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A month-long protest by farmers in the central Iranian province of Isfahan over their water rights has once again brought the country’s growing water crisis into sharp focus.
Farmers' protests in Isfahan culminated last week in the sabotage of water transfer infrastructures and the cutting of drinking water supplies to the neighboring province of Yazd, highlighting the growing potential for civil unrest and national security risks linked to water scarcity.
Over 95 percent of Iran is currently experiencing prolonged drought. Yet experts argue that the root causes of the crisis go beyond climate, pointing to decades of mismanagement, poor resource planning, and development strategies that ignored environmental realities.
Among the most contentious issues is the concentration of water-intensive industries—such as steel and ceramics—in already water-stressed provinces like Isfahan and Yazd.
Environmental geologist and activist Nikahang Kowsar, who has been warning of a looming water catastrophe since the early 2000s, blames government policies stretching back to the reformist era of President Mohammad Khatami.
Khatami’s supporters, however, argue that plans to transfer water from Isfahan’s Zayandeh Rud to Yazd, Khatami’s hometown, began much earlier and were only completed during his presidency.
The video in the tweet shows the broken pipeline
Experts also cite excessive groundwater extraction for agriculture—pushed in the name of food security—as a major contributor to dropping water tables and land subsidence across much of the country.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has long championed agricultural self-sufficiency. In a March 2021 speech, he called for domestic production of key crops such as wheat, corn, and barley, asserting that the goal was both necessary and achievable. But critics say this policy has encouraged unsustainable water use, especially in arid regions.
Tensions in Isfahan flared last month as local farmers demanded the release of water from behind Zayandeh Rud Dam to the dry river to irrigate their parched lands. The government temporarily eased the standoff on April 5 by releasing water into the river for ten days, prompting celebratory gatherings of citizens along the dry riverbed.
Zayandeh Rud, once the lifeline of Isfahan, has not maintained a permanent flow since 2006. The decline is attributed to drought, upstream agricultural expansion in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, and the controversial diversion of water to Yazd.
Much warmer months, however, are ahead with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees celsius and both farmers and residents of the city are highly likely to face serious water issues for the irrigation of the crops and normal use, including the running of evaporative air conditioners.
Isfahan’s farmers claim that water diverted to Yazd is being used to support industrial operations, including a major steel plant and greenhouse agriculture such as the cultivation of cucumbers for export. Officials, however, maintain that the pipeline primarily supplies drinking water.
Isfahan Province is also a highly industrial city with a massive steel complex (Mobarakeh Steel Company). Local farmers also grow highly water-intensive crops such as watermelons and rice.
In recent days, angry demonstrators destroyed three pumping stations and damaged the main pipeline to Yazd. Supply of water has been partially restored. Government sources say full restoration of the pipeline could take up to two months.
The resulting emergency triggered a major water crisis in Yazd, forcing the government to announce the closure of government offices and educational facilities on Saturday and Sunday and to begin the distribution of drinking water with tankers to the city’s over half a million population.
The pipeline has long been a flashpoint. It was first sabotaged in 2012, and subsequent protests over water scarcity in Isfahan, Khuzestan, and Bushehr in 2018 and 2021 were met with a heavy government crackdown.
While protests in Isfahan temporarily subsided in Isfahan, the deeper crisis remains unresolved. Isfahan continues to suffer from some of the worst water stress in the country, even as it remains a hub for heavy industry.
Amid growing concerns, some officials have even floated the idea of relocating the capital from Tehran to the water-rich Makran region along the Gulf of Oman—a dramatic proposal that underlines the severity of Iran’s water crisis and its potential to destabilize the country’s future.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would probably travel to Tehran if invited, Washington Post reported citing administration officials.
Witkoff will lead the US delegation to the nuclear talks with Iran slated for Saturday in Oman.
“If the talks aren’t direct, Witkoff might not go to Oman,” the report added, citing an administration official.
A new Iran-backed militant group, Uli al-Baas, has emerged in Syria, positioning itself against the United States and its regional allies, Newsweek reported on Tuesday.
