'Make it my birthday present', court hears evidence on Iran murder-for-hire case

The session, held during the UN Human Rights Council meeting, included discussions on minority rights, state repression, and accountability.

A panel hosted by the Baha’i International Community, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, and the Impact Iran coalition examined the systematic targeting of Baha’is. The event featured Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, alongside prominent rights advocates.

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"The interviews with 56 Baha'is with direct experience of persecution offer powerful firsthand accounts that cannot be ignored," Sato said. "The report argues that the Baha'i people of Iran have long been subjected to a systematic process of othering by the state."

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.

Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, say their rights are systematically violated and they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs and university education.

"Bahai women face intersectional discrimination, persecuted both as women and as a member of a religious minority," Sato said. She cited reports of ten Baha’i women in Isfahan being sentenced to a combined 90 years in prison and stripped of assets.

Speaking at the event, Roya Boroumand, director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, addressed broader societal changes.

"The Iranians are secularizing, their distancing themselves from Islam, from religion altogether, or they are converting to Zoroastrianism or Baha’ism or Christianity," she said. "For the theocracy, losing its Muslims is a disaster."

The day concluded with a screening of a documentary presented by rights group Justice for Iran, highlighting the courage of protesters and whistleblowers who exposed atrocities during the November 2019 protests.

It heard testimonies from witnesses, victims, and experts on the Iranian government’s violent crackdown, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1500 protestors and mass arrests.

Azadeh Afsahi, a psychotherapist and human rights advocate, spoke about the dangers of dehumanization. "During the Rwanda genocide, Tutsis were called cockroaches. Under Nazi Germany, Jews were called rats. It happened before and it's happening now," she said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has used otherization to drive its agenda of violence."

As international attention remains on Iran’s human rights record, rights groups continue to document abuses and call for accountability. "Despite these challenges, the Baha'i community demonstrates remarkable resilience," Sato said.

"Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump on Saturday ordered large-scale military strikes against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by Tehran-backed Houthi armed group, saying the attacks aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation through shipping lanes the militants have targeted.

Fresh US air strikes hit Yemen on Monday, the Houthis' Al Masirah TV reported. The Houthi-run health ministry said on Sunday that at least 53 people were killed in the attacks.

At a Pentagon press conference on Monday, lieutenant general Alexus Grynkewich told reporters that military casualties among the Houthis were in the dozens but there were no indications of civilian casualties.

Shortly after Israel's incursion into Gaza triggered by a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the Shi'ite militant group which seized control of much of Yemen started missile and drone strikes against commercial and military vessels in the Red and Arabian Seas.

They described the effort as a blockade in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Iran and the Houthis have denied close military coordination but weapons experts have linked the Yemeni fighters' advanced arsenal of anti-ship and ballistic missiles to Iranian technology.

US forces have been locked in their most intense naval combat since World War II with the Houthis but have yet to constrain the maritime attacks.

"Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN," Trump added.

"Any further attack or retaliation by the 'Houthis' will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there."

As ceasefires have taken hold pausing combat between Israel and its badly bludgeoned Hamas and Hezbollah militant adversaries, the Houthis have become the vanguard of Tehran's network of armed affiliates in the Middle East.

The Trump administration views their continued harassment of commercial shipping as an obstacle to his fight to bring down prices for US consumers and continued but largely ineffectual targeting of US forces as a nuisance.

"Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control," Trump said.

"They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, “Intelligence.”

Trump this month demanded Iran agree new deal over its nuclear program or face military attack - an overture rejected by Iran's Supreme Leader as bullying.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Washington would come off worst in any confrontation, insisting that Iran had not been weakened by over a year of direct and proxy conflict with Israel.

Speaking at a meeting on energy distribution and consumption, Pezeshkian stressed the need for equitable energy policies and flexible solutions adapted to regional conditions.

“Addressing energy imbalances should not be confined to a single approach,” he said, advocating for a mix of strategies to optimize distribution and ensure fairness across different provinces.

Iranian officials refer to the shortages in the energy sector as an imbalance.

The president also emphasized public engagement in energy-saving initiatives, suggesting that mosques, health centers, and prominent cultural figures could help promote consumption reforms.

“If we involve people in implementing these decisions, we will overcome many challenges, including energy distribution and consumption management,” he added.

Among other measures, Pezeshkian highlighted the need to modernize heating equipment, ban outdated and inefficient appliances, and expand the use of smart meters in residential areas.

The energy crisis, marked by widespread electricity shortages and gas deficits, has disrupted industries across the country since the past months. Aging infrastructure, international sanctions, and poor management have compounded the problem, leading to the shutdown of approximately 80 power plants.

