عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Iran Seeks to End Mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
TT
TT

Iran Seeks to End Mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)

Iranian officials launched a diplomatic campaign on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council meetings in Geneva to end the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wanted to ensure that a new Rapporteur would not be assigned after the current UN official, Javaid Rehman.
He also aimed to end the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission for Iran, which the Human Rights Council approved to investigate repression of the massive protests in Iran.
The FM accused Western countries of applying "double standards," noting that they condemn Iranian repression but do not care enough about human rights violations against Muslims in the Gaza Strip.
In November 2022, Germany succeeded in passing a decision to launch an independent probe into the deadly campaign that resulted in the death of 500 demonstrators and the arrest of more than 20,000, according to human rights organizations.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urgently called for extending the mandate of the UN experts investigating human rights in Iran.
During her participation in the spring session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Baerbock addressed the Iranian government, saying, "I want to be crystal clear to those who claim that calling out violations is an interference in internal affairs: Human rights aren't something western, northern, eastern or southern. They are universal."
She explained that the Fact-Finding Mission established by this Council has investigated the repression, the violence, and the crimes committed in Iran since the beginning of the protests.
"It is collecting and preserving the evidence. It is giving the victims –women, girls – a voice."
The German government is requesting support to extend the mission's mandate so that it can finish its job, Baerbock said.
The mission is expected to present its report, which will likely be discussed on March 15.
Western officials believe it is currently challenging to discuss this issue within the Human Rights Council, as the focus is on the situation in Gaza.
- Fact-finding mission
In his speech at the Human Rights Council, Amirabdollahian condemned the formation of the fact-finding mission after the death of Mahsa Amini.
He referred to the calls for investigating the death of Amini, while no serious action has been taken at the international level to stop the killing of thousands of innocent women and children in Gaza.
The United Nations General Assembly elects the 47 member states to serve a three-year term on the Human Rights Council.
The Council's decisions, such as extending the mandate of human rights experts, are put to vote before the end of the session, which will continue until April 5.
Earlier this month, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif visited Tehran and held discussions behind closed doors with Iranian officials.
Activists and human rights groups in Iran criticized Nashif's visit to Tehran.
Iranian human rights activist Ladan Boroumand called ambassadors to boycott Amirabdollahian's speech.
- Gaza war
Activists expressed concerns about officials' attempts to exploit the Gaza war to end the mission of the UN Rapporteur, which began in 2011.
The Iranian authorities did not grant the Special Rapporteur permission to visit Tehran.
During an interview with Voice of America, Rehman said that the authorities fear he will expose them.
Earlier this month, the Special Rapporteur said that the Israel-Hamas war has emboldened "repression" inside the country, noting that Iran was responding to a loss of credibility after mass protests set off by the September 2022 death of Amini.
On the summit's sidelines, the Iranian FM met with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger.
Iranian agencies quoted him as saying: "Leaders of the Palestinian factions are considering democratic ways and a political deal among all Palestinian groups and movements to run the post-war Gaza. Supporting this approach is supporting a democratic approach."
Also in Geneva, Amirabdollahian held talks with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry stated on the "X" platform that the meeting focused on efforts to stop the Israeli aggression against Gaza and prevent further escalation in the region.
The two ministers also discussed the situation in Syria, especially the danger of drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan.
Safadi stressed that his country is determined to take all necessary steps to end drug smuggling.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Iranian Lawmaker: A Nuclear Bomb is a ‘Public Demand’

Satellite imagery from Jun 9th, 2025 via Airbus/Bulletin, shows a truck at Iran’s Isfahan underground complex carrying 18 sealed containers (AP)
Satellite imagery from Jun 9th, 2025 via Airbus/Bulletin, shows a truck at Iran’s Isfahan underground complex carrying 18 sealed containers (AP)
TT
TT

Iranian Lawmaker: A Nuclear Bomb is a ‘Public Demand’

Satellite imagery from Jun 9th, 2025 via Airbus/Bulletin, shows a truck at Iran’s Isfahan underground complex carrying 18 sealed containers (AP)
Satellite imagery from Jun 9th, 2025 via Airbus/Bulletin, shows a truck at Iran’s Isfahan underground complex carrying 18 sealed containers (AP)

Iranian lawmaker Hosseinali Haji Deligani said on Saturday that building a nuclear bomb has become a public demand, just days before a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors to discuss Iran.

“Today, one of the people's demands is that Iran, in addition to its faith and missiles, must build and possess a nuclear bomb,” said Haji Deligani, the deputy head of the Article 90 Commission in the Iranian Parliament, according to Fars news agency.

