Iran calls UN chief plea to renounce nuclear program ‘audacious’

“Every morning, I wake up dreading my kids going out and taking in poison instead of air,” says Marjan, a 45-year-old mother of two. “Is there such a thing as a right to clean air? Because if there is, that’s yet another one taken away from us.”

Air pollution is nothing new in Iran, especially in the capital Tehran. But in recent years it has reached unseen levels, choking the city and its residents under a toxic shroud.

“If it weren’t for my husband’s and my jobs, we would have left Tehran long ago. But it’s hard to find work in smaller towns, and the bigger ones have bad air too,” Marjan adds.

The causes of Iran’s air crisis are manifold. Low-quality gasoline powers vehicles and mazut or heavy fuel oil power most of the country’s power plants.

Despite holding the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, Iran faces chronic shortages of refined gas due to high demand, inefficiency and sanctions, which prevent access to the technology needed for conversion. Substandard fuels like mazut have to be utilized.

Public transportation is outdated and underdeveloped, failing to provide a viable alternative to private cars, which themselves are inefficient and poorly designed. Low-quality motorcycles, aging buses and trucks all play a part.

Who's at fault?

Farhad, who spends over two hours daily commuting, describes the predicament he and many like him face daily.

“They try to blame people, saying there are too many single-occupancy cars. But public transport is limited. For many journeys, on many routes, you have no choice but to drive your car.”

And the cars are at least as much to blame as their drivers, Farhad adds.

“My car is Iran-made. It’s garbage, but it’s the only one I can afford. Foreign cars sell for many times their global price because of all the tariffs and bans. The government basically rigs the market to sell these death chariots and keep the state-backed manufacturers afloat.”

Iran-made vehicles are inefficient and unsafe, contributing to over 20,000 traffic fatalities each year. That's at least two every hour.

Deaths caused by air pollution are harder to quantify. Officials say the number is roughly the same as those killed in car accidents, but most experts say it's higher. Over half of the country’s population is exposed to polluted air.

The elderly and kids are more at risk.

Abandoning the capital

“Whenever my son stepped outside to go to school, his eyes would burn and shut tightly. It was so severe he couldn’t open them. Doctors told us it was the air.”

Parisa worked as a marketing assistant in Tehran. She and her husband decided they had to move for their 9-year-old’s sake.

“It wasn’t easy adjusting to village life,” she says. “It’s cheaper here but there’s no work. We’ve been lucky to have found remote work, but we’re constantly worried that they might call us back to the office. Our son can’t go back to that toxic air.”

Efforts to reduce mazut consumption, such as cutting residential and industrial electricity, have done little to alleviate the crisis. Protests over power outages and pollution have erupted in several cities.

Not just Tehran

Isfahan, another major city, suffers from unique challenges. The drying of its much-loved, almost mythical river, Zayandeh Roud, has worsened air quality. Several heavy industries surround the city, adding to the problems.

Many Isfahanis, known for pride in their historic city, are considering relocation. But where to?

“Isfahan is no longer livable,” says Shahryar, a 55-year-old shopkeeper. “The river is dry, and the air is poisoned. Some days, the smog is so thick it blankets and darkens the city. It kills people and their spirit.”

Iranians are gasping for air. Literally. And they blame the state. Sanctions, unchecked urban sprawl, inefficient cars, rising demand for energy—all that is to be pinned on those ruling the country.

Shahryar—like a good old Isfahani— sums up the situation with a verse of classical Persian poetry. “Whichever way I turned, my fear only grew.”

The Biden administration had earlier revoked the Houthis' designation.

The report came hours after the Houthis released the crew of the Galaxy Leader more than a year after they seized the Bahamas-flagged vessel off the Yemeni Red Sea coast, a video released by the Houthis Al-Masirah TV showed.

The crew were handed to Oman "in coordination" with the three-day-old ceasefire in Gaza's war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, the video showed.

The women were arrested and transferred to prison on the morning of Wednesday, January 22, when security forces raided their homes in Isfahan, the Hengaw report said.

Charged in the Isfahan Revolutionary Court with "educational and propaganda activities against the sacred Islamic law”, a source familiar with the case told Iran International that the court classified the verdict as "confidential and security-related”.

