Ghalibaf says Iran will not remain in ‘neither war nor peace’ state
Iran will not remain in a state of “neither war nor peace,” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday.
Ghalibaf said Tehran did not care whether Washington wanted negotiations or war, but added that a path to an agreement would open if the United States accepted Iran’s seven conditions.
“If the Americans make a mistake this time, the geography of the battle will be determined by the capabilities and will of our armed forces,” he said.
He also described the unveiling of an underground missile city during the war as a valuable achievement and a sign of changing strategic equations in the region.
A government-organized Janfada mobilization gathering held in Iran in October 2026.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are expanding a campaign built around sacrifice for the homeland into a route for military training and Basij paramilitary recruitment, giving a force associated with decades of domestic repression a broader patriotic appeal.
The Janfada initiative — roughly meaning someone willing to sacrifice their life — presents participation as service to Iran. Its development raises a question: how far can the authorities use national loyalty to attract recruits who might otherwise hesitate to join the Islamic Republic’s security institutions?
On November 2, Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Guards’ Tehran corps, said the first Janfada brigade had been organized, completed supplementary training and received equipment. Speaking at the opening of a training center in Tehran’s Tajrish Square, he said the unit was preparing for practical exercises and specialist shooting-range training.
The announcement marked a further step toward turning a public mobilization campaign into organized military units.
A new route into the Basij
Launched on March 28 by the Guards-linked Baqiyatallah cultural and social headquarters, Janfada initially invited volunteers to participate in defense, security and relief activities during the war with the United States and Israel.
By September, organizers were announcing plans for 1,000 national resistance battalions. Training programs subsequently included firearms handling, urban defense and rescue skills.
Ali Kowsari, the Basij’s deputy for training, has said participants who complete supplementary courses can join the organization’s combat structure. Esmail Faraji, its deputy for operations, has said the campaign attracted volunteers who had not previously belonged to the Basij, although the scale of that recruitment has not been independently established.
The distinction matters because the Basij, a paramilitary organization subordinate to the Revolutionary Guards, combines military mobilization with ideological organization and domestic security. Its network extends through neighborhoods, universities, schools and workplaces, and its members have participated in successive protest crackdowns.
A campaign emphasizing defense of the country could therefore provide a more accessible entry point than direct recruitment under the Basij name. Joining a course presented as preparation to protect Iran may carry different associations from joining an institution identified with policing dissent.
That remains an interpretation of the campaign’s appeal, rather than proof of its organizers’ intentions or success. Available evidence does not establish how many participants are new recruits, how many were already Basij members, or whether the patriotic message has broadened support beyond existing government loyalists.
National defense and domestic control
The campaign’s public presentation has combined national solidarity with explicit loyalty to the leadership.
At the September 18 Janfada parade in Tehran, participants included Basij members, uniformed volunteers and children. The event began with a declaration of allegiance to Khamenei, while President Masoud Pezeshkian described it as a display of national cohesion.
That combination illustrates how the campaign places defense of Iran alongside support for the political system.
Its activities also extend beyond preparation for an external attack. Campaign spokesman Sassan Zare said in September that Janfada provided training related to urban and public security, while responsibility for deploying volunteers at checkpoints rested with the relevant security bodies.
Those overlapping functions make the campaign relevant to domestic control, although they do not establish that every participant will undertake security duties or be deployed against protesters.
A Syrian parallel, with limits
Syria offers a comparison in how governments organize loyalist forces under the language of national defense.
During Bashar al-Assad’s rule, pro-government militias and neighborhood committees were incorporated into the National Defense Forces. Research by the Institute for the Study of War describes Iranian and Hezbollah assistance in formalizing the force along a model resembling the Basij, including training recruits.
The comparison has limits. Syria involved the consolidation of existing militias during a civil war. Janfada is presented as a recruitment and training campaign connected to institutions that remain in place. There is no evidence here that the Basij has been dissolved or formally renamed.
The more defensible argument is that Janfada offers the existing security structure an additional public identity and recruitment channel. Its language emphasizes sacrifice for the country; its training pathways lead toward institutions whose responsibilities also include preserving the Islamic Republic.
Whether that approach can repair the Basij’s reputation remains unproven. What commanders’ announcements demonstrate is a growing effort to turn patriotic participation into organized manpower.
Iranian protesters who lost one or both eyes to brutality by security forces.
Canadian lawmaker Ali Ehsassi has pledged to refer findings that Iranian security forces possessed paintball guns from a Canadian-owned brand during the 2022 protest crackdown, which left scores of demonstrators blinded, to federal authorities.
The report identified Tippmann guns, a brand owned by Montreal-based KORE Outdoor, in the possession of Iranian security personnel. Investigators could not establish whether the guns were responsible for any of the blinding injuries.
“We’ll take this report. I was not aware of it, and we’ll send it to the appropriate authorities,” Ehsassi told Iran International’s Eye for Iran.
Ehsassi, a Liberal who represents Willowdale, said he did not know whether Global Affairs Canada had reviewed the investigation, published in September 2025 by IranWire and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.
Asked what Canada could do about the equipment reaching Iranian security forces, he pointed to federal funding to strengthen sanctions enforcement.