During the winter, Iran faces a daily shortfall of at least 260 million cubic meters of gas, further straining the electricity supply.

Iran has vast oil and gas reserves, much of which it cannot tap due to US-led sanctions which stall investment and maintenance.

Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected negotiations with the United States under terms set by Donald Trump, doubling down on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's hardline stance.

Questioning the point of talks with a "deal-breaking" US president, Khamenei on Monday nonchalantly dismissed the consequences of shunning Washington.

"The United States is threatening militarization,” Khamenei said on the day his foreign ministry finally confirmed receiving a personal letter from Trump to Khamenei. “War is not a one-sided blow. Iran is capable of retaliating and will certainly do so,” he added.

War, once a distant threat, now looks a distinct possibility. It should concern those in power Tehran—and it perhaps does. But it may serve them as an instrument to deter adversaries and to enforce control at home.

War as a mechanism for control

Looking at Iran’s official outlets, the refrain of war is omnipresent. Military figures dominate state media and security-focused language overshadows other narratives.

This change of tone and substance—transmitted mainly inside Iran—appears to be not just a response to foreign threats, but a calculated strategy to unify and subdue the populace, forcing societal alignment by amplifying fears of conflict.

And this approach is driven by insecurity as much as intent.

Behzad Nabavi, a former minister and veteran lawmaker of the Reform camp, said recently that a wartime atmosphere could foster national solidarity, suggesting that even moderates long-shunned from power circles see fear as a unifying force.

Meanwhile, those in power have intensified the crackdown on the internet, branding the free flow of information a “cognitive war.” The sentiment was best summed up recently by Iran’s national police chief Ahmadreza Radan.

“Back then, we were encircled in the Komeil trench,” he said, invoking memories of the eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s. “Today, we are surrounded in virtual trenches. If we’re not fighters now, we’ll surely retreat and surrender the homeland."

War as a gambit for survival

The Islamic Republic faces multiple challenges of significant severity: an ailing economy, environmental collapse, budget shortfalls, and entrenched corruption. Public trust has eroded, with sporadic protests signaling discontent.

Fearing another “sedition”—a term used to label past protests and justify their brutal suppression—officials now see war’s shadow as a lifeline.

The theocracy has a proven record of internet blackouts, arbitrary arrests and harsher suppression of dissent in general. It can be expected to do more in a state of inflated external threats, dishing out labels of “subversion” and “enemy collaboration.”

This isn’t mere opportunism—it’s a high-stakes gamble.

Iranians did rally during the war with Iraq, especially the early years. But that was forty-odd years ago. And Khamenei is no Khomeini, the first supreme leader who had all but universal following when he called for Iran’s monarchy to be replaced by an Islamic Republic.

Today, the system, as Khamenei likes to call it, is all but universally loathed. While he clings to power by keeping loyal forces primed and its critics silenced, millions of ordinary Iranians face an unrelenting battle of survival.

Stoking war fears and siege mentality to stifle unrest may work for the supreme leader. Or it could backfire spectacularly and save Trump a war he clearly does not want.

War as a lever for defense and deterrence

The Islamic Republic frames conflict as both a defensive necessity and a means to intimidate foes. Israel and Arab states astride the Persian Gulf have often borne the brunt of this rhetoric.

A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) warned recently that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would spark “a fire in the region that cannot be contained.” Another senior IRGC figure made it clearer: "True Promise 3 will take place at the right moment, destroying Israel and leveling Tel Aviv and Haifa.”

These threats are backed by action. Iran has nearly doubled its military exercises since October 2024, according to the Financial Times, with drills concentrated near the Natanz nuclear facility and the Strait of Hormuz.

This posturing may not be as effective in deterring the US or Israel but does help shape domestic perceptions amid worsening economic and social crises.

"Security officers met my father and said his arrest would be lifted today on orders of the head of the judiciary," Karroubi's son Hossein Karroubi told Jamaran, a semi-official newspaper linked to Iran's Reformist political faction.

Karroubi's political ally, former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, would also be released from house arrest in the coming months, he added.

In the 2009 presidential election, which resulted in the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Karroubi, now 87, and Mousavi, 83, ran on a reformist platform. The outcome sparked mass protests, known as the Green Movement, with demonstrators alleging widespread electoral fraud."

Both were detained in 2011 after taking a leading role in the protests, though they were not put on trial or publicly charged.

Karroubi’s son, however, added that his father had been told that security officers would be present at his home until April 8 to ensure his protection.

Iran's official news agency IRNA also reported on Karroubi's release, but did not refer to Mousavi's case.

Last year, Hossein Karroubi told Ensaf News that his father would refuse release from house arrest while Mousavi remained detained.

Iran's current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, promised during his election campaign to release both politicians.