Iran must be willing to negotiate about its nuclear program, senator says

Iran's security forces arrested child rights defender Hossein Mirbahari, a founding member of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children, at his sister’s home in Tehran on October 15.

New-York based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said on Monday Mirbahari has been held without charge and denied access to his family and lawyer, with his whereabouts still unknown.

“Mirbahari’s unlawful arrest and the closing of the organization mirror the Islamic Republic’s dismantling of other NGOs, and reflect its intensifying drive to wipe out independent civil society organizations,” CHRI’s executive director Hadi Ghaemi said in a statement.

He added that the government’s actions showcase what he called the Islamic Republic's "lawless thuggery", accusing it of fearing “any independent societal activities, no matter how vital a role they play.”

Security forces sealed the organization’s office in Tehran the same day as Mirbahari’s arrest and confiscated equipment and communication devices, effectively halting its operations.

The NGO's closure and Mirbahari's arrest were first reported by the Iranian outlet Emtedad in mid-October.

The group had been operating legally since 2002 after receiving official registration from the Interior Ministry, providing education, health services, and psychological support to vulnerable children.

CHRI called on the United Nations, UNICEF, and the European Union to press Iran for Mirbahari’s immediate release and to demand the reopening of the organization, citing his fragile health following chemotherapy.

The closure comes amid what CHRI described as an escalating campaign by Iranian authorities to criminalize humanitarian work and silence advocates for children, women, and marginalized communities.

The group said the shutdown has already disrupted schooling for many children the NGO supported.

Iran faces a worsening child labor crisis, with estimates ranging from 1.5 to 7 million working children. Official figures cited by Iran’s Parliamentary Research Center in 2023 said 15% of the country’s children are engaged in labor, while Tehran’s City Council estimated 70,000 child laborers in the capital alone.

The Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children had served as a rare legal platform for advocacy and assistance to working and street children across Iran, employing specialized units in education, health, social work, and research before its forced closure.

The closure marks a continuation of previous crackdowns on independent civil society organizations.

Past Iranian NGO closures

Last April, Iran shut down the Mehr-e Shams-Afarid NGO safe house, which provided support and empowerment programs for vulnerable women.

In August 2022, Iran shut down the Noor Sepid Hedayat Social Harm Reduction Institute, an NGO that supported women with substance abuse issues and vulnerable children in Shoush, a neighborhood in southern Tehran.

Iranian authorities shut down Khaneh Khorshid, an NGO aiding women with substance abuse in southern Tehran, in March 2022.

In 2020, Iranian security forces arrested Sharmin Meymandinejad, the founder and director of the largest anti-poverty NGO in the country, Imam Ali's Popular Student Relief Society (IAPSRS), and subsequently closed down its headquarters.

In August 2019, another independent charity supporting marginalized women and girls in Tehran, Omid-e-Mehr was forcibly closed by the Iranian authorities.

A group of retirees from Iran's Telecommunications Company held protest gatherings and marches in the cities of Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan, Khoy, and Tehran among others, labor news agency ILNA reported.

Participants chanted "They took Telecom away and handed it to the wolf," criticizing policies of the company, whose main shareholders include the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Cooperative Foundation.

The retirees protested against delays in payments, welfare allowances, insurance issues and healthcare services.

Nurses protest

Nurses rallied for unpaid wages, holding a protest gathering in front of the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences building in western Iran.

They criticized the non-payment of over a year's worth of shift allowances and overtime, protesting what they called officials neglect of their demands.

"We protest the injustice, discrimination and neglect of our one-year demands and request the University President respond to us," read one banner held up by protestors.

Oil company employees

Meanwhile a group of Continental Shelf Oil Company employees in Lavan escalated demands for reform in a protest according to human rights website HRANA.

They demanded reform of minimum-wage employees' salaries, full restoration of allowances including hardship climate and family separation premiums, removal of retirement seniority caps, the refund of excess deducted taxes and payment of related arrears.

Tehran Alvan Poultry Food Complex stopped work in protest over three months of unpaid wages, ILNA reported.

The living conditions of retirees, pension recipients, nurse, and workers have led to an increase in protest gatherings in recent years.

At least 3,702 protest gatherings and strikes in various fields were recorded in Iran this year, according to HRANA's annual report.

"I am confident that so many of the successes Israel has had vs. the Iranian axis is not due to Israeli genius but due to the stupidity of the men who make up the rank-and-file and commanders of these militias & Iranian regime," Tsurkov wrote on X.

"Having spent 903 days in the captivity of an Iraqi militia servicing Iran, I can tell you that I've never met more ignorant people in my life," the Princeton PhD candidate added.

Tsurkov was abducted by Iran-backed Shi'ite militia Kata’ib Hezbollah and was released after a Trump administration hostage envoy traveled to Iraq in February to push for her release.

She is a prolific analyst on social media and announced her return to X last month with an animation of rapper Dr. Dre with the caption "Guess who's back." Her posts are frequently critical of Israeli policy.

"Commanders who think tracking devices can be planted in teeth, but don't know white [non-silver] fillings exist. Commanders who think Masons rule the world," Tsurkov said of her captors. "Senior commanders who are literally illiterate. An Iranian commander who thinks there is such a thing as spoken vs. written Hebrew."

