Al Mayadeen – June 25, 2025
Tehran halts IAEA access over silence on US-Israeli aggression
Iran asserts its right to national security by suspending IAEA access, following the agency’s silence over hostile attacks on its peaceful nuclear program.
Iran’s Parliament announced a major shift in nuclear oversight policy on Wednesday, voting to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unless the safety of its nuclear facilities is guaranteed. The move comes in the wake of recent Israeli-US aggression targeting key nuclear sites, which Iranian lawmakers say the IAEA failed to condemn.
Speaking during a parliamentary session, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared that Tehran would no longer cooperate with the IAEA until its nuclear facilities are fully secured. He criticized the international watchdog for remaining silent in the face of attacks on Iran’s sovereign infrastructure.
“The IAEA did not issue even a symbolic condemnation,” Ghalibaf stated, criticizing the agency’s silence in the face of blatant attacks. He warned that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will now accelerate “at a faster pace,” with heightened vigilance against diplomatic manipulation. The top Iranian lawmaker emphasized that Tehran is more prepared than ever and will meet any future aggression with “crushing force.”
Parliament passes resolution to restrict inspections
In a parallel announcement, Iranian Member of Parliament Alireza Salimi revealed that lawmakers had passed a resolution to suspend all forms of cooperation with the IAEA. The legislation prohibits IAEA inspectors from entering Iranian territory unless assurances are given regarding the safety of Iranﾒs nuclear activities.
The resolution includes punitive measures for any individuals or entities that permit access to IAEA personnel. It also extends beyond site inspections to cover broader safeguard agreements and cooperation protocols with the agency.
While the resolution passed in parliament, it still requires final ratification by the Supreme National Security Council to take effect. On June 16, Iranian parliamentarian Ruhollah Motefakker-Azad confirmed that the legislature had formally placed “firm engagement” with the IAEA on its agenda.
He also noted that the National Security Committee had begun talks with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to reevaluate existing cooperation frameworks.
Wider context
Iran has remained unwavering in its commitment to defend years of peaceful nuclear progress and scientific achievement.
Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to cap uranium enrichment at 3.67%. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, despite Iran’s full compliance up to that point. In response, Tehran, now not limited to JCPOA caps, enriched uranium up to 60%, a level still below weapons-grade.
Nonetheless, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has not militarized its nuclear program. According to the latest statements by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, there is no evidence to suggest that Iran has diverted its nuclear activities toward weaponization.
Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear chief has vowed that the country’s nuclear activities will continue without disruption, despite the military strikes on its nuclear facilities.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that all necessary measures have been taken to maintain operations and assess damage to impacted sites. He condemned the attacks on Iran's "peaceful nuclear facilities" and emphasized that preemptive planning had ensured no interruption in the country’s nuclear production or services.
627 martyred, 4,870 injured in Israeli aggression against Iran: Health ministry
Iran’s health ministry on Wednesday announced that 627 people have been martyred and 4,870 others injured in the Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.
Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the ministry, said the provinces of Tehran and Kermanshah have had the largest number of martyrs and injured.
Khuzestan, Lorestan, Isfahan, Markazi, East Azerbaijan, Hamedan, Zanjan, and Gilan provinces are ranked 3rd to 10th in terms of the number of martyrs and injured.
According to Kermanpour, 86.1 percent of the martyrs lost their lives on the scene, and only 13.9 percent were martyred upon arrival at the hospital, which indicates the destructive intensity of the Israeli aggression.
The unprovoked aggression began in the early hours of June 13, when the regime launched a series of strikes across Tehran and other cities, leading to the assassination of many high-ranking commanders, nuclear scientists, as well as ordinary citizens.
The regime and its Western allies, notably the US, falsely claimed the only targets in Iran were military and nuclear installations.
Iran responded swiftly and with force, and launched Operation True Promise III, inflicting massive damage to the military-industrial infrastructure in the occupied territories.
On June 22, the US military conducted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, namely Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, using long-range bombers and submarine-launched cruise missiles.
Despite the scale of the US assault, US assessment later revealed that the core nuclear infrastructure remained largely intact.
