Iran’s proposed budget for next year contains serious flaws and unexplained spending lines, a lawmaker said on Thursday, criticizing pay rises that lag inflation and new allocations linked to the president’s office.
A cluster of former officials and pundits in Tehran has sought to downplay the likelihood of a US-backed Israeli strike on Iran, arguing that Washington has little appetite for such military action.
Iran would be destroyed if the Islamic Republic is overthrown, former president Mohammad Khatami said, arguing that reform was the only viable path for change and warning against radical movements.
A rare on-air admission of economic collapse by a senior Iranian official this week briefly pierced the state’s carefully managed narrative—only to be reinforced hours later by leaked budget talks revealing how little financial room the government actually has.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has sharply escalated his posture toward President Masoud Pezeshkian, openly floating the prospect of impeachments and implicitly questioning the government’s survival.
Iran’s parliament convened a closed session with senior government officials on Tuesday to assess economic conditions, as lawmakers said subsidy and currency policies had not translated into tangible relief for many households.
President Massoud Pezeshkian’s call for “unity” and “national reconciliation” has collided with Iran’s power structure, becoming a one-way street in which concessions flow to hardliners while the president gains little in return.
Iran’s parliament speaker escalated pressure on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government this week, a move that reformist website Rouydad24 said marked the end of an early political “honeymoon” and a bid to distance the legislature from a government facing an economic crisis.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that Israel was defeated in the recent 12-day conflict because it failed to trigger unrest inside Iran, despite what its spokesman described as expectations that military strikes would lead to domestic turmoil.
Tehran’s upcoming city council elections will be held under a proportional representation system for the first time, but widespread voter apathy has raised concerns of an extremely low turnout outside conservative ranks.
An Iranian lawmaker accused senior officials on Sunday of selectively enforcing the law, questioning why it was applied strictly to a former foreign minister but not to the current vice president.
Iran’s parliament speaker warned on Sunday that lawmakers could move to impeach President Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet if the government fails to rein in soaring prices, stepping up pressure on an administration grappling with a deepening economic crisis.
Tehran’s recent gestures of apparent flexibility—from looser enforcement of the hijab to an embrace of nationalist symbolism—recall moments in Communist history when a brief opening exposed risks the system ultimately moved to contain.
As Tehran grapples with a mounting mix of economic strain and public disillusionment, talk of constitutional reform is resurfacing among political insiders who say they have not entirely abandoned the idea that change from within is still possible.
Some of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s supporters are now openly warning that Iran is headed toward crisis that could threaten the political system itself, with a growing number arguing that the president should resign.
Faced with economic crisis, social defiance and regional strain, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei continues to invoke earlier moments of “glory,” treating defeat and mismanagement as moral triumphs rather than political failures.
Free speech. Open dialogue. People having access to one another, the ordinary ability to speak freely and exchange ideas. These might be the downfall of the system patiently built up by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not foreign weapons.
Iran’s president is facing growing heat as moderate allies turn against him, arguing that his promised government of national consensus has instead lost its authority and internal cohesion.
Tehran state-affiliated media are hinting that Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei could soon be appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head the Guardian Council, the powerful body that vets election candidates and approves parliament’s legislation.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech that Iran faces a campaign by its enemies aimed at public opinion and cultural identity to bring about regime change which a US-Israeli war in June failed to achieve.
Iranian tourism and media officials said reshaping the country’s international image, particularly after the 12-day war, has become a central challenge for the tourism sector, expressing the need for a coordinated and credible narrative to support recovery and growth.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday suggested a US pressure campaign on Venezuela aimed to seize its territory and oil wealth in lengthy diatribe against hegemony of Western countries.