He argued that Tehran should possess nuclear weapons regardless of whether it intends to use them.

“We must have this capability. Whether it is used or not is a separate matter,” the lawmaker noted.

He said, “based on current assessments, the enemy would not launch a nuclear attack on Iran because of the country’s vast size and the significant repercussions of such an attack.”

The Article 90 Commission of Iran's parliament is mandated to receive, investigate, and respond to written complaints regarding the performance of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Iran has made no official decision to change its nuclear doctrine despite growing calls from lawmakers and members of the public to reconsider its position if war resumes.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran had not suspended its obligations under its safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Speaking to reporters, Baghaei said Iran remained a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and continued to uphold both the treaty and its safeguards agreement. He said the country had demonstrated its adherence to those commitments.

Grossi’s Report

Haji Deligani’s statements came one day after the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it cannot confirm that Tehran hasn’t diverted nuclear material away from peaceful purposes.

In a confidential report on Iran seen by media outlets on Friday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said because of a lack of cooperation from Iran, it “is not able to conclude that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran.”

IAEA said it is “increasingly concerned” about a uranium-enrichment plant at Isfahan that Iran declared to it last year but has still not let the watchdog inspect.”

“It is more than a year since the Agency lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of LEU (low-enriched uranium) and HEU (highly enriched ⁠uranium) enriched up to 60% U-235 at the declared nuclear facilities affected by the attacks of June 2025,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi wrote in his last report on Iran.

He added that Iran needs to allow inspectors back in “with the utmost urgency.”

Inspectors have yet to return to nuclear sites the United States and Israel bombed in June 2025.

Until those attacks, the IAEA estimates Iran had 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade uranium. That is enough material, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick, and Iran also had material enriched to lower levels.

“The director general encourages Iran to consider technical and gradual measures by which conditions are achieved that allow for the return of agency inspectors to Iran,” the report said.

But Iran told the IAEA that discussions on restarting inspections in the country cannot resume amid “a series of persistent, explicit, and public threats by the President of the United States of America.”

Criticizing legal and technical basis of IAEA’s reports, Iran Mission to UN Office in Vienna said normal execution of safeguards cannot resume under the abnormal condition created by attacks on Iran’s safeguarded nuclear sites.

In a message posted on its X account on Saturday, the Iranian mission also criticized Grossi’s reporting, arguing that the Board’s decisions have been adopted through an abuse of process and that the US-Israeli attacks on Iran have disrupted inspections and forced the withdrawal of the IAEA’s inspectors.

“The United States removed aggression from bias resolutions, but its consequences cannot be erased from reality,” the statement added.

An Unavoidable Necessity

Last Thursday, Iran’s Assembly of Experts called for considering the country’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), alongside a review of Iran’s defense doctrine and the establishment of what it described as necessary deterrence.

In a statement carried by Iranian media, the Assembly said that reviewing withdrawal from the NPT, revising the country’s defense doctrine and establishing the necessary deterrence had become an “unavoidable necessity” and a “public and national demand.”

Two weeks ago, Mohsen Araki, a member of the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Discernment Council, said Iran should reconsider its membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He also noted that the country had suffered setbacks without gaining comparable benefits.

“The Islamic Republic has suffered considerable harm and setbacks over the years because of its membership in and continued adherence to this treaty, while gaining no commensurate benefit from that membership,” said Araki.

World

IRGC Media: Technical Modifications to Allow Iran Develop Missiles that Reach US

People visit the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
People visit the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
TT
TT

IRGC Media: Technical Modifications to Allow Iran Develop Missiles that Reach US

People visit the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
People visit the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran on Saturday said it could introduce technical modifications to its long-range missiles, enabling them to reach US territory.

Tasnim News agency, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) affiliated media outlet, said modifications to the Khorramshahr-4’s warhead could increase its range to 3,000 or 4,000 kilometers by reducing the weight of its warhead to 1,500-kilogram instead of 2,000.

It said a modified version of the missile would reach US bases and those of its allies in eastern and southeastern Europe, as well as central Europe.

Also, the news agency said Iran would develop an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of approximately 10,000 kilometers to reach the US East Coast, including areas near Washington and New York, and more than 13,000 kilometers to cover the entire US territory.

Tasnim noted that such modification “is possible at present” using the IRGC’s satellite launch vehicles, including the Qased, Zuljanah and Qaem systems, constructing underground “missile cities,” and developing a warhead capable of withstanding re-entry into the Earth's orbit.

Opened Lock

Last week, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued an order to respond to threats of any scale or type with an “immediate and effective response without geographical restrictions.”

Khamenei issued the directives during his first publicly announced meeting with senior military commanders since taking office.

