Iran says Telegram must work with judiciary to lift ban

Preoccupied with the daily struggle to make ends meet—and having lost hope in meaningful change through elections—many in Iran’s capital view the spectacle of rival elites competing for power as little more than political theatre.

Turnout in Tehran’s last council election barely reached 25 percent. Mehdi Chamran, the conservative who now chairs the council, was elected with votes from roughly five percent of eligible citizens.

Sociologist Masoumeh Entezam recently described this decline as part of a deeper “crisis of participation” marked by “silent votes” and the erosion of political representation.

Writing in the government’s official daily Iran, she said many Iranians now see elections as contests for “specific factions rather than society at large,” but added that the new “proportional” system—to be introduced in next year’s Tehran council elections—could “open a small window toward reviving the institution of elections.”

Power launchpad

Despite outside doubts, within Iran’s insular political class the race is seen as highly consequential.

The Tehran City Council not only selects the capital’s mayor but has long served as a launchpad for national ambitions.

In 1997, the municipality’s reformist-aligned daily Hamshahri helped propel Mohammad Khatami’s late campaign to victory. Eight years later, then-mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appointed by the ultraconservative Abadgaran faction that controlled the council, rode the same route to the presidency.

With the next election due in May 2026, nearly every major political camp is maneuvering to secure a foothold.

Reformists and centrist parties—often sidelined in recent years—have vowed to present a unified list, a first for Iran’s local elections, according to prominent centrist figure Hossein Marashi.

Hardliners, despite controlling the current council that installed Alireza Zakani as mayor, remain divided. Some members have resigned early to prepare their own bids.

Hardliners divided

Among the key contenders are the ultraconservative Paydari Party and Sharian, a newer faction led by Mehrdad Bazrpash, a former protégé of hardline presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ebrahim Raisi.

Reports in Tehran media suggest Bazrpash now leads a well-funded campaign to secure the mayorship.

Outlets such as Khorassan and Khabar Online describe the council race as a “preliminary stage” for the next presidential contest, warning that hardliners risk repeating the infighting and disillusion that have already alienated many urban voters.

Despite the fevered jockeying among Iran’s political elite, few believe the outcome will meaningfully alter the city’s direction—or the country’s.

As in other elections under the Islamic Republic, the final result is widely expected to align with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s preferences, not the will of an increasingly detached public.

“The sentence for someone who does not accept the hijab is execution,” Hassan Hassannia said. “If the martyrs were here, they would flay the skin off those who, with the slogan ‘woman, life, freedom,’ stripped themselves naked,” he added, referring to the slogan chanted during Iran’s nationwide 2022 protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini.

He said women who refuse to wear the hijab “will not be corrected by dialogue,” urging that they be dealt with using “the harshest punishment.”

Hassannia also criticized Iranian officials who question the Islamic Republic’s hijab mandate, saying, “You became president, minister and governor and swore on the Quran to uphold the constitution; you are wrong when you say you do not accept the hijab.”

His comments come as Iran’s hardline daily Kayhan, run by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative, blamed government bodies for lax enforcement of hijab rules and called for stronger promotion of compulsory veiling in a commentary published last week.

Earlier in the week government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani, had said that “hijab cannot be restored to society by force” and that social values should be strengthened through cultural engagement rather than coercion.

Defiance of Iran’s mandatory hijab laws has endured since the 2022 protests, as unveiled women continue to appear in public across major cities despite recent recurring crackdowns on businesses accused of serving women without headscarves.

"I look forward to meeting with our partners to coordinate our efforts to deny Tehran and its proxies the financial access they rely on to evade international sanctions, fund violence, and undermine stability in the region," it cited John Hurley, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, as saying in a statement.

Iran backs various armed groups in the region opposed to Israel and the United States including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen and Shi'ite militias in Iraq and Syria.

Hurley will travel next week to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Lebanon to focus on implementing US sanctions on Iran, Reuters reported.

Since the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks which killed 1,200 and brought back over 200 to Gaza as captives, Israel has launched attacks in Lebanon and Gaza which have killed over 70,000 people according to local health officials.

The campaigns deeply weakened Iran-backed armed groups there.

'Sustained pressure'

"President Trump has made clear that Iran's destabilizing and terrorist activities must be met with sustained and coordinated pressure," Hurley said.

UN sanctions have been reimposed on Iran since last month, initiated by France, Germany, and the United Kingdom over Tehran's failure to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and engage in direct talks with the United States.

Iran suspended cooperation with IAEA inspectors after a 12-day war in June against Israel and the United States in which they attacked Iranian nuclear sites, codified via a new law passed by parliament.

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, but Western powers and Israel doubt its intentions.

President Trump withdrew from a 2015 Iran nuclear deal and imposed stringent sanctions he bills as a "maximum pressure campaign".

Upon starting his second term Trump reinstated the policy, intensifying sanctions to curb Iran's nuclear program and proxies, while seeking a tougher new deal.

