Israel warns of terror threat abroad, including from Iran, as UAE staff said to be pulled

“Any demands for financial compensation from the United States to the Iranian regime are ridiculous,” Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said at a press briefing in Washington on Thursday. “If the Iranian regime really wanted to save money, they would stop funding terrorist death squads, stop oppressing their own people, and stop wasting money on a nuclear program that isolates them further.”

The comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Financial Times that Tehran would not return to nuclear negotiations unless Washington accepted responsibility for the attacks and offered compensation.

Ball is in Iran’s court, US says

Pigott said the United States remains open to diplomacy but warned that Tehran has limited time. “Iran has a short window of opportunity, but the ball is in Iran’s court,” he said. “We’re waiting to see what they do.”

Araghchi had said talks with the US could not proceed without “confidence-building measures,” including financial redress and guarantees against future strikes. He also confirmed that a third enrichment site near Isfahan was hit during the war, the first time Tehran has publicly acknowledged the attack.

Talks remain on hold as tensions linger

The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan days before a ceasefire in June, citing threats from Tehran’s nuclear escalation. Iran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency shortly after, though technical talks with the IAEA are expected in the coming weeks.

Araghchi said Iran and the US exchanged messages before, during and after the war but added that the “road to negotiation is narrow.” He also warned that any European move to restore UN sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal would end Iran’s talks with the UK, France and Germany.

“With the Europeans, there is no reason right now to negotiate,” he said. “They cannot lift sanctions, they cannot do anything.”

“This is a clear fabrication and a desperate move to divert attention,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in remarks carried by state media. “These baseless narratives are part of a broader Iranophobia campaign designed to justify hostile policies toward Iran.”

The US and countries including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada issued a statement this week warning that Iranian intelligence services are cooperating with international criminal networks to surveil, intimidate and potentially harm journalists, activists and political figures living abroad.

In response, Baghaei said the countries involved “must be held accountable for their open support of violent and terrorist groups who have committed acts of bloodshed against the Iranian people.” He added, “Instead of answering for their illegal behavior, they resort to media campaigns based on lies.”

Western concerns grow after publicized incidents

The Western statement followed a string of recent warnings from European and US authorities. The UK’s counter terrorism police said Iran is among the most active foreign states involved in plots to harm people on British soil. Officials in London said the Islamic Republic uses criminal intermediaries and targets vulnerable individuals to carry out surveillance or attacks.

“We are increasingly seeing these three states — Iran, Russia and China — undertaking threat-to-life operations in the United Kingdom,” said Dominic Murphy, head of London’s Counter Terrorism Command, earlier this month.

Belgian lawmaker Darya Safai said this week that local police told her about a plot to abduct her via Turkey, which she linked to her calls to label Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group.

A pattern of pressure and denials

Western governments say Iran’s operations abroad are growing more frequent and bold. A report by the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee this month said Iran was behind at least 15 attempted assassinations or kidnappings on British soil since 2022.

Iran denies involvement in such operations and frequently calls international criticism part of a politically motivated campaign.

The report reveals how Iranian oil is transferred to ships bound for China through covert ship-to-ship transfers in international waters near Malaysia’s Riau archipelago, often with transponders turned off and identifying details concealed.

During a single day in the area, CBS recorded 12 such transfers—an unprecedented number that analysts say signals an expansion of the trade. China is believed to purchase up to 90% of Iran’s crude exports.

The report comes a day after the US Treasury announced sweeping new sanctions on what it described as a “shipping empire” allegedly controlled by Hossein Shamkhani, son of a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader.

The action, the largest of its kind since 2018, targeted more than 50 individuals and entities and identified 50 vessels.

CBS quoted former US Navy officer Charlie Brown, now an adviser to United Against Nuclear Iran, as saying the location near the Riau archipelago is the dark fleet’s “parking central.”

“As long as there’s a supply, there will be a demand for this discounted oil,” Brown said. “And both sides are willing to take the risk.”

Despite multiple rounds of US sanctions, smaller Chinese refineries—known as “teapots”—continue to buy Iranian crude.

Meanwhile, European powers are weighing whether to trigger the snapback of UN sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

It remains unclear how such a move would affect China’s energy trade with Iran or broader sanctions enforcement.

“The solution to changing this regime lies in the hands of the people and the Iranian Resistance. With the regime’s overthrow by the people and organized resistance, Iran will move toward democracy and prevent a major regional war,” Maryam Rajavi told attendees at a conference in Rome.

“We will have a free, non-nuclear Iran, without executions, without mandatory hijab, without forced religion and without coercive rule,” she added.

Audience members, some wearing matching red and white outfits and headscarves, frequently interrupted her remarks with fist-pumping chants of praise.

The banned Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) group is the largest component of the NCRI whose leaders are based in Paris.

A leftist-Islamist group, the MEK carried out attacks against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s but fell out with other factions during the 1979 revolution which toppled the monarchy and has been at war with Tehran ever since.

Opposition figures have stepped up calls to rally against Tehran following a punishing 12-day war with Israel last month, but there have been no significant protests.

Iranian exiled prince Reza Pahlavi urged unity among Iran's opposition during a pro-monarchy conference in Munich on Saturday, saying the Islamic Republic's downfall would lead to sustainable peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

The Rome gathering was titled “Neither war nor appeasement - change by the hands of the Iranian people and organized resistance” and hosted a series of senior Western ex-officials who criticized Iran's leadership and praised the NCRI.

These included former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former UK foreign minister James Cleverly and former Belgian prime minister and former president of the European Council Charels Michel.

Iran executed two MEK members accused of targeting civilian sites with improvised weapons, state media reported on Sunday.

“We hold this gathering while the religious tyranny, by executing heroic fighters Behzad Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, expresses its desperation against the people and organized resistance. They never bowed and said “no” to the executioner,” Rajavi said.

The men were accused of like baghi or armed rebellion, moharebeh or waging war against God, efsadfel-arz corruption on earth, membership in a terrorist organization, gathering classified information and conspiracy against national security.

Amnesty International described their trial as "grossly unfair". Iran executed at least 901 people in 2024 - the highest number since 2015 - according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Since 2013, some 2,500 of the MEK members have been sheltered in Albania, where they are banned from engaging in political activity.

“Iran continues to pursue the development of asymmetric weapons capabilities, including unmanned aerial vehicles, to carry out attacks on the United States, our servicemembers and our partners and allies in the region,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.

“We will continue to put America first by disrupting Tehran’s ability to further its destabilizing agenda.”

The sanctions target Javad Alizadeh Hoshyar, the CEO of Iran-based Control Afzar Tabriz Co., along with affiliated companies that the Treasury says procured sensitive manufacturing equipment for the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA).

HESA, a state-owned entity under Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), produces military aircraft and Ababil-series drones used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Under Hoshyar’s direction, Control Afzar Tabriz Co. allegedly acquired computer numerical control (CNC) machines and routed shipments through foreign intermediaries—including Clifton Trading in Hong Kong, Mecatron and Joemars in Taiwan, and Changzhou Joemars in China—to evade export controls and mask HESA’s involvement, according to the Treasury.

The designations follow another round of sanctions a day earlier against a global shipping and smuggling network allegedly controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, Iran's former national security chief and an adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

More than 50 individuals and entities were designated on Wednesday, and over 50 vessels identified, in what the US Treasury called its largest Iran-related action since 2018.