US calls death of Iranian man who burned Khamenei photo suspicious

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Araghchi said Washington had often raised missile and regional topics in past discussions, but Iran’s position was unchanged. “If there are talks with the US, they will only concern the nuclear issue,” he said.

Araghchi also added that Tehran currently has no plans for talks with the US and therefore sees no need for mediation.

Earlier this month, Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iran would not stop uranium enrichment or hold talks over its missile program and warned that any new Israeli attack would have “bad consequences.”

He said Iran managed the June conflict with Israel effectively and prevented it from spreading to the wider region. The minister said several nuclear sites were damaged but that enrichment technology remained intact and nuclear material was still located at the bombed facilities.

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  Araghchi says Israel duped US on Iran threat, urges Trump to reverse course

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  Araghchi says Iran will not halt uranium enrichment or negotiate on missiles

On Sunday, Araghchi accused Israel of misleading Washington with what he called a fabricated nuclear threat and urged President Donald Trump to change course. He said Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear sites under “false pretenses” and cited comments from the UN atomic watchdog and Oman’s foreign minister confirming that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.

Araghchi said Tehran’s nuclear work remains peaceful and that diplomacy, not confrontation, guides its policy. He added that Iran and Oman hold regular consultations every six months, alternating between Tehran and Muscat.

The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iranian facilities in June after talks over Tehran’s nuclear program collapsed. A ceasefire ended the 12-day conflict, but inspections of damaged sites remain suspended under Iranian law.

Speaking Monday on the anniversary of the November 4, 1979 seizure of the embassy, Khamenei described Iran’s enmity toward the United States as “existential rather than tactical,” a confrontation that cannot be resolved.

“The inherently arrogant nature of the US accepts nothing but submission,” he said. “Every US president desired this. Some concealed it, others expressed it openly. The current president has made it explicit, revealing the US’s true nature.”

For Khamenei, the threat lies not in sanctions or military pressure but in ideological erosion. America’s demands—whether over nuclear activities, missiles, or regional policy—are, to him, attempts to take away what defines the system that has become synonymous with his name.

'Victory day’

Khamenei tried to illustrate this point with both history and scripture.

“Our problem with the United States began on August 19, 1953, not November 4, 1979,” he said, invoking the CIA-backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh seventy-odd years ago.

On the latter date, he echoed his mentor and predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in calling it “a day of honor and victory,” doubling down on a bet many insiders now publicly regret.

Even senior conservatives like Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, once chief inspector of the Supreme Leader’s office, have called the storming of the US embassy “a big mistake,” admitting that the ensuing hostage crisis was “the starting point” of many of Iran’s troubles.

But Khamenei is adamant that repentance equals betrayal. History, as he tells it, shows that every concession to the United States only invites more demands—a conviction hardened through experience.

Impossible conditions

When Donald Trump first took office, he declared that all he wanted from Tehran was a pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons, signaling he had no quarrel with Iran’s theocratic order.

But midway through indirect negotiations in the spring of 2025, his stance shifted toward a more conventional hardline: curbs on missiles, abandonment of regional allies, and most recently, recognition of Israel.

Khamenei’s Monday speech contained a direct reply: “If they stop supporting the Zionist regime, remove military bases from the region and cease interfering in regional affairs, these matters could potentially be reviewed,” he said, referring to calls for engagement with the United States.

The conditions were impossible by design—a reminder that what Washington calls diplomacy, he sees as ideological surrender.

‘Unconditional surrender’

Even when hinting at pragmatic concessions such as curbing enrichment, he was dismissive: “This isn’t something foreseeable for now, nor for the near future.”

Trump’s post on Truth Social in mid-October, calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” just days into Israel’s war on Iran, may have been the epitome of what Khamenei always asserted: that America seeks capitulation, not coexistence.

His answer was unambiguous: “Expecting the Iranian nation to submit, given its level of capabilities, wealth, intellectual and spiritual background and its vigilant and motivated youth, is meaningless.”

Khamenei shows no sign of repentance or retreat. To him, the struggle with the United States is not about sanctions or missiles but about identity. In his twilight, he seems as convinced as ever that the system must endure as it is, or not at all.

The group said the detainee, Shahham Soleimani, is about 60 years old and is being held in Ward 5 of Sheyban Prison in Ahvaz, where political prisoners are normally held, and is in poor physical condition.

