Prominent academic body urges Iran to halt crackdown on scholars

“There are warnings that the fire spread risk is high and we need to act accordingly,” official media cited Ansari as saying.

The blaze in the Elit area ongoing since last week, fueled by wind and dry conditions. Iranian helicopters and ground teams deployed round-the-clock, but rugged terrain has hampered efforts.

Iran seeks international aid as the massive wildfire rages in UNESCO-listed Hyrcanian forest near the town of Chalous.

“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a UNESCO World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests,” Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health posted on X.

“Iranians are losing a natural heritage older than Persian civilization,” he added.

Authorities said protection units remained on high alert along the forest front in western Mazandaran, where several smaller fires have been reported in recent days.

Iran's Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref ordered on Friday urgent provision of firefighting equipment and resources for the ongoing Elit forest wildfire.

The Hyrcanian Forests stretch along the southern Caspian Sea coast in Iran and Azerbaijan. This ancient temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion dates back 25-50 million years, surviving past ice ages as a refugium.

They host over 3,200 vascular plant species, 150 endemic and 180 bird species, plus mammals like the Persian leopard, brown bear, lynx and Caspian red deer.

Wildfires have been burning for over two weeks as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fueling the blaze.

“Despite the damage we got on the first day, the situation reached a point where by the sixth day, the US Vice President was seeking negotiations to stop the war,” Ghalibaf told a Tehran even for the Basij, Iran's domestic militia.

“The enemy entered with military action, and we admonished and punished it with military power,” he added. “The enemy acted with full calculations to stop the revolution and disintegrate Iran.”

Vance's office did not immediately respond to an Iran International request for comment.

“Iran targeted the US command headquarters in the region with 14 missiles in less than 24 hours. Anti-missile systems failed to intercept them, and this response halted further attacks,” Ghalibaf added.

Washington engaged in talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after giving its Mideast arch-enemy a 60-day ultimatum.

After it expired on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign killing senior nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians. Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.

Joining the conflict on the tenth day, the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear sites. The next day Iran responded with missile attacks on a US airbase in Qatar before US President Donald Trump enforced a ceasefire on the twelfth day.

The impasse over Iran's disputed program festers despite Trump's assertion that the US attacks had "obliterated" it.

Iran said on Wednesday that no talks were underway with the United States, rejecting President Donald Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the two sides were in dialogue.

Trump had said the previous day that the United States was talking with Iran and that he believed Tehran wanted a deal “very badly.”

"It’s all about ambiguity. Nuclear hedging is all about the other side not knowing exactly what we have or exactly what our intentions are," Fitzpatrick, an associate fellow with The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told Eye for Iran.

Fitzpatrick, the author of “The Iranian Nuclear Crisis" and former US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation, spoke after Iran this week rejected a new International Atomic Energy Agency resolution demanding access to its bombed nuclear sites.

US strikes capped off a surprise military campaign against Iran in June and targeted the Natanz, Esfahan and Fordow nuclear sites. Iranian authorities have barred international inspection of the stricken facilities in the months since.

A leaked report from the UN nuclear watchdog says it has lost continuity of knowledge on Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium stockpile, which had grown to roughly 400 kilograms before the attacks.

Rafael Grossi, head of the agency warned this week that monitoring gaps have become a serious proliferation risk. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, responded by saying the resolution voided an earlier deal with the nuclear body.

What has actually changed?

Fitzpatrick says none of these developments signal a shift in Iran’s doctrine and that ambiguity may be a deliberate part of Iran's strategy.

“I don’t see any evidence that they’ve given up the desire to have a nuclear option for the future.” He argued Iran remains committed to so-called nuclear hedging, a strategy designed to maintain the capability to produce a weapon quickly while avoiding the political cost of crossing the threshold.

What has changed is Iran’s capacity, as Iran's foreign minister said this week that no enrichment had occurred since the attacks. “We’re not enriching for now because we can’t,” Abbas Araghchi said this week.

Araghchi told The Economist in an interview published on Thursday that Tehran is open to talks with the United States but not on Washington’s terms. “Zero enrichment is impossible ... zero (nuclear) weapons is possible.”

Fitzpatrick believes Iran is now stuck between possible inclination to revive its nuclear capability and desire to avoid renewed attack.

If Tehran tries to recover the buried canisters of 60 percent material or construction accelerates at the sensitive sites, he says Israel will likely strike again. The current drift, Fitzpatrick added, may be a sign of Iran making a bid for time, or "temporizing."

