France, Germany and UK urge renewed Iran-US nuclear talks

Iran’s Afsaneh Nadipour and China’s Ren Yisheng were among seven experts selected on Tuesday for the council’s advisory committee, which is tasked with providing guidance on human rights issues.

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said the new appointments were “ludicrous,” questioning how governments accused of severe abuses could advise the UN on human rights.

"How do you expect countries such as China and Iran to advise this organization on human rights?” he wrote on X, adding that “one is exporting terrorism and jailing women, and the other is throwing ethnic minorities in concentration camps.”

Hillel Neuer, chief of pro-Israel watchdog UN Watch, told Fox News Digital that the United Nations “elected Beijing’s and Tehran’s loyal agents as ‘human rights experts’—without a ballot, without shame,” saying both “persecute minorities, jail anyone who speaks freely, and rule through fear and censorship.”

Iranian-American activist Lawdan Bazargan condemned Nadipour’s selection, calling it “a slap in the face to the courageous women of Iran.”

“She has served a regime that forces hijab, allows child marriage and imprisons women’s rights activists,” Bazargan wrote on X.

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Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the hawkish Washington-based thinktank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), also condemned the move in a post on X. “The Islamic Republic has been elected to the UN ‘Human Rights’ Council. The UN is a blight on humanity,” he wrote.

According to Amnesty International, China was the world’s leading executioner in 2024, followed by Iran in second place.

Amnesty said while Beijing keeps its execution figures secret, Iran was responsible for at least 972 executions last year—about 64 percent of the total of 1,518 executions globally.

This month, Iran has executed 72 people in the first nine days of October, bringing the total number of executions this year to at least 1,172.

In addition to executions, rights groups have documented widespread suppression of free speech and assembly in Iran, where activists, journalists and minorities face arbitrary detention.

In China, rights groups including Amnesty International have documented mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, along with systematic censorship and repression of dissent.

“He turned the US Department of Defense into the Department of War, believed in 'peace through strength,' launched a direct military attack on Iran’s monitored nuclear facilities, is now preparing for war with Venezuela, and gave the Israeli regime a free hand in the historic genocide in Gaza — yet he still expected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” Abbas Mousavi, deputy chief of staff to Iran’s president, wrote on X.

"From today on, may God have mercy on the world—this modern-day Don Quixote will probably not even bother pretending to be a peacemaker!" he added.

In August, Mousavi, faced criticism from hardliners in Tehran for addressing the US president as "Dear Mr. Trump" during a televised interview.

Iran's hardliners excoriated him for overlooking that Trump ordered the assassination of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Peace Prize to María Corina Machado on Friday “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The 58-year-old opposition leader, who remains in hiding, has been barred by Venezuelan authorities from running for office against President Nicolás Maduro.

In a message on X, Machado said her movement was “on the threshold of victory” and counted on “President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world” as allies in the fight for “freedom and democracy.”

"I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!"

Trump, who has long spoken publicly about his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, has received several nominations over the years, including one this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“In a period of just seven months, I have ended seven ‘un-endable’ wars,” Trump said during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month. “No president or prime minister — and for that matter, no other country — has ever done anything close to that.”

He raised the count to eight during a press conference on Thursday, adding the Gaza ceasefire announced Wednesday to his list.

The White House's communications director lamented the Nobel committee's decision, saying the "Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace".

Trump, Steven Cheung wrote on X, "will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives".

The two prominent Iranian rights defenders drew parallels between Venezuela’s democratic movement and their own struggle for change in Iran, emphasizing shared aspirations for freedom and resistance to authoritarian rule.

“She is one of the most deserving recipients,” said Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

She described Machado as the woman “who succeeded in uniting Venezuela’s opposition,” adding that her political leadership “can offer valuable lessons for Iran’s opposition.”

Ebadi said Machado’s model of unity and courage “should be a role model for the Iranian opposition.”

From Tehran, Narges Mohammadi — awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 — said the democratic transitions in Iran and Venezuela are part of a “shared path from tyranny to democracy.”

Calling Machado “one of the most remarkable examples of civil courage in Latin America,” Mohammadi wrote on X, “I stand in solidarity with you and the freedom-loving people of Venezuela. Hand in hand until the day of victory.”

The Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to Machado, recognizing her role in "promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The United States’ measures in the Caribbean and Latin America, particularly its latest military activities targeting Venezuela, are destabilizing and tension-provoking, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said.

The US military has conducted four lethal strikes in the Caribbean following its buildup of naval forces, part of what President Donald Trump has described as an “armed conflict” against drug cartels.

The Venezuelan government insists that Washington is using the fight against drug trafficking merely as a pretext for its military operation.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman disputed the Trump administration’s claim that the targets were drug cartels, saying the US was actually attacking “fishing boats.”

He warned about the consequences of what he called Washington's continued lawlessness and aggressive unilateralism for global peace and stability.

The government of Nicolás Maduro, a close ally of Tehran, on Thursday urged the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency session over recent US military operations in waters near Venezuela’s coast, citing “mounting threats” from Washington following the US strikes.

Venezuela submitted the request in a letter to Russia’s ambassador to the UN and current Security Council president, Vassily Nebenzia, accusing the Trump administration of attempting to overthrow President Maduro and of endangering “peace, security, and stability at the regional and international levels.”

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman urged the UN Security Council and the Secretary-General to pay immediate attention to what he called the dangerous situation created by the United States’ insistence on illegal interference in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a sovereign member of the United Nations.

He also denounced the US threats to use force against Venezuela’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, calling these actions a blatant violation of the principles of the UN Charter and the fundamental rules of international law, according to a foreign ministry statement.

“Out of over $270 billion in total non-oil exports from 2018 to 2025, nearly $95.6 billion—about 35 percent—has yet to return to Iran’s official financial system,” Tasnim said.

The report said the unreturned funds relate to exports excluding government-controlled sectors such as oil, gas, and electricity.

Iran's top non-oil exports are dominated by petrochemical products such as liquefied propane, methanol, and bitumen, as well as agricultural products like pistachios and saffron. Key export destinations include China, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates, though China has recently been a particularly important market for petrochemicals.

In the period since 2022, Iran recorded $146 billion in non-oil exports, of which $56 billion, or nearly 38 percent, has not been brought back into the country.

Hossein Samsami, a member of the parliament’s economic committee, criticized the government’s handling of the issue following recent remarks by the president about a shortage of foreign exchange.

“The president said that we do not have even one billion dollars and must bargain to find it,” Samsami wrote on his personal page. “Meanwhile, nearly 100 billion dollars of export revenues have not returned to the country over the past seven years. If the law were properly enforced, we would even have surplus currency.”

Under Iranian law, exporters are required to repatriate foreign currency earned abroad, and failure to do so constitutes a violation under anti-smuggling legislation. However, Tasnim quoted experts as saying that lax enforcement and loopholes have allowed large sums to remain overseas or be used for informal imports.