The sentence was issued on Tuesday by Branch 1 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court under Judge Ehsan Adibi-Mehr, locally referred to by critics as the “judge of death,” according to the report.

Karun said more than 80 young men from Ahvaz were arrested in security raids after the war and transferred to Wards 5, 8 and the prison’s quarantine section, where they faced long interrogations and severe physical and psychological pressure.

It reported that detainees have been handed multi-year sentences. Charges were related to espionage and cooperation with Mossad, propaganda against the Islamic Republic and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with travel bans and mandatory participation in “reform sessions” run by the domestic enforcement militia the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.

Last month, Iran executed a man convicted of allegedly spying for Israel’s Mossad, bringing the total number of those executed this year on such charges to 12.

In September, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said the country had executed 11 individuals on espionage charges this year, with at least nine carried out after Israel's military strike on Iran on June 13.

“The attack and seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran marked the beginning of countless violations of international law and the Iranian regime’s refusal to accept diplomacy,” the State Department’s Persian-language account said in a post on X.

On November 4, 1979, pro-Islamic Republic students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days, leading to the rupture of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington that have never been restored.

The State Department’s post said the embassy takeover began “a long pattern of ignoring the rights of other nations and interfering in their affairs,” reflecting “the same disregard for fundamental rights and freedoms that today defines this regime’s behavior toward its own people.”

It added that the United States “remains determined to promote diplomacy, accountability, and the aspirations of the Iranian people for a brighter future.”

The statement comes as Iran marked the anniversary with state-organized rallies across the country earlier in the day.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei doubled down on his hard line backing the takeover in a speech on Monday.

"The people took to the streets, and part of these demonstrations and popular movements, with student participation, led to the seizure of the US embassy,” he said. "The US embassy was the center of conspiracies and plotting to destroy the Islamic Revolution.”

Crowds gathered across the country waving national flags and portraits of Iran’s leaders to observe what officials call the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance.

In Tehran, effigies of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being hanged were displayed during the state sponsored rally.

“Reform has been dead for years. The time for reforms has long passed. The real main struggle is between the realistic survivalists and those seeking the end of religious despotic regime,” Mohammadi posted on X on Tuesday.

“As a human rights defender and peace advocate and fundamentally based on the criteria of peace and human rights, I believe in a transition and am working to end the Islamic Republic as a religious despotic regime,” she added. “Victory is not easy, but it is certain.”

Mohammadi criticized talk of reform, calling it fruitless. “Our pact is freedom, democracy, and equality, whose key step is ending religious tyranny,” she said.

Iran's reform movement began in the 1990s under President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and sought to promote civil liberties, press freedom and dialogue after years of hardline policies.

It peaked with the 2009 Green Movement protests led by reformist candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory.

Security forces crushed it with lethal violence, killing dozens and arresting thousands, stifling momentum.

In 2013 and 2017, moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani backed by sidelined reformists persuaded voters to choose him as what was widely called the “better of the two evils,” warning that electing another hardline Ahmadinejad-style president would be disastrous.

His first term saw a period of relative economic stability, particularly after the partial lifting of sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal. But Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the accord and the return of US sanctions, followed by the government’s crackdown on economic protests in 2017 and 2018, left many voters disillusioned.

‘Sweeping change or collapse’

Calls for radical change have since persisted and mounted among some former officials, who warn of systemic collapse without overhaul.

Mohammad Sarafraz, a Supreme Cyberspace Council member and former head of the state broadcaster IRIB, urged sweeping reforms on Saturday in an interview with Khabar-e Fori, cautioning that without them, the Islamic Republic faces “war, collapse, or chaos.”

Even US talks or oil export gains won't fix deeper political and economic woes, he said, demanded fundamental reform rather than a mere change of president, advocating genuine public participation in governance.

In July, former government official and political activist Mostafa Tajzadeh warned Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to pivot or resign.

"In this critical situation, Mr. Khamenei has no option but to apologize to the Iranian people and accept fundamental reforms in line with national demands, including by forming a constituent assembly based on completely free and fair elections," he said, "or to resign and step down."

In recent years, the pursuit of reform has shifted toward regime change, as seen in the 2017-18 and 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprisings, with many people viewing the system as irreformable.