Newsweek quoted the group, officially known as the "Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Uli al-Baas," as saying it is aligned with the broader Axis of Resistance, a coalition of Iran-backed political and military actors in the Middle East such as Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"Uli al-Baas is a faith-based, revolutionary, nationalist movement with an Arab nationalist dimension, unaffiliated with any existing organization in Syria," the group's political office told Newsweek, adding that it does not support the current ruling government.
"It [the group] has its own political project of resistance that guarantees the establishment of a strong, capable, and freedom-supporting state," the group added.
While Uli al-Baas said that it is "not affiliated with any regional party or any country," logos used, particularly the raised Kalashnikov-style rifle, mirrors the signature style of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and has been adopted by other Axis of Resistance groups, including Hezbollah and Iraqi militias.
Newsweek also quoted the group speaking about the Islamic Republic, in what appeared to echo similar manifestos of Tehran's allied groups.
"As for the constant threat posed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, this is because it maintains an independent identity and refuses to submit," Uli al-Baas said,
"However, the truth is that Iran is challenging the advanced state in West Asia, namely the Zionist entity," the group added.
Experts suggest that the group may have originated from Iran’s efforts to maintain influence in Syria, a key Arab ally under the ousted Bashar al-Assad government.
“While UAB’s kinetic capabilities remain unproven, its emergence could signal the early stages of a new Iran-backed militia formation in Syria, an outcome that was always likely post-Assad,” a Washington Institute analysis said in March.
The group has since published the Newsweek story on their Telegram channel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Libyan model for dismantling Iran’s nuclear program during a recent meeting with Donald Trump, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday citing Israeli officials.
The model, which led to Libya’s full nuclear disarmament in the early 2000s, would require Tehran to eliminate its enrichment infrastructure entirely.
However, according to i24NEWS, Trump gave no assurance he would adopt the model, and “his policy on this matter remains unclear.”
“The chances of the Iranians agreeing to a nuclear deal based on the Libyan model are low,” the Post reported citing one Israeli official.
Elliott Abrams, who was Trump’s special envoy to Iran during his first term, told the Post that talks could serve as a prelude to military action.
“It’s useful to have a negotiation, go through it, watch it fail, so that’s your explanation of why you had to use military force,” he added.
The first round of US-Iran nuclear talks is scheduled for Saturday in Oman.
A blood-spattered banknote, a lone shoe, a handwritten note from prison, a last will and testament. For those whose voices and lives have been snuffed out forever, their possessions bear witness.
The traveling Memories Left Behind exhibition opened in Vienna over the weekend featuring over 120 personal items belonging to victims of state repression from the Islamic Republic's 1979 inception to the present.
Starting from the executions in 1979 of monarchy figures and in 1988 of thousands of political prisoners and ranging to the victims of 1999 student protests, the 2009 Green Movement, the 2019 fuel protests and the 2022–2023 Woman Life Freedom protests, the show highlights the serial traumas of the last nearly fifty years.
Lovingly unpacking each item, organizers Elnaz Bardiya and Samareh Parsa shed tears. Each is a painful reminder of the lives lost, the stories silenced, and the strength of those who refuse to let them be forgotten.
Bardiya said the idea for the exhibition started from collecting letters from families of the victims of the 2022 protests and evolved into gathering personal items to reveal the lives behind the numbers.
"Displaying a simple item might seem easy, but under this regime, where graves are desecrated and funerals prevented, it becomes a dangerous task," said Bardiya.
Strict secrecy was required to safely transport these items out of Iran, she added.
“The Islamic Republic is so weak, it fears even a shirt or comb belonging to its victims,” said Samareh, her voice breaking.
Woman Life Freedom
Many items on display belonged to those killed during the most recent uprising in Iran, the Woman Life Freedom protests, sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in which security forces killed 550 protestors.
"With this exhibition, we wanted to support the families of the victims of the Islamic Republic and expose the regime’s crimes," said Dr. Siroos Mirzaei, co-organizer and spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights in Iran-Austria.