The following evening, Iran launched a missile strike on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military air base in West Asia
On Tuesday morning, the embattled Zionist regime was forced to unilaterally declare the cessation of its aggression in a deal brokered by Washington.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/06/25/750140/627-martyred-4870-injured-israeli-aggression-against-iran-health-ministry
Iran’s 'Operation True Promise III' shatters the illusion of Zionist regime’s invincibility
By Musa Iqbal
The Zionist aggression is over, at least for now. After 12 days of war, the Israeli occupation, which initiated the unprovoked and unlawful armed aggression against Iran on June 13, has cowered behind the US, pleading for a “ceasefire” deal with Iran.
After getting pounded for 12 days, it was the embattled Israeli regime headed by a war criminal that was forced to halt its surrender. It was not the Islamic Republic of Iran that approached the US, but Benjamin Netanyahu, who realized Iran is not Lebanon or Syria.
You may have started the aggression, but it is the Islamic Republic that ended it on its own terms. The Israeli regime, abandoned by its masters in Washington, had no choice but to surrender.
Brokered by the US and Qatar, it is a vague agreement that has, thus far, not been formalized on paper, though both sides, as well as the US, have recognized it to some extent.
What this 12-day war revealed is the Zionist miscalculation in its much-hyped abilities, and at the same time, astounding Iranian military prowess.
Israeli aggression and the Iranian response
One must remember that the war started with unprovoked Zionist aggression against Iran on June 13th, when the Zionist entity launched airstrikes at residential areas and military targets alike, conducting assassinations of military leaders, public officials, and nuclear scientists.
The stated goals of the Zionist aggression were initially to disable Iran’s nuclear capacities completely and later evolved to regime change, with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu urging Iranians to revolt. It also included the destruction of Iran’s long-range missile capabilities.
The Zionist occupation also used infiltrators armed with drones and car bombs to carry out assassination campaigns as well as inflict psychological terror on the Iranian people.
These agents were quickly rooted out by the highly capable and brave Iranian forces.
None of the stated objectives were met, despite the aggressive tactics used by the Zionists, including dragging the US into the war on June 22, when B-52 bombers struck three Iranian nuclear facilities.
There is still no confirmation that the aggression stopped Iran’s legitimate and peaceful civilian nuclear energy program. There is also no confirmation that Iran’s enriched uranium was harmed.
Iranian media, including Press TV, have reported that the enriched uranium had already been transferred to a safer location months ago, and the sites had also been evacuated.
One cannot write off that two nuclear powers committed aggression against Iran, with a declared goal of degrading or eliminating its enrichment program as well as “regime change”, and as of the cessation of Zionist aggression, none of those goals were met.
The Israeli regime was forced into a ceasefire agreement because, ultimately, it would not be able to withstand Iran’s sophisticated and powerful missile, drone, and cyber-attacks.
After absorbing the initial Israeli attack, which mirrored the US’s ‘Shock and Awe’ strategy, Iranian armed forces quickly regrouped, replenished, and launched “Operation True Promise III” with a stated goal of continuing the operation until the end of Israeli aggression.
Over the next 11 days, a variety of missile salvos and drone strikes were launched at the Zionist entity, striking the occupation from the south to the north. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) delivered painful blows, unleashing a wave of devastation across the occupied territories that far exceeded the successful strikes during True Promise I and II.
The targets ranged from military sites to labs and warehouses associated with the Israeli occupation. The IRGC also targeted key research facilities for weapons development, including the “Weizmann Institute of Science” as well as a “tech park” that hosted big corporations like Microsoft, which develops AI and other offensive tools attributed to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Buildings associated with key officials within the Israeli regime were leveled, as power stations were also targeted to disrupt “business as usual.” Millions of settlers were sent running into shelters multiple times every day, from the early morning to the middle of the night.
The missile and drone strikes evaded the multi-tier air defense systems, including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow-3, and THAAD aerial defense systems, striking their targets while exhausting aerial interceptors. It was likely the exhaustion of these systems and the need to replenish them that led to the call for a ceasefire.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the daily cost of anti-missile air systems ranged from $10 million to $200 million for Israel. This is likely a conservative estimate.