Despite the damage, Fitzpatrick believes the strikes may have strengthened the internal argument for a bomb.

“It probably steels a determination to have an option.”

Regional dynamics add further risk

In Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was in Washington this week he inked a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Washington, which “builds the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy partnership."

It positions the United States as Saudi Arabia’s “civil nuclear cooperation partner of choice," according to a release by the White House.

White House officials said the partnership would not entail Saudi enrichment, though it adds another nuclear element to the tense Persian Gulf region.

“If Saudi Arabia has an enrichment capability, then not just Iran, but other states in the region will say well we should have it too.”

You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on YouTube or listen on any podcast platform of your choosing.

"There's never been a time like this in the Middle East. You have peace in the Middle East now," Trump told Fox News in an interview published on Friday.

"You have Iran, which has been beaten very badly, and their nuclear capability taken away, and they want to make a deal, and we probably will make a deal with Iran. But you have peace for the first time in the Middle East, you have real peace."

Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon and has rejected US demands that it end domestic enrichment, rein in its missile program and cut off help for its armed Mideast allies.

Washington engaged in talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after giving its Mideast arch-enemy a 60-day ultimatum.

On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.

The impasse over the disputed program festers despite Trump's assertion that the US attacks had "obliterated" it.

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'Down to size'

Trump welcomed the de facto leader of Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House this week, and has several times said his actions in Iran defanged Tehran. He repeatedly said Washington was in dialogue with Tehran in assertions flatly rejected by Iran.

"One year ago. You had nuclear weapons. You had Iran was boasting about how strong they were, you had this is a totally different Middle East right now," Trump added.

"You have countries that want to make peace, as opposed to countries that had no idea of making peace. We've taken a big, dark cloud off of the Middle East by bringing Iran back down to size."

The two-year regional conflagration sparked by Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 was paused by a ceasefire Trump brokered last month, but the truce appears fragile as Israeli air strikes hit Gaza and southern Lebanon this week.

Israel accuses Hamas and Hezbollah, armed allies of Iran on its southern and northern fronts, of seeking to rearm and posing a threat to its forces. The two groups say Israel is violating internationally brokered ceasefires with the attacks.

"You have Hamas, which is has been, you know, beaten very badly," Trump told Fox News. "You have Hezbollah with Lebanon, which is not good, but that's a, you know, relatively small situation, not a good situation, but small."

The Asr-e Iran news outlet direct a sharp rebuke at Alireza Biniaz, the Kish Friday prayer leader in the form of a lengthy commentary. Friday prayer leaders are official positions appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office.

“What does a special beach for the Friday prayer leader and his friends even mean? Was wanting special treatment in other areas not enough – now a special beach too?” the outlet said.

“You go to university with special privileges, get hired with special privileges, use a privileged internet line, and then go to Kish to stay at a special beach?” Asr-e Iran wrote.

Biniaz's original letter was addressed to Mohammadjafar Kabiri, the head of the Kish Free Zone Organization. Earlier discussions with the economy minister, Biniaz wrote, had produced an understanding to build and operate a special beach for the Friday prayer institution.

He urged officials to expedite and finalize its allocation to allow access for “devout individuals, committed citizens, officials and special guests.”

Public spaces and equal access

Asr-e Iran rejected dividing society into categories of devotion. “Why insist on separating society into devout and non-devout?” it said. “It is the right of all Iranians to enjoy the island’s amenities, and the degree of anyone’s devotion is not for the Friday prayer leader of Kish – or anywhere else – to determine,” the website added.

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The outlet asked President Massoud Pezeshkian to verify the letter’s authenticity and assess any role played by the economy ministry, arguing that inaction would reinforce perceptions of privileged access for clerics.

Earlier cases reflect a wider pattern

This is not the first time Friday prayer leaders and figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have sought special advantages for themselves, with their names appearing in economic corruption files and similar cases.

In March 2024, journalist Yashar Soltani published documents revealing financial misconduct by Kazem Sedighi, then the Tehran Friday prayer leader, involving the 4,200-square-meter property valued at roughly ten trillion rials ($8.85 million).

The property, which had been under the control of a seminary managed by Sedighi, was transferred for only 66 billion rials ($58.4 thousand).

After widespread criticism and a strong public reaction, Sedighi eventually wrote to Khamenei in August seeking “to be excused from leading Friday prayers in order to focus on academic, teaching and preaching work,” a request the Supreme Leader approved.