Iran Insights

Majid Khademi, the IRGC intelligence chief killed in Tehran early Monday, was not a battlefield commander so much as a career security insider who rose through Iran’s secretive counterintelligence system and helped oversee repression, surveillance and anti-infiltration work.

President Trump’s threat to bomb Iran’s infrastructure and “send it back to the stone ages,” followed by strikes that reportedly included a not-yet-opened bridge, has sparked anger among Iranians at home and abroad.

Iran’s state broadcaster has adopted a noticeably harsher tone toward dissent, increasingly framing domestic protests as part of a war waged by “enemies.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is facing a fierce political backlash after signaling a conditional willingness to end the war, exposing deep divisions within Iran’s political and military establishment over diplomacy versus continued conflict.

Relentless airstrikes by Israel and the United States have transformed life across Iran, reshaping cities and daily routines while leaving millions caught between fear, resilience, and deeply divided views on the war.

Iran’s economy is entering the new fiscal year under the weight of a profound wartime shock, with inflation reaching levels not seen in decades and essential goods becoming increasingly unaffordable for much of the population.

A heated online dispute over photographs showing civilian victims of strikes in Iranian cities has exposed both the deep mistrust many Iranians feel toward official information and a widening rift among the public itself over how to interpret images emerging from the war.

As the war enters its fifth week, tensions between Tehran and Washington are rising, with both sides sending mixed signals over diplomacy and the risk of further escalation.

An Iranian man whose viral plea for Donald Trump’s help drew millions of views says he was forced to flee the country after being targeted by the Revolutionary Guard, warning from exile that negotiating with Tehran would allow its repression to continue.

Jihad Nasr spent decades at the center of Islamic Republic projects spanning water, housing and energy, as well as nuclear-linked construction and overseas ventures, as a state-backed network built under reformist-era politics dug deep into Iran’s infrastructure economy.

Newly released surveillance footage appears to show repeated strikes hitting a primary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab on the first day of the war, an attack Iranian authorities say killed more than 100 children and teachers.

Former Iranian diplomats are warning that the war between Iran, the United States and Israel could fundamentally reshape the Middle East’s security order, with some predicting a prolonged conflict and deeper regional instability.

Some Tehran commentators say any US attempt to seize Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf could play directly into the IRGC’s long-standing strategy of capturing American troops for leverage.

Remarks by Donald Trump suggesting backchannel contacts with a figure inside Iran’s government have stirred intense political debate in Tehran.

Iranian officials and commentators are increasingly portraying control of the Strait of Hormuz not just as a strategic advantage but as a financial asset that could help offset the costs of war.

In history, authoritarian systems usually fall twice: first psychologically, when fear breaks; then politically, when the men with guns hesitate. Iran’s recent shocks look less like a single crisis than a classic collapse sequence unfolding at speed.

Iranian state media continued issuing warnings against the United States even after President Donald Trump said Monday that the two countries had held “constructive” talks—and that he was therefore postponing planned strikes on Iran’s power grid.

Since Donald Trump threatened to target Iran’s power plants, anxiety has surged among Iranians at home and abroad, many warning that this directly targets people’s lives, not the government.