The IRGC was able toﾠdemonstrate different missiles for the first time, including the multi-warhead Kheibar (Qadr-H) ballistic missile, which destroyed and leveled city blocks.
Hypersonic missiles like the Fattah-1 were also used, demonstrating a new era of missile capability being employed by Iranian armed forces. The Sejjil ballistic missile was also employed, which grabbed headlines worldwide due to its unusual maneuverability and massive warhead.
These missiles shook the entity and imposed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property damage, not taking into account the millions of dollars of interceptor missiles fired to unsuccessfully stop them.
On the topic of the economic toll, the destruction of Israeli buildings and infrastructure, paired with military demands to carry out its failed aggression, has not come cheap. The 12-day aggression has cost the entity nearly billions of dollars, ultimately delivering nothing.
Major corporations have also ceased their activity within the entity. Major airlines have canceled flights to the occupation, as shipping companies like Maersk, responsible for delivering weapons used in the Gaza Genocide, have also paused shipping.
Port cities like Haifa which have been struck relentlessly have paused major operations as Israeli railways have also come to a grinding halt in the south-occupied territories.
Tying up loose ends
The immense failure of the Zionist air force can also not be ignored. Indeed, the occupation air force bombed many targets in Iran, but it was not able to do this on its own.
Within Iran, networks of terrorists, chaos agents, and Mossad-backed opposition were activated to target Iran’s air defense structures, including launchers and radar systems. These elements, once discovered by Iranian authorities, were quickly exposed, destroyed, or detained.
After warehouses full of drones and equipment used to destroy Iranian aerial defense as well as inflict terrorist harm on the Iranian population were discovered, Zionist air offensives became less effective.
The Zionist air force relied on these elements to carry out strikes from within for their offensive to be considered successful. Iranian citizens, together with Iranian authorities, worked to root out these traitors and infiltrators and disable networks of terrorists embedded in Iran over the years.
It is already well documented that for years, Mossad agents infiltrated or recruited terrorists to conduct assassinations of officials and nuclear scientists.
The current war saw a widespread activation of these agents, only for them to be quickly discovered and shut down via a unified effort between common Iranians and Iranian authorities.
The activation of chaos agents and terrorists is a card that, once activated, is hard to play again if aggression renews. In the coming days, more agents will be discovered, and the ones detained now will release information about the whereabouts of collaborators, ultimately exposing the Mossad recruitment process.
What lies next?
As stated earlier, this ceasefire is still not on paper, and ceasefires are typically not respected by Israel. It is very likely that the regime will overstep and breach it, though the timeline is uncertain.
Right now, the occupation needs to lick its wounds after being dealt devastating blows. It needs to restock its interceptors and fix critical military and civil infrastructure, as well as promise its settler occupation that it has full control of the situation.
Furthermore, it needs to restore its economic capabilities, most importantly, re-establishing its ports as safe areas in order to continue receiving key shipments of weapons and resources.
The settler population is likely going to hold more demonstrations against Netanyahu, as they have in the past, for this folly that resulted in widespread destruction and the death and injury of hundreds of settlers. Netanyahu and Trump's inability to confirm the whereabouts of Iran’s enriched uranium also raises questions about the effectiveness of even the American operation.
Meanwhile, despite the horrific targeting of civilian structures within Iran such as hospitals and universities, Iranians are experiencing a rejuvenated national unity. Pride in the effective defense of the nation has already had millions of Iranians marching in support of the armed forces throughout the course of the aggression. Today, a massive victory observation is being held in Tehran.
Iran will use the coming days, weeks, and months to continue to root out infiltrators while replenishing its missile and defense capabilities.
Now that the precedent for direct war with the Zionist occupation has been set, new ways to counter these forces will be developed and implemented.
Finally, Iran has vowed to continue its nuclear program. The targeting of the Iranian nuclear structure, though damaging, is not destabilizing. US President Trump insists the program is over, but even American media including some on the same political wing as him are questioning the effectiveness of the illegal American acts of aggression.
If there are any doubts as to who emerged victorious in this war, consider the following: Flights leaving Tel Aviv are completely packed, while Iranians are rallying in the streets.
