THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 10:00 PM CEST
2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Iran
The Government of Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Iran remained on Tier 3. Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some minor steps to address trafficking, including participation in an international anti-trafficking conference with regional counterparts. However, during the reporting period, there was a government policy or pattern of employing or recruiting child soldiers and human trafficking. Media reports alleged officials continued to perpetrate and condone trafficking crimes with impunity, both in Iran and abroad, and officials did not report law enforcement efforts to address the crime. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of traffickers, undercutting the government’s efforts to hold sex and labor traffickers criminally accountable.
UPDATE: 1:30 PM CEST
US Sanctions on India’s Strategic Chabahar Port in Iran Come into Effect
The United States’ renewed sanctions on India’s Chabahar port project in Iran came into effect on Monday, in a significant setback for New Delhi’s regional ambitions and its decades-long strategic engagement with Tehran.
The move ends a rare exemption that had allowed Indian companies to continue developing the Chabahar port despite earlier US sanctions on Iran.
The sanctions follow a return of wide-ranging UN measures on Iran, as Washington, European allies, and Israel continue to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told AFP that the exemption was revoked “consistent with President Trump’s maximum pressure policy to isolate the Iranian regime” and that it had been made “for Afghanistan reconstruction assistance and economic development.”
UK Publishes New Sanctions Over Iran Nuclear Programme
LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – The British government sanctioned dozens of Iranian-linked individuals and entities on Monday, following similar moves made by the United Nations and the European Union aimed at curbing what Britain described as Iran’s nuclear proliferation efforts.
Britain, France and Germany initiated the return of sanctions on Iran at the U.N. Security Council over accusations it had violated a 2015 deal that aimed to stop it developing a nuclear bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
UN Experts Appalled by Unprecedented Execution Spree in Iran with Over 1000 Killed in Nine Months
GENEVA – Over 1000 people have been killed in less than nine months of 2025, UN experts said today, warning that the figures represented a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law.
“The sheer scale of executions in Iran is staggering and represents a grave violation of the right to life,” the experts said. “With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.”
At least 1,000 executions have been documented since 1 January 2025 to date. Due to Iran’s lack of transparency, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
Together with UN experts, I published this press release on executions in Iran (https://t.co/y0a1pvvvT1). I’m appalled by the unprecedented execution spree in Iran, with over 1,000 people killed in less than nine months of 2025.
With an average of more than nine hangings per day…
— Mai Sato (@drmaisato) September 29, 2025
China’s Key Oil Port to Roll Out Measures That Curb Shadow Fleet
Some terminal operators at China’s Qingdao Port, which handles around one-sixth of the country’s crude intake, will impose new restrictions on old tankers — a move widely seen as targeting vessels that carry sanctioned oil from Iran and other sensitive suppliers.
Measures include a ban on tankers that are 31 years or older from berthing, along with ships that have altered their International Maritime Organization identities or have invalid certifications, according to a notice seen by Bloomberg News. The actions will take effect from Nov. 1, it said.
Dutch Cargo Ship Adrift and Ablaze After Attack in Gulf of Aden, EU Maritime Mission Says
LONDON/ATHENS, Sept 29 (Reuters) – The Dutch-flagged general cargo ship Minervagracht is on fire and drifting in the Gulf of Aden after an attack with an explosive device required the helicopter rescue of its 19 crew, the EU maritime mission Aspides and the vessel’s operator said on Monday.
It was not immediately clear whether the attack that injured two sailors was carried out by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who since 2023 have launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea that they deem to be linked with Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war on Gaza.
Iranian Opposition Calls for Sanctions on Tehran to Be Applied “Without Leniency”
Paris, Sept. 28 (EFE) – Maryam Rajavi, president of the exiled opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), called for international sanctions on Tehran—reinstated this past weekend—to be enforced “without leniency or concessions.”
“The sanctions must be applied without leniency or concessions, and all avenues for evasion must be blocked,” Rajavi said in a statement from her exile in Paris.
The sanctions (known as snapback) were promoted by three European countries (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, or the E3), which argue that Tehran has failed to comply with the commitments to curb its nuclear program agreed to in 2015. That deal was abandoned by the United States in 2018, while Iran has repeatedly claimed the E3 did not fulfill its part of the agreement.
UPDATE: 11:00 AM CEST
The UN Promotes Iran’s Executioner President — Proving Its Own Fecklessness
The Trump administration barred Iranian diplomats in New York for the United Nations General Assembly from shopping at Costco and buying luxury items without permission, ending their annual celebration of consumerism that their long-suffering people fund. But President Masoud Pezeshkian scored something even better last week — the kind of global publicity you can’t buy. Far finer souvenirs of his trip to “the Great Satan” than pallets of food or Louis Vuitton bags are priceless photographs with more respectable world leaders.
ran murdered 30,000 political prisoners that summer, most supporters of the opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). It’s been killing them ever since.
Amnesty International decried the July executions of PMOI backers Behrouz Ehsani, 69, and Mehdi Hassani, 48, “on overly broad and vaguely defined charges of ‘armed rebellion against the state’ (baghi), ‘enmity against God’ (moharebeh) and ‘corruption on earth’ (efsad-e fel-arz).”
Of the 18 political prisoners most at imminent risk of execution, 15 are PMOI supporters.