“The Iranian regime has an interest in a continuous conflict with Israel,” said Palestinian political analyst Khalil Sayegh. “The Palestinians have been used as pawns in this game very cynically."

US President Donald Trump’s administration is advancing a 21-point postwar framework for Gaza, unveiled earlier this month. The plan rules out any political or military future for Hamas — the Iranian-backed group that has ruled the enclave since 2007 — and proposes Arab-led reconstruction under international supervision.

The plan has been described by regional analysts as a potential turning point — one that could further erode Iran’s leverage after the fall of its key Arab ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sayegh's father died during the war due to what he described as medical neglect due to Israeli attacks on health facilities and lack of access to medical care. His sister too lost her life while en route to Egypt on a so-called safe route designated by Israel where he says were barred from entering.

Despite his loss, he co-founded the Agora Foundation for Middle East Peace, an initiative that aims to promote a lasting peace, equal rights and prosperity for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Tehran’s support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Sayegh said, has long played into the hands of Israeli hardliners.

“Since day one, the extremists in the region have been feeding each other,” he said. “The Israeli right-wing extremists are on the record saying that Hamas is good for us and therefore we have to support them and fund them. The existence of the Iranian regime has been weaponized and used by Benjamin Netanyahu for so long.”

Hamza Howidy, also a Gaza-born activist who was twice imprisoned by Hamas before fleeing the enclave in 2023, said resentment toward Iran is widespread among ordinary Gazans.

“There is a huge, huge hate for the Iranian regime inside Gaza because those people see the Iranian regime as number one, the financer and the reason why Hamas is still there,” he said.

Howidy recalled how Gazans reacted after the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May 2024, which led to the election of Masoud Pezeshkian.

“When the Hamas affiliated people tried to make a poster for him inside Gaza during the war, the civilians themselves decided to go to take down this poster,” he said.

A shifting regional context

Both Sayegh and Howidy said Israeli claims of an expanding Iranian role in the West Bank are often exaggerated.

Sayegh said Iran’s ability to move weapons or influence groups in the West Bank has sharply diminished. “They keep trying from what I know, but I don’t think they will succeed,” he said. “They lost Syria — that was their biggest front to claim they’re coming to liberate Palestine.”

Iran’s role in sustaining Palestinian divisions has undermined every path toward peace, Sayegh told Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran.

“Iran has maintained the Palestinian division between the West Bank and Gaza,” Sayegh said. “That has been used by the Israeli regime to argue that a two-state solution is not possible because of the Iranian funding to Hamas.”

Iran’s shrinking reach

Both men said Iran’s influence is diminishing as its proxy network weakens across the region — a further blow to Tehran’s ambitions after two years of devastating war which followed Hamas-led attacks into Israel on October 7, 2023.

The assault killed 1,200 Israelis and brought over 200 others back into Gaza as captives. Israel's devastating incursion into the enclave killed at least 67,000 people.

“I think (Iran) will be weakened tremendously because of the incidents that happened during the past two years,” Howidy said. “I’m talking about the end of the Syrian regime, the notorious Bashar al-Assad and his regime, and then to the defeat or deterrence of Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

The recent recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, France, Italy, and Britain, Sayegh said, would remove Tehran’s main ideological justification for interference.

“When a Palestinian state emerges," he said, "the Iranian regime would lose its biggest ideological weapon that they are using—the grievances of the Palestinian people and its weaponization to justify its neo-imperialism in the region and to justify its repression of the Iranian people."

You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on Youtube or listen on any podcast platform of your choosing.

Abdelatty conveyed the message in telephone calls to Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi, according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Friday.

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon but Western powers and Israel doubt its intentions.

Egypt's efforts aim "to support security and stability in the region by finding peaceful solutions to the Iranian nuclear file," it said, adding Abdelatty "stressed the importance of continuing the dialogue between the two sides and resuming and strengthening cooperation."

The two sides inked a deal in Cairo in September aimed at resuming full IAEA access but little progress appears to have been made.

Iran suspended cooperation with IAEA inspectors after a 12-day war in June against Israel and the United States in which they attacked Iranian nuclear sites, codified via a new law passed by parliament.

Under the post-war law, inspections proceed via Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) approval for limited IAEA access at non-stricken sites, maintaining safeguards obligations under conditional cooperation while excluding full reporting and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) oversight.

Iran had warned the any concessions on inspections would be void if Western sanctions return. Since the re-imposition of UN sanctions last month, the agreement's fate with the agency remains unclear.

"We are trying to build it back, and we are inspecting in Iran," Grossi said on Wednesday. "Not at every site where we should be doing it—but we are gradually coming back."

Grossi added there was no indication of any suspicious activity at the sites attacked by Iran's foes.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported Tuesday, citing satellite imagery, that Iran has continued construction at a major underground nuclear site near Natanz.