Iran International contacted Global Affairs Canada and KORE Outdoor for comment. Neither responded by the deadline for this report.
How did Tippmann guns reach Iran?
Shahin Milani of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center told Iran International that researchers found photographs showing Iranian security personnel with paintball guns bearing the Tippmann logo.
One photograph from 2018 shows a member of the Fatehin special unit holding a Tippmann marker. The report also includes a screenshot of the Iranian Paintball Association’s website offering a Tippmann marker for sale.
Some paintball guns seen in footage from the 2022 protests resembled Tippmann models, the researchers said, but image quality and distance made the brand difficult to confirm. Milani said investigators could not link a specific case of blinding to a Tippmann gun.
In October 2022, KORE Outdoor CEO Billy Ceranski condemned the use of the company’s paintball products to suppress protests in Iran. He said KORE complied with US import and export laws and had never sold goods directly or indirectly to countries on the US arms embargo list, including Iran.
Milani said Canadian authorities could start by asking KORE to identify its buyers and then ask those buyers where the equipment went next.
“You cannot just sell such devices and not care as to who actually ends up owning them,” Milani told Iran International.
The sales page for Tippmann Empire BT-4 Combat paintball marker in the official website of Paintball Association of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Source paintball.ir
Hundreds suffered eye injuries
A separate investigation by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley found that about 120 people suffered partial or total blindness during the 2022–23 crackdown.
Researchers documented close-range shots to the face involving shotguns, paintball guns and tear gas canisters.
By November 2022, ophthalmologists at three Tehran hospitals had reported at least 500 serious eye injuries, while doctors in Kurdistan province reported at least 80 more.
In its investigation, IranWire and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center documented 134 people injured by weapons described as less lethal across 47 cities in 24 provinces. At least 114 were injured by shotgun pellets and nine by paintball projectiles. Most of the injuries were to the head, face or eyes.
In one video from December 2022, a plainclothes agent fires a paintball gun at the face of a person being detained in Tehran’s Ekbatan neighborhood.
Blinding injuries documented again in January
Severe eye injuries were also reported during Iran’s January 2026 crackdown, although no link has been established between those cases and Tippmann guns.
Dr. Sarah Raza, a trauma and vascular interventional radiologist who advised wounded protesters remotely, told Iran International that patients feared their wounds would identify them as protesters if they sought medical care.
Raza cited reports of more than 400 gunshot-related eye injuries at a single Tehran hospital during the January 8 and 9 crackdown.
The report Ehsassi pledged to forward examined the 2022 crackdown. The weapons used in the January cases remain a separate question.
Newly elected democratic members of Congress, who have flipped Republican seats gather for photos at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, November 12, 2026.
US Democratic lawmakers are stepping up efforts to end the war with Iran after their sweeping midterm election victory, promising legislative action when they take control of Congress in January.
Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 elections, a defeat for Republicans that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance acknowledged was driven in part by public dissatisfaction with the war.
“Last week, voters were loud and clear: Trump’s economy doesn’t work for Americans,” Senate Democrats said in a statement on X on Friday.
“When Senate Democrats are back in the majority next year, we will take immediate action to end Trump’s war in Iran, stop his reckless tariffs, and lower costs for everything from energy to groceries to housing.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that 71 percent of Americans wanted Congress to pass legislation ending the conflict, including 93 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans.
The growing pressure has reached the current Republican-controlled Congress, where Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a frequent critic of Trump, has pledged to force another vote on ending the war before his term expires.
Massie introduced a War Powers resolution on November 10 directing the president to remove US forces from hostilities with Iran.
In a post on X Saturday, Massie said he could force a vote by mid-December, provided House Speaker Mike Johnson does not cancel scheduled legislative days. He added that two other resolutions seeking to end the war could reach the House floor even sooner.
But Republican lawmakers, including some who have criticized the conflict, remain reluctant to use congressional powers to force its conclusion.
“A Republican Congress is not going to send bills to a Republican president that he's going to veto,” Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters this week.
The disagreement is expected to become a central issue in negotiations over government funding, which expires on December 11, raising the possibility of another shutdown confrontation.
Several Republicans have previously joined Democrats in attempts to restrict Trump's military operations, although most of the party has remained aligned with the president.
A war that was supposed to last weeks
The pressure has intensified as the conflict approaches its ninth month, far exceeding the administration's initial expectations.
“We are now in week 37 of Trump’s ‘2 to 3 week’ war with Iran,” Democratic Representative Jason Crow of Colorado wrote on X.
Representative Jimmy Panetta, a California Democrat, also accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of continuing the war in violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and failing to provide transparency over deadly strikes on civilians, including an elementary school in Iran.
“Congress will exercise its constitutional authority to hold him accountable,” Panetta said.
Democrats will have several options when they take control of Congress on January 3, including legislation restricting military operations, limits on war funding and congressional investigations into the administration's conduct.
But their ability to compel an end to the conflict remains uncertain. Trump could veto legislation passed by Congress, requiring two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override him.
A new surface-to-surface 4th generation Khorramshahr ballistic missile is launched at an undisclosed location in Iran, in this picture obtained on May 25, 2023.
