Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said authorities rushed to announce Ali Khamenei’s death and call supporters onto the streets after “overseas media” broke the news, fearing the situation on the streets could otherwise “take a completely different turn.”
A gathering of thousands of teenagers at a Tehran mall to meet a popular YouTuber exposed a widening blind spot in Iran, some sociologists suggested: a generation whose values, social lives and sources of authority increasingly lie beyond the state's understanding.
Signs of reluctance to widen the conflict are emerging in Tehran, with conservative politicians and media urging restraint even as they accuse the United States and Israel of orchestrating Ukraine's attack on an Iranian vessel.
Iran's state broadcaster has ignored a formal order from its own watchdog to stop censoring senior officials, highlighting the gap between the country's formal institutions and where authority is exercised in practice.
Three prominent political prisoners held in Tehran's Evin prison issued a joint statement accusing the establishment of using regional war as a cover to escalate domestic repression and attempt to rebuild its lost authority through executions.
Amid threats of war and mounting fears of economic collapse, Iran's government is seeking to reinforce its case for moderation in a fractured and deeply polarized political landscape.
A newspaper close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator with Washington, is asking whether China quietly neutralized Tehran's most feared economic weapon: the oil shock through the Strait of Hormuz that never came.
The pause in US airstrikes has opened a new debate in Tehran over whether the military lull should be used to revive diplomacy or intensify pressure on Washington before another round of fighting begins.
The suspension of US and Iranian attacks has revived hopes for diplomacy, but in Tehran the military lull has exposed a widening divide over whether the Islamic Republic should negotiate with Washington or press what hardliners see as a battlefield advantage.
A widening scandal over the secret network used to move Iran's oil revenues around international sanctions has triggered growing criticism after senior officials acknowledged that intermediaries misappropriated at least $1.6 billion, with some fleeing the country.
Nearly half of Iranian internet users said they were angered by the country's recent internet shutdown during the conflict with the US, while most opposed unrestricted internet access for government officials, according to a survey commissioned by the communications ministry.
Iran’s government has publicly accused the state broadcaster of censoring President Pezeshkian’s remarks in which he said the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei privately ordered officials to negotiate with the United States despite publicly ruling out talks with Washington.
President Donald Trump’s increasingly explicit threats of a wider Iran war have fueled anxiety and speculation inside the country, as analysts and social media users debate whether the conflict is approaching a more destructive and unpredictable phase.
Several cafés in central Tehran have been shut down after authorities renewed pressure over compulsory hijab, days after senior clerics called for stricter enforcement and weeks after the government briefly tolerated looser dress code during wartime pro-establishment gatherings.
The surge in oil prices appears to be hardening Tehran's resolve against renewed negotiations with Washington, giving ammunition to those who argue that a prolonged conflict puts more pressure on the United States than on Iran.
President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain nuclear-linked facility has intensified hardline calls for Tehran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and develop a nuclear weapon.
The latest round of café closures in Tehran is a reminder to ordinary Iranians that wartime or otherwise, those in power still decide how much space they are allowed to occupy.
The US may be peeling away layers of Iran's leadership, but without a plan for what comes next, bombing the coast and seizing islands cannot reach the problem in Tehran, and risk delivering an IRGC takeover rather than real change, experts said at an Iran International town hall.
A hardline Iranian lawmaker accused parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of backing a US deal that blocks revenge for Ali Khamenei’s killing and could paralyze the state, paving the way for a bloodless coup.
Iran's leading economists warned Monday that renewed conflict with the United States risks pushing the country's long-festering economic problems into a more dangerous phase, arguing that inflation is becoming increasingly difficult to contain.
Criticism of Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's recent interview has spread across Iranian conservative media, with critics arguing he disclosed sensitive information about wartime security and internal decision-making following its publication this week.
Foreign intelligence penetration of Iran is hardly a secret. But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has now suggested the operation goes beyond locating officials or stealing information and seeks to influence decision-making inside the Islamic Republic itself.