Curators especially sought to highlight stories from Iran's social and geographic margins.
Among the items on display is a shawl once owned by Khodanour Lejei who was fatally shot in October 2022 in Zahedan in southeastern Iran. Khodanour was denied treatment at a local hospital and passed away the following day on his 27th birthday.
Another exhibit featured a bloodstained banknote found in the pocket of 16-year-old protestor Mohammad-Eghbal Nayeb-Zehi, who was shot dead by a sniper during the so-called Bloody Friday massacre in Zahedan in September 2022.
Mohammad-Eghbal, a child laborer since the age of nine, had dreamed of buying a smartphone to open an Instagram account, a description next to the bill read, highlighting the struggles of many like him in the deprived areas.
Also on display was a watch, one of the only physical reminders of a slain protester.
Killed by security forces in a raid on his village in southwestern Iran in late 2022, 21-year-old Mahmoud Ahmadi's body was never returned to his family.
"Seeing the items from my small city, Izeh, is hard," said Foad Choobin, human rights activist and uncle of slain teen protester Artin Rahmani.
"It brings back flashbacks of November 16, 2022, when seven people, including my nephew Artin, were shot and killed by security forces," he added. "Just two weeks ago, the Islamic Republic released a report denying their forces killed them."
Also displayed was a jumper worn by Reza Rasaei before a prison visit that their family did not then know would be the last time they would see him.
Rasaei, a 34-year-old Kurdish man and follower of the Yarsani faith, was arrested in November 2022 for allegedly killing a member of the security forces - charges he denied.
In August, he was executed in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah in Western Iran.
Deaths past and present
The exhibition also featured photographs and personal belongings of those who lost their lives during the November 2019 protests sparked by a fuel price spike during which security forces killed up to 1500 protestors.
Among them was 18-year-old Reza Moazami Goodarzi who was shot and killed during the protests, dubbed Aban after the Persian month, in Karaj in central Iran. On display was his vest.
“Despite Reza being killed in 2019, the repression on his family has not stopped. Reza’s cousin, Farzad Moazami Goodarzi is in Evin prison right now only for advocating for justice for Reza,” Soran Mansournia, spokesperson for Aban Families said as he stood next to Reza’s vest.
Another section featured personal belongings of those killed in the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in January 2020.
"I feel a lot, anger but also happiness that we can keep their memory alive in this exhibition, and also that these items can be used as proof in court in the future,” said Shahnaz Morattab, a board member of The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims.
She lost her nephew Arvin Morattab and his wife Aida Farzaneh on the flight.
A section of the exhibition featured items belonging to some of the thousands of political prisoners executed in the summer of 1988.
One item was a necklace belonging to 29-year-old political prisoner Bijan Bazargan, who was killed on August 28, 1988.
His sister, Lawdan, who has dedicated her life to advocacy and is also a co-organizer of the exhibition and a board member of the Association of Victims' Families for Transitional Justice, said Bijan made the necklace in prison.
“He never liked making crafts, but one day he surprised us," Bazargan said.
"Its chain is handwoven from threads of a sock, the tulip medallion carved from a food bone, and its frame shaped from garden stones,” she said. “The knots in that chain feel like pieces of his soul. The same hands that made this will one day bloom again in Khavaran," referring to a cemetery for the victims.
Hadi Rad, who has lost seven of his family members around the time of the 1988 executions, was among the attendees.
Pointing to the pictures of his kin killed by the Islamic Republic, he said: “I lost seven members of my family, including my brother, my two sisters, and my unborn niece. My sister was just 23 years, my brother was just 28 years, and two cousins, 18 years and 19 years. We also lost two son-in-laws as well. I just couldn't digest it. One after each other, we lost them.”
Hadi’s said his parents were also imprisoned and subjected torture and barred from attending their loved ones funerals.
“We are all that’s left. And we are here to be their voice–the voice of all these people who got killed and murdered by this brutal regime of Iran,” he said.