Iranian state television has warned that modified versions of the country's Khorramshahr ballistic missile could reach American military bases in Europe, explicitly naming RAF Fairford in Britain as a potential target.
"The range of Iran's missiles is not limited to what they have seen," the report, broadcast Saturday, said, claiming that modifications to the Khorramshahr's warhead could increase its range severalfold.
The Khorramshahr-4, unveiled in 2023, has a claimed range of 2,000 kilometers while carrying a warhead weighing 1,500 kilograms. A lighter warhead could extend its range, although the extent of any increase remains unverified.
The broadcast included a review of missiles and drones Iran has used in its wars with Israel and the United States since June 2025, presenting the Khorramshahr as part of a broader arsenal capable of threatening American installations farther afield.
In a warning directed at Britain, the report suggested that British air defenses were not necessarily more capable than Israel's, which it claimed Iranian missiles had already penetrated during the war.
There has been no independent confirmation that Iran possesses a modified Khorramshahr capable of reaching RAF Fairford.
The broadcast invoked an order by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei that Iran's armed forces should face no geographical restrictions in responding to attacks by the United States or Israel.
Khamenei issued the directive on October 31, calling for immediate and effective retaliation without geographical limits and ordering military commanders to update their list of potential targets.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards subsequently said the country's longstanding self-imposed limit of 2,000 kilometers on ballistic missile ranges had been lifted, although they did not specify whether longer-range missiles had been developed or deployed.
The broadcast follows a series of warnings from senior Iranian officials that American bases in Europe and on distant islands could become targets if Washington launches further attacks.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said earlier this week that Tehran would no longer confine its response to nearby US military installations and could strike bases in European countries.
The threats come as diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled, with Tehran demanding an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and relief from sanctions before negotiations can resume.
Washington has maintained its economic pressure campaign, while President Donald Trump has declared that he wants a total victory over Iran and suggested the United States no longer needs a negotiated agreement.
The latest state television report went further than previous warnings by naming a specific British installation and linking the threat to a purportedly extended-range version of the Khorramshahr missile.
Bundles of natural hair in different colors and textures are displayed for sale in Iran.
An eight-year-old girl sits with her back to the camera, her small frame almost hidden beneath a mass of long, shiny, curly hair. Her father has brought her to a hair buyer in Tehran. The family needs money, he says.
The video is among many circulating on Iranian social media showing women and girls selling their hair for cash.
The reasons for selling vary. Some women and girls say they need money for education, medical treatment or household expenses. Others hope to buy a mobile phone or wedding clothes.
Hair measuring 40 to 60 centimeters has been advertised for between five million and 30 million tomans. Exceptionally long or desirable hair has been listed for as much as 100 million tomans, although advertised prices do not necessarily reflect what sellers receive.
For some, selling hair is a relatively straightforward way to earn money from something that will eventually grow back. For others, it reflects more pressing financial difficulties.
Instagram is filled with videos advertising hair-buying services across Iran. Women and girls sit with their backs to the camera as buyers divide their hair into bundles, tie them tightly and cut them with scissors.
Growing market
Buyers seek long, healthy, untreated hair, while dyed or damaged hair commands lower prices. Young women and girls with naturally long hair are therefore particularly sought after.
Once cut, the hair enters a commercial market supplying wigs, extensions and, in some cases, the film industry.
Some sellers visit hair-buying businesses, while others negotiate remotely, sending photographs of their hair through WhatsApp for a price estimate before arranging a meeting or postal delivery.
Buyers range from established beauty salons to individuals operating under little more than a name and mobile phone number. Advertisements also appear on classified platforms such as Divar and Sheypoor.
A trade crossing borders
The market extends beyond individual buyers and sellers in Iran.
Last summer, Armenian customs officers discovered 26 kilograms of natural hair, divided into 143 bundles, concealed inside pillows in a truck arriving from Iran at the Agarak border crossing.
The shipment was seized, offering a glimpse into a cross-border trade that media reports have linked to markets in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia.
Within Iran, social media advertising, remote negotiations and postal deliveries allow buyers to source hair from sellers hundreds of kilometers away.
For sellers, the arrangement offers a way to turn something they already possess into cash without leaving home. For buyers, it provides access to a wider supply of long, untreated hair.
Temporary relief
But for some of the women and girls appearing in these videos, the transaction is more than a commercial exchange. It means parting with something they have spent years growing, sometimes to meet an immediate financial need.
In some videos, girls appear reluctant to part with their hair, sometimes crying as buyers try to reassure them.
"Don't be sad. Your hair will grow back soon," one buyer tells a girl.
The presence of children raises more troubling questions. Some may have little say in the decision when their families urgently need money.
Even when the sale is voluntary, the proceeds may provide only temporary relief against rising living costs, particularly for those trying to cover recurring expenses.
The scenes recall Fantine in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, who sells her beautiful hair to provide for her daughter Cosette before poverty drives her to sell her teeth and eventually turn to prostitution.
More than 160 years later, some Iranian women and girls are similarly turning to their hair to meet financial needs, though their circumstances vary.