Tasnim on Saturday admitted that former Leader Ali Khamenei had restricted the range of ballistic missiles manufactured in the country to 2,000 kilometers.

It said by “abusing our patience,” Iran’s “enemies unlocked a key aspect of its offensive capabilities.”

Last week, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman General Hossein Mohebbi confirmed the removal of the 2,000-kilometer range restriction.

“That restriction has been lifted for us,” he declared, without specifying a new range or whether Iran possessed missiles exceeding the previous limit. He promised to demonstrate those capabilities “in practice.”

In August 2025, Iranian lawmaker Amir Hayat-Moqaddam told local media that Tehran has been developing long-range strike capabilities for two decades. He warned that “perhaps our next missile will hit Washington directly. We can target America from the sea.”

Also, Iranian lawmaker Kamran Ghazanfari claimed in early November that Iran developed intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe and the United States.

People visit the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Stealth Cruise Missile

Meanwhile, Iranian state television displayed an inspection of a strategic missile facility belonging to the IRGC.

It aired footage on Tuesday describing the underground complex as a new “missile city.”

A military analyst said on his page that the Guards’ missile unit had “quietly” unveiled two new missiles, but that “their unveiling is significant” to those who “monitor and analyze.”

He described the first one as Iran’s “first stealth cruise missile,” noting that its jet engine—which had been mounted externally on previous cruise missiles, making them easier to detect—is now housed inside the body.

The second, he said, is a ballistic missile that combines the warhead of the “Fattah” hypersonic missile with the “Khyber Shikan 2” missile, explaining that the range of the “Fattah” has increased from about 1,400 kilometers to nearly 2,000 kilometers.

Iranian state television aired footage on Tuesday of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi during his inspection of a strategic missile facility belonging to the IRGC.

It reported the unveiling of new weapons, including a “surprise” missile, without disclosing its name, range or specifications. Iranian media revealed neither the facility’s location nor the date of the visit.

Treats Expand to Europe

Meanwhile, Iran’s hardline newspaper Kayhan said on Wednesday that Tehran would expand threats against US bases beyond the region, including facilities in Europe and neighboring countries if a new war resumes.

“By removing the geographical limits on threats, the enemy should hear the roar of new missiles at US bases thousands of kilometers away in Germany, Britain, Albania, Greece, Cyprus and some neighboring countries,” said the newspaper, which is published under the supervision of the supreme leader’s representative.

Despite claiming it restricts its missile range, Iran in March reportedly tried and failed to hit the joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, some 4,000 kilometers away from Iran.

No War No Peace State

US President Donald Trump has told senior advisers in recent days that he may hold off on attacking Iran if the US faces no new provocations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Trump has alternated between threats of escalating the war with new strikes and winding down hostilities, and current and former officials say he does not appear to have made up his mind about how to resolve the unpopular conflict, which he launched in February with Israel.

But in meetings with his national security advisers and after a series of intelligence briefings, Trump said he was considering holding off on strikes, said the people, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity.

He has also indicated sympathy for allies in the region who have asked him not to return to a full-fledged war.

At the same time, the US military is ready to escalate if needed, three more people ⁠familiar with US planning said.

A third aircraft carrier is moving into the Middle East in the coming days to replace one of the two currently operating in the region, but all three carriers could stay if needed, the people said.

Trump could opt to bomb Iran's underground nuclear facilities, one of the people familiar with Trump's calls with several leaders said. But the US has already struck those facilities, and it is unclear whether further strikes would be successful.
US intelligence agencies have ⁠assessed that renewed strikes would not significantly shift Iran’s demands in negotiations, two US officials said.

World

Netanyahu Vows to Eliminate Iran Threat ‘Once and for All’

10 November 2026, Israel, Jerusalem: Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on the sidelines of the opening session of the new Knesset. (dpa)
10 November 2026, Israel, Jerusalem: Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on the sidelines of the opening session of the new Knesset. (dpa)
TT
TT

Netanyahu Vows to Eliminate Iran Threat ‘Once and for All’

10 November 2026, Israel, Jerusalem: Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on the sidelines of the opening session of the new Knesset. (dpa)
10 November 2026, Israel, Jerusalem: Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on the sidelines of the opening session of the new Knesset. (dpa)

Israel's caretaker prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday reiterated his calls for a national unity government with his opponent Gadi Eisenkot, as well as his vow to eliminate the threat from Iran.

A meeting with Eisenkot on Thursday "only strengthened the conviction that it is essential to form a national unity government" to guarantee Israel's security, Netanyahu said in a video statement, adding that such a government could "eliminate the Iranian threat once and for all".