heydari and Kazem Mohammadi, from whom he received instructions.

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  Danish-Afghan man secretly visited Iran after spying on Jewish targets - Bild

The court sentenced Sarwari to eight years and six months in prison and Mohsini to four years and six months. Both verdicts can be appealed.

Direct orders from the Quds Force

Sarwari, a Danish citizen of Afghan origin, received instructions directly from officers of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said Sarwari sought Mohsini's cooperation in assassinating Beck or recruiting someone else to carry out the killing. The two eventually agreed to find a third person for the operation.

Sarwari was also accused of preparing an arson attack against a Jewish-owned kosher grocery store in Berlin.

German federal prosecutors had requested the prison terms ultimately imposed by the court, while defense lawyers sought acquittals for both defendants.

Surveillance and evidence presented in court

During the second hearing in July, an investigator from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office described how authorities monitored Sarwari's communications and movements over an extended period.

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The investigator said Sarwari had met individuals linked to the Quds Force during trips to Iran, including a man identified as responsible for the force's Israel operations.

Evidence recovered from Sarwari's phone included searches for Jewish-owned kosher grocery stores in Berlin, Schuster's address and saved photographs of Beck.

Investigators also recorded Sarwari photographing one of the stores.

The court was shown photographs of meetings between the defendants at a McDonald's restaurant. Investigators also described their use of Telegram to communicate with individuals identified as Quds Force contacts.

According to the police witness, Sarwari had asked his daughter whether she knew a Palestinian or Somali woman who needed money and would be willing to set fire to a Jewish-owned store for 30,000 Danish kroner, approximately 4,000 euros.

The testimony formed part of the evidence concerning preparations for the arson attack.

Beck, identified in the indictment as a potential assassination target, attended the second hearing.

The verdict followed months of proceedings examining the defendants' links to the Revolutionary Guards and their preparations for attacks against Jewish targets in Germany.