{"id":339602,"date":"2025-11-20T07:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T06:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=339602"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:19:30","slug":"iran-news-in-brief-november-20-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-news-in-brief-news\/iran-news-in-brief-november-20-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran News in Brief \u2013 November 20, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iranians rally in Brussels, Belgium, to honor Iran\u2019s November 2019 uprising and demand degime change<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS<\/h3>\n

UPDATE: 9:00 PM CET<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lebanon Army Arrests Drug Kingpin Nouh Zaiter<\/h3>\n

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The Lebanese army on Thursday arrested the country’s most famous drug lord, Nouh Zaiter, during an operation in the country’s east, a military source told AFP.<\/p>\n

Zaiter, who is under European and US sanctions, “was arrested during a security operation carried out by the army in the Bekaa”, the source said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

A statement from the army said it had arrested an individual identified as N.Z. in a roadside ambush, calling him one of the country’s “most dangerous wanted men”.<\/p>\n

Zaiter — whose name is also written as Noah Zaitar — allegedly ran a veritable empire in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, producing and exporting drugs including the stimulant captagon.<\/p>\n

He has been on the run from Lebanese authorities for years, and has dozens of arrest warrants and criminal convictions to his name.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UN Atomic Agency Demands Iran Provide Full Information About Its Nuclear Stockpile<\/h3>\n

VIENNA (AP) \u2014 The U.N. atomic watchdog on Thursday demanded that Iran fully cooperate with the agency and provide \u201cprecise information\u201d about its\u00a0stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium<\/a>, as well as grant its inspectors access to Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n

The development sets the stage for a likely further escalation between the U.N. nuclear agency and Iran, which has reacted strongly to similar moves by the watchdog in the past.<\/p>\n

Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency\u2019s 35-member board of governors voted for the resolution at the IAEA\u2019s headquarters in Vienna, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UN Watchdog Says Iran’s Bombed Nuclear Sites Are Safe to Inspect<\/h3>\n

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The United Nations atomic watchdog urged Iran to allow nuclear inspectors to resume their work, saying sites that were bombed by Israel and the US earlier this year are safe enough to visit.<\/p>\n

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that chemical and radiological contamination at key nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic \u201cis very, very limited\u201d and can be dealt with using standard precautions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know exactly what we need to do,\u201d Grossi told a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Grossi spoke as the IAEA board of governors prepares to pass a resolution ordering his monitors to report back on the state and location of Iran\u2019s near-bomb-grade-uranium inventory. Inspectors lost track of the material \u2014 equivalent to the fuel needed for about a dozen warheads \u2014 after Israel triggered a 12-day war with Iran on June 13.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Satellite Imagery Shows Possible High-Explosives Containment Vessel at Taleghan 2, a Former AMAD Plan Nuclear Weapons Development Site<\/h3>\n

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Recent satellite imagery of Taleghan 2, a former nuclear weapons development site established under the AMAD Plan shows ongoing construction and the presence of what appears to resemble a long, cylindrical chamber, maybe a high-explosives containment vessel, likely measuring approximately 36 meters long and 12 meters in diameter placed inside a building measuring roughly 40 meters long and 17 meters wide.\u00a0 High-explosive containment vessels are critical to the development of nuclear weapons but can also be used in many other conventional weapons development processes.\u00a0 There is no unequivocal evidence that the new site will be used in nuclear weaponization, however, its location and the site’s history raise significant questions.\u00a0The site was previously destroyed during an Israeli bombing campaign on October 25th, 2024.\u00a0 Based on Axios reporting and the Institute\u2019s understanding, it appears likely that just prior to the October 2024 bombing, Taleghan 2 most recently contained equipment used to make high purity PETN plastic explosives. These explosives, which are moldable, were used during the Amad Plan in the channels of the shock wave generators, a type of multipoint initiation system used to detonate the main high explosive charge in a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Stop Iran’s Execution Frenzy and Hold the Murderers to Account<\/h3>\n

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The medieval tyranny ruling Iran has once again bared its fangs. The world is witnessing an execution frenzy so furious, so coldly systematic, that it can only be described as state-sponsored butchery. Day after day, the clerical dictatorship drags more innocent men and women to the gallows, desperate to crush the spirit of a nation that has already risen against it. And yet, the international community mutters only the mildest expressions of \u201cconcern,\u201d as though these killings were tragic but inevitable acts of nature. They are not. They are deliberate crimes, calculated tools of terror wielded by a regime terrified of its own people. To remain silent is to become complicit.<\/p>\n

Reda more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iran to Abandon Tehran?<\/h3>\n

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For more than three hundred years, Tehran served as the capital of the Persian empire and its successor nation, Iran. For centuries prior, the city had grown and survived wars and dynastic struggles. Its prominence grew and its importance to Persian public life with it … until the mullahs seized power in 1979.<\/p>\n

In forty-six years, their mismanagement and isolation has transformed a drought into an existential crisis. Today, the Iranian theocracy announced that\u00a0the government would abandon Tehran<\/a>\u00a0and relocate to a proposed site in southeastern Iran.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the year, the government had floated the idea, only to claim later that the trial balloon was intended only to underscore the seriousness of the water crisis. When Pezeshkian again raised the possibility a few weeks ago, the idea was laughed off as a joke. No one is joking now, however. Iranian authorities have imposed strict-unto-draconian water restrictions in the Tehran area, but with 10 million-plus residents, those measures have failed to address the failure of the mullahs to keep up with the demands of its key urban center.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pezeshkian Admits to \u2018Intentional\u2019 Poverty as Iran\u2019s Economic Crisis Deepens<\/h3>\n

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More than a year into his presidency, Masoud Pezeshkian has openly admitted to the regime\u2019s role in engineering the economic collapse that has engulfed Iran. On November 14, 2025, Pezeshkian acknowledged the \u201cintentional cycle of poverty production,\u201d stating, \u201cA budget deficit means printing money, and printing money means inflation. Until we fix this, nothing will be fixed.\u201d This admission follows a similarly shocking statement made just days earlier on November 5, where he remarked with startling brazenness: \u201cWhen the government has a deficit, it is forced to print money. When they print money, high prices emerge, and the pressure of inflation falls on the necks of the deprived and the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Maryam Akbari Monfared Continues to Be Denied Medical Care in Qarchak Prison<\/h3>\n

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Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner held in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, remains deprived of access to specialized medical treatment, despite confirmed medical necessity and even judicial authorization for her transfer to outside medical facilities. Maryam Akbari Monfared had previously submitted an official request for transfer to receive examinations as well as physiotherapy and chiropractic services. Although the presiding judge approved the request, the lack of medical resources inside Qarchak prison and the continued refusal of prison authorities to facilitate her transfer have effectively stripped her of this basic right.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iranians Rally in Brussels to Honor Iran\u2019s November 2019 Uprising and Demand Regime Change<\/h3>\n
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