Rajavi: The Return of UN Sanctions Against Iran and the End of Concessions
The return of international sanctions. The recent decision by the United Nations to reinstate punitive measures on Iran’s nuclear program marks a crucial turning point on the international stage. The “snapback” reactivated the resolutions that had been frozen after the 2015 nuclear agreement, when the international community chose to ease pressure in exchange for commitments to limit uranium enrichment. Maryam Rajavi welcomed this return to a hard line, stressing that sanctions must be applied without exceptions and that every possibility of evasion must be blocked. Ten years of openings and abuses.
UPDATE: 8:00 AM CEST
Message to the “Human Rights in Iran” Conference, United Nations, Geneva
Maryam Rajavi’s speech: “We meet today at a time when human rights in Iran urgently demand the world’s attention. The people of Iran are under severe oppression, and the crimes against them are shocking. Since early July, at least 450 people have been executed in less than three months. In the past 14 months, 1,850 people—including 59 women—have been executed. State-controlled media openly call for repeating the major crimes of the past, including the 1988 massacre of political prisoners—a crime the United Nations has described as both genocide and a crime against humanity.
“The clerical regime’s campaign of repression focuses especially on members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), subjecting them to arrests, persecution, and various forms of restrictions.”
Cornered By Sanctions, Tehran Declares War on the Internet and Iranian Youth
Following a humiliating diplomatic defeat with the snapback of all UN sanctions on September 28, the Iranian regime is revealing its profound weakness and paranoia. Cornered on the world stage after its allies failed to block the move, Tehran’s only recourse has been to intensify its domestic war on the free flow of information. This crackdown is not a sign of strength, but a panicked, self-defeating strategy that is only fueling popular dissent and proving the regime’s illegitimacy. Unable to fight the international community, the regime is turning its fury inward, targeting its greatest perceived threat: a population armed with information and an organized opposition ready to lead it.
Hoda Mehreganfar: 12th Month of Uncertainty in Adelabad Prison, Shiraz
Political prisoner Hoda Mehreganfar, a 38-year-old electronics engineer from Zarghan, Fars Province, remains in legal limbo at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. Nearly one year after her arrest in October 2024, she has yet to stand trial and has been denied the possibility of release on bail. Hoda Mehreganfar faces charges of “membership in and support for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).” She was initially held for months in custody of the IRGC Intelligence Organization before being transferred to Adelabad Prison. Prior to her arrest, she had undergone gynecological surgery; however, throughout her detention she has been deprived of necessary medical care.
Copenhagen Rally Honors 1981 Uprising and Zahedan Bloody Friday, Condemns Executions in Iran
Copenhagen, Denmark – September 27, 2025 – Supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) gathered in Copenhagen to commemorate the anniversary of the September 27, 1981, uprising (5 Mehr 1360) and to honor the memory of Zahedan’s Bloody Friday during the 2022 nationwide protests. Participants strongly condemned executions in Iran and urged the immediate release of political prisoners.
Oslo Rally Honors 1981 Uprising and Zahedan Bloody Friday, Condemns Executions in Iran
Oslo, Norway – September 27, 2025 – Supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) gathered outside the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo to commemorate the anniversary of the September 27, 1981, uprising (5 Mehr 1360) and to honor the memory of Zahedan’s Bloody Friday during the 2022 nationwide protests. Participants strongly condemned executions in Iran and urged the immediate release of political prisoners.
Iran’s Regime Executes Bahman Choobi Asl, Uses Gallows as Tool for Political Survival
At dawn on Monday, September 29, the state-run Mizan news agency, affiliated with the Iranian regime’s judiciary, reported the execution of Bahman Choobi Asl in Ghezel Hesar Prison on charges of espionage. He was an employee of the Telecommunications Company. He had been arrested in 2023 on espionage charges. The execution of Bahman Choobi Asl took place amid reports showing that following the recent ceasefire between Iran’s regime and Israel, a wave of executions in Iran’s prisons has intensified. Independent sources say the regime has once again turned to the policy of “demonstrating power through the gallows” by exploiting this seemingly calm atmosphere. In recent months, dozens of prisoners have been executed in various prisons across the country, including Ghezel Hesar, Adelabad in Shiraz, and Dastgerd in Isfahan.
Iranian Regime Leadership Faces Existential Crisis Amid Nuclear Deadlock
The leaders of Iran’s regime are experiencing one of the most serious crises since the 1979 revolution. According to Reuters, this crisis is caused on the one hand by growing public discontent inside the country and on the other by the deadlock in nuclear negotiations—a situation that has further isolated and divided Iran. On September 27, the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran’s regime that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal. This action came after the failure of intense negotiations between the Iranian regime and three European countries—Britain, France, and Germany—held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Four Iranian officials and two informed individuals told Reuters that without progress in the talks, Iran’s economic isolation will intensify and fuel public anger. However, they added that accepting Western demands could also deepen rifts within the ruling structure and force a retreat from the regime’s ideological belief of “never surrendering to Western pressure.”
Confronting Iran Regime’s Nuclear Ambitions: Sanctions, Resistance, and the Path to Change
The reinstatement of UN Security Council resolutions highlights the global urgency to halt Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions while underlining the role of resistance inside Iran. On September 28, the reimposition of UN Security Council resolutions against Tehran ended a decade of suspension. These measures, which target Iran regime’s nuclear program, missile development, arms trade, and banking system, are not merely legal tools but strategic necessities for maintaining international peace. Since the 1980s, Iran’s regime has pursued nuclear capabilities under a cloak of secrecy and consistent violations of international commitments. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently admitted enrichment had reached 60 percent—an alarming level with no civilian justification.