Iran’s hardline media accuses US of media pressure ahead of nuclear talks

The United States and Iran are nearing a broad agreement on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program, with talks progressing in recent weeks toward a framework that could be finalized at a planned meeting in the Middle East, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

Negotiators have made headway on key issues, particularly uranium enrichment, which remains the central point of contention, according to the report.

Sources told CNN that one proposal under consideration would involve the creation of a multinational consortium—possibly including regional partners and the International Atomic Energy Agency—to produce nuclear fuel for Iran’s civilian reactors. The US may also contribute to Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure as part of a broader agreement, though no final decisions have been made.

The ballistic missile issue is not part of the current negotiations, and sources said the US team, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, is focused solely on the nuclear file to avoid complicating the process.

Austria’s domestic intelligence service believes Iran is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program and expanding its missile capabilities, according to a report published by Fox News on Wednesday.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Austria’s equivalent of the FBI, said in a newly released report that Iran is seeking to rearm as part of a broader strategy to assert regional dominance and deter external threats.

The report describes Iran’s nuclear weapons development as “well advanced” and says Tehran now possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads over long distances.

Fox News, which reviewed the report, said it contradicts the current US intelligence assessment. In March, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the United States believes Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not revived the program suspended in 2003.

The Austrian agency’s report also highlights Iran’s efforts to evade international sanctions, provide weapons to proxy groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and use diplomatic cover in Vienna for intelligence activity. The Iranian embassy in Vienna is one of the largest that the Islamic Republic maintains in Europe.

This shift from overt violence to algorithmic discipline is framed in official discourse as “smartification” and “psychological security”—buzzwords that mask a deeper objective: building a more efficient, anticipatory system of social control.

As Iran negotiates with the United States abroad, it is preparing for a future at home without a deal. Figures once tainted by high-level corruption—such as Babak Zanjani—are now rhetorically rehabilitated as symbols of national resilience, reflecting a broader effort to rebrand dysfunction as discipline.

Authorities are deploying everything from internet monitoring and mobile signal tracking to facial recognition, shop surveillance, and even mandatory in-home cameras to build a digital control society. The goal: neutralize dissent before it begins.

This new architecture of repression aims to present a softer, even “benevolent” face of policing—one nearly invisible thanks to smart technologies. The result is a seamless, predictive regime designed not only to watch citizens, but to sort, anticipate, and contain them.

Policing internet, profiling people

In recent years, the Islamic Republic has adopted a more systematized and technical approach to digital control.

A clear marker of this trend was the resolution passed by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace in January 2025. While billed as a plan to “lift filtering,” the directive in practice expands regulation of online activity.

It authorizes the government, along with the Ministry of Culture and the Judiciary, to police “criminal content,” restrict VPNs, and penalize the spread of so-called “fake news.”

This legislative tightening is matched by tactical enforcement. During protests in Izeh in March 2024, authorities imposed localized internet shutdowns that left hundreds of thousands offline. These quiet, surgical disruptions have become a recurring method of quelling unrest.

In parallel, authorities deactivated SIM cards of journalists, activists, and political users—targeting not speech, but connection itself.

The same tools are now used to enforce dress codes. In Isfahan, authorities reportedly use contactless payment readers and surveillance cameras to identify women who defy compulsory hijab.

Threatening messages are sent not only to the women, but to their families—a form of psychological policing that leverages fear and shame.

Urban surveillance, algorithmic control

These measures show no sign of slowing. In May 2025, traffic police announced plans to use facial recognition for pedestrian violations—a tool once limited to license plates now trained on people.

In October 2024, the national police (FARAJA) began equipping 50,000 officers with body cameras that livestream to command centers, turning patrols into mobile surveillance nodes.

Surveillance is also extending into the private sector. Under the “Septam” system launched in late 2024, businesses must install cameras linked to law enforcement to receive operating licenses.

In April 2025, building codes were updated to require surveillance cameras in any residential or commercial complex with four or more units. The state now watches not just public streets but the thresholds of private homes.

These initiatives fall under the “Police Smartification” plan outlined in the FARAJA Architecture Document. Though couched in the language of public service, its purpose is unmistakable: to restructure digital and urban life for maximum predictability and control.

Pre-empting dissent

The driver behind this system is not technological ambition—it is fear. Officials anticipate the return of mass protests, spurred by economic hardship, power outages, and the possible failure of negotiations.

In response, they are building a pre-emptive framework of repression, where law and policing blur, and surveillance becomes the default mode of governance.

This strategy does not merely suppress resistance—it aims to erase the very possibility of it. By severing communication, dissolving public and digital spaces, and inducing despair, the state hopes to prevent disobedience not just in action, but in thought.

If realized, Iran will not merely be a surveillance state—it will be an anticipatory one. A state where individuals are profiled, categorized, and neutralized before they act.Where repression no longer wears a uniform, but operates silently—to predict and pre-empt dissent.

Initially launched to protest fuel quotas and working conditions, the industrial action has brought freight traffic to a standstill. Videos from Bandar Abbas, Marivan, and the Kahak-Qom highway show deserted routes normally busy with cargo trucks.

Authorities have escalated efforts to suppress the strike with arrests, sources close to the strikers told Iran International, adding that security forces have summoned many drivers and detained some.

The truckers union on Wednesday called for immediate and unconditional release of those arrested, reporting crackdowns in several provinces including Isfahan, Hormozgan, Fars, Kermanshah, Ardabil and Khuzestan.

On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kerman province announced it had dismantled an “organized anti-security network,” though it gave no details or clear link to the strike.

Drivers are calling for better working conditions, higher freight rates, and relief from high insurance costs and fuel restrictions.

IRGC-affiliated vehicles have been spotted transporting goods, in what appears to be an attempt to break the strike.

One citizen who filmed an IRGC-marked truck told Iran International the force was stepping in to cover routes abandoned by striking drivers.

Hard to break

The government faces a logistical and political challenge. Despite efforts since 2018 to increase corporate control of the freight industry—doubling the number of company-owned trucks and drawing figures like Babak Zanjani into the sector—most trucks remain in private hands.

Official data shows that 552,000 drivers operate 433,000 trucks nationwide. Of those, just under 7% (around 30,000) are company-owned, while the rest are controlled by individual owner-operators, many of whom are now aligned with the strike.

The action could be poised to spread beyond truck drivers, with some working for ride share company Snapp voicing solidarity.

In messages sent to Iran International, one driver said he would continue to strike alongside the truckers; another urged colleagues and other professions to join the movement.

Officials announced on Wednesday that a plan to introduce a tiered diesel pricing system was suspended—in appeared to be a government response to a key demand of the strikers.

“All aspects of fuel allocation will be reviewed with the participation of trucker representatives,” head of truckers union Firooz Khodaei said.

Tehran on Wednesday denied a Reuters report citing two Iranian sources saying the country had agreed to pause uranium enrichment for a year in exchange for the US unfreezing of funds.

"The continuation of enrichment in Iran is a non-negotiable principle," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.

"Reuters' new claim is the same kind of fabrication that has been repeatedly denied in the past—and proven to be false," he said.