"What a travesty that Iraqis, Yemenis, Gazans, Iranians, and Lebanese are subject to the rule of these brutal ignoramuses," she added.

Kata’ib Hezbollah denied responsibility, but Israel’s Channel 11 cited an Iraqi official as saying that Tsurkov was initially detained by Iraq’s intelligence service—or by individuals posing as its officers—before being transferred to Kata’ib Hezbollah.

The group is one of several Tehran -backed and funded armed groups which took part in Iraq's conflict against Islamic State militants but amassed power and influence by maintaining their arms after fighting largely winded down.

New Lebanon-based digital banking services like Whish and rival OMT are connected to international banking systems such as Visa and Mastercard and facilitate the money transfers to and from Lebanon, the report said.

A series of sanctioned Iran-linked organizations, like the Lebanese branch of the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation known as the Emdad Association and Hezbollah's Martyr Foundation and Wounded Foundation, actively use the services.

OMT allows individuals to transfer money using the recipient’s name and phone number, meaning these organizations could raise money from the vast Lebanese diaspora populations such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UK-based newspaper reported that it had monitored a transaction via Whish's international partner RIA involving a dollar-denominated transfer, after which a donor to Emdad received a receipt from the organization matching the transaction.

This mechanism allows individuals to send large amounts of money to the charities and organizations in small tranches to different names and numbers via Emdad's WhatsApp account.

Both Whish and OMT denied any wrongdoing or mishandling related to sanctions on Hezbollah and its affiliates.

Lebanon's banking sector has been in crisis since 2019, when widespread protests and capital controls triggered a near-collapse, slashing deposits by over 90% and fueling hyperinflation.

In response digital banking has surged with apps like Whish and OMT amassing millions of users for quick transfers amid chronic cash shortages.

Israel assassinated Hezbollah's veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah last year and dealt the group historic blows, and the group faces a major challenge after Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun instructed the military to confiscate its weapons.

Netanyahu warning

Tensions continue to flare with Israel, which occupies outposts of Lebanese territory and has launched repeated deadly airstrikes.

“We expect the Lebanese government to do what it has pledged to do, namely to disarm Hezbollah ... We will not allow Lebanon to become a renewed front against us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Hezbollah's has refused to fully disarm, fueling concern in Lebanon that a standoff over the issue could devolve into civil war.

Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, told a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday that it was unlikely Hezbollah could be disarmed despite Washington's stated policy goals.

“Lebanon is a failed state,” Barrack said, adding it was run by "dinosaurs."

“The idea of disarming Hezbollah — in our opinion, it’s not reasonable to tell Lebanon, ‘Forcibly disarm one of your political parties,'” Barrack added. “Everybody’s scared to death to go into a civil war. The idea is, what can you do to have Hezbollah not utilize those rockets and missiles?”

Founded in 1982 by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah has grown into Lebanon’s most powerful military force, surpassing the national army in capabilities.

The group has fought multiple wars with Israel and has rejected any initiatives to dismantle its military wing.

Those targeted include economists Parviz Sadeghat and Mohammad Maljoo, sociologist Mahsa Asadollahnejad, writers and translators Shirin Karimi and Heyman Rahimi, and researcher Rasoul Ghanbari.

Tehran's reformist leaning Shargh daily reported that security forces arrested Sedaghat early on Monday morning after searching his home and seizing books and electronic devices, while fellow economist Maljoo was summoned for questioning.

“We still don’t know why this happened. Up to this moment my father has not contacted us,” Shargh quoted Sedaghat's daughter Mahtab as saying.

Shargh also said that Maljoo had been scheduled to appear before security authorities for questioning. According to his family, after his belongings were confiscated he went to the location specified by the security agencies.

The report added that there is currently no information about Maljoo’s status and the reason for Sedaghat’s arrest remains unclear.

In a July article, Sedaghat had written that despite the ceasefire with Israel, “we continue to live within the same rhetoric, the same confrontational tone.” He warned that Iran’s economy “has been caught in structural blockage” and that without political reform, it is “pushing the country toward systemic collapse.”

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In a separate report, Shargh said Mahsa Asadollahnejad, a PhD graduate in political sociology, was detained on Monday morning while at her parents’ home after agents seized her electronic devices.

Her whereabouts remain unknown and she has not yet contacted her family, it added.

Radio Zamaneh reported the arrest of Shirin Karimi, a writer, translator and researcher, after security forces raided her home in the morning searched the premises and confiscated her books and electronic devices before taking her to an undisclosed location.

Her family has received no information about the reason for her detention, according to the reports.

In another report, Shargh said security agents confiscated the electronic devices and books of writer and translator Heyman Rahimi on Monday morning.

Rahimi has been ordered to appear at a designated location on Tuesday for questioning, according to the report. No further details have been released about the reason for the summons.

Activists say Monday’s arrests targeted left-leaning intellectuals.

“The arrests of Parviz Sedaghat, Rasoul Ghanbari, Mahsa Asadollahnejad, Shirin Karimi and Mohammad Maljoo — all prominent leftist figures — show that the government is more concerned about the growing influence of independent leftist movements than about criticism from within the system (reformist or conservative),” Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist Kaveh Ghoreishi said on X.