According to information obtained by Iran International, the court cited activities such as organizing educational classes on music, yoga, painting, English language, and nature tours for Iranian and Afghan children and teenagers as evidence of the charges.

The women have had all phones, laptops, digital devices, gold items, necklaces, rings, and US and Australian dollars confiscated from their homes as a "supplementary punishment" for the benefit of the "Muslims' Fund (the state).”

Roya Azadkhosh, Nasrin Khadami, Mojgan Pourshafi, Azita Rezvanikhah, Boshra Motahar, Sara Shakib, Shoorangiz Behamin, Sanaz Rasteh, Maryam Khorsandi, and Firouzeh Rastinejad had previously been sentenced by Branch 37 of the Isfahan Provincial Court of Appeals to five years of imprisonment each.

Additionally, each of these individuals was sentenced to a fine of 50 million tomans, five years of deprivation from social services, and a two-year travel ban.

The Baha’i citizens were initially arrested on Sunday, April 25, 2022, in Baharestan, Isfahan, and were temporarily released on bail in May of the same year, pending the completion of judicial proceedings.

Unofficial sources estimate that over 300,000 Baha'is live in Iran. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic officially recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.

Since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom uprising which has seen woman in Iran under even greater threat of arrest than ever before, the risks for Baha'i women have soared, with dozens summoned to court facing vague criminal charges.

"That delusional fantasist claimed that Iran has been weakened," Khamenei told a group of his supporters in Tehran, without elaborating. "The future will reveal who has truly been weakened."

In the last week, US President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have all described Iran as weakened.

They cited Tehran's reduced influence in the region following the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, Israeli attacks on its air defense capabilities and the killing of leaders of its armed Palestinian and Lebanese allies.

Khamenei said former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein started the invasion of Iran in September 1980 and then-US president Ronald Reagan provided significant support to his regime, both "under the illusion that Iran was weak."

"They, along with dozens of other deluded individuals, ultimately met their demise, while the Islamic regime grew stronger day by day. I tell you, this experience will be repeated once again this time," he added.

His comments came two days after Trump's return to the White House and at a time when his administration is potentially weighing whether to support a possible Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Asked whether Trump would support such an attack, his national security advisor Mike Waltz said: "This is a moment to make those key decisions, and we'll be doing that over the next month."

Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, Waltz also said Iran's regional position is under strain with its air defenses destroyed and key allies diminished. He credited Israeli attacks for what he called a strategic shift in the Middle East.

Khamenei, however, referred to the recent ceasefire in Gaza as a victory for the Iran-led Resistance Front and "a clear sign of the realization of the prediction that resistance is alive and will endure."

He emphasized that without US support, Israel would have collapsed within the first weeks after October 7, 2023, when Tehran-backed Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

"Over the past year and a few months, the Zionist regime committed every atrocity it could, bombing homes, hospitals, mosques and churches in a small area like Gaza, Khamenei said.

"Yet in the end, it not only failed to achieve the goal set by its miserable and discredited leader—eliminating Hamas and governing Gaza without resistance—but was also forced to sit at the negotiation table with Hamas and accept its terms for a ceasefire."

Trump has signaled stepped-up support for Israel and a renewed hard line on Iran.

The hawkish new president is due to lift Biden's freeze on delivering 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in his first days in the White House, Israeli news outlet Walla News reported this week, citing Israel's ambassador to Washington.

"What is happening before the eyes of the world seems like a legend," Khamenei continued, "where a massive military apparatus like that of the United States, indifferent to human values, provides bunker-busting bombs to the oppressive and bloodthirsty Zionist regime."

The Friday Prayer Imam of Abadan, a city known for housing the Middle East's oldest oil refinery, recently criticized the granting of concert permits, calling them sinful and claiming that music events anger God, leading to a lack of rain.

Following Abdolhossein Ghobishavi's statement, the provincial ideological department canceled several concert permits for February, according to local media reports.

This move contradicts an order from President Masoud Pezeshkian's administration, which has instructed all official bodies and ministries not to block music events.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, most forms of music have been banned from state television and radio.

Artists and performers face lengthy processes to obtain permits for releasing songs or holding concerts, and female singers are typically prohibited from performing.