Musa Iqbal is a Boston-based researcher and writer with a focus on US domestic and foreign policy.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/06/24/750110/iran-op-true-promiseiii-shatters-illusion-zionist-regime-invincibility
The steadfastness of Iran is unmatched in recent history
By Janna Kadri
As the US and "Israel" escalate aggression against Iran, the confrontation reveals not just a military gamble but a desperate imperial bid to preserve collapsing hegemony, met by Iran's enduring resistance, a resistance now emblematic of the Global South's wider struggle against capitalist plunder, settler colonial violence, and a dying empire's last war.
With the US and "Israel" threatening escalatory action against Iran, we are once again witnessing a perilous episode in the long arc of imperial intervention. Yet beneath the surface-level military posturing lies a deeper structural truth: a war against Iran is a war against the developing world. After all, persons in power who hoard their wealth in dollars and in Western financial markets share the same interests irrespective of their nationalities or skin color.
True, such war of the rich on the besieged poor is a morally indefensible war, but wealth making depends on power and power derives from imperial victory in wars. True also, that it is strategically doomed to failure, since the rise of the global South led by China is inexorable, but since making profits depends on lowering the costs of inputs from the South, the war visited upon the immiserated masses is a phenomenal condition of all times under capitalism.
More so, the damage to humans and natureﾠsuch war will impart feeds nicely into 'a way of life' that grows by some form of genocide or another. To displace and starve native Indians in America is pretty much the mode of action at play in the Arab-Iranian region. By measures of austerity, the decimation of local agriculture and or outright war, people are starved or beaten into submission to relinquish their labor and resources at prices/incomes so cheap such that they fail to maintain decent living standards.
To date, the rate of unnecessary and war-related deaths since the war on terror began is in the millions. If nations are not bombed, their debt dependency and rationed resources pit variants of the same working people against one another, as always with a little help from NGOs and Western ideological apparatuses that weaponize the identities of the many cultural groups, which have long inhabited the region.
When Empire Falters, Resistance Solidifies
The resultant vector of power arising from the literal death of the masses boosts the power fabric of the international financial class, a class which understands that political power is sine qua non to profit-making. This confrontation with Iran, however, is different. At no time in recent history was the empire that weak.
Its hegemony which underlies the collateral of the dollar, is shrinking while its debts underwritten by the same dwindling hegemony are soaring. Where once the empire could borrow indefinitely because it controlled the future work and resources of the world, now it cannot. Also, Iran is different. Years of sanctions and imperialist proxy wars against it have shaped a self-reliant state whose indigenous capacity is way stronger than the rest in the region.
Contrary to Western narratives that cast Iran as an isolated state, much of the Global South understands it as a node in a broader resistance front, and alongside the resistance in Lebanon and Yemen, it has, for decades, defied the economic and military dictates of the US-led West.
The global imperial system is not merely military; it is also ideological. It is fundamentally about controlling the processes of wealth extraction through a synergy between military force and ideological domination, a synergy in which peoples are first bludgeoned into obeisance in order to be force-fed the ideological doctrine of capital, or for societies to accept the gibberish of capitalism piecemeal as a condition of adaptation to the terms of defeat.
States like Iran, however, with their mixed economies and national capitalism, resist the sham of neoliberalism, which usurps the social product of developing nations. States like Iran that maintain resource sovereignty challenge the outflow of resources at low or negative prices to the West.
They are treated as threats simply because they do not contribute to the imperialist desired immiseration of their own masses, their exploitation, which translates into lower costs and rising profits.
In formulaic terms, to profit is to exploit, to exploit is to oppress, and to oppress is to wage war, govern by imperialist comprador and or impose austerity upon the developing world, a condition that devolves into lower quality and shorter lives in the South.
Empire Can Win Wars, But Not the Masses
The United States and its colonial outpost, "Israel," have long depended on the projection of overwhelming force to discipline non-compliant states. Yet history has proven that wars fought against nations with revolutionary legacies, resilient infrastructures, and mass ideological mobilization rarely achieve their intended goals.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many regional states may lie in ruin. The US has brought several sovereign governments to their knees, but has never truly established authority over their masses despite regime change. These nations are powder kegs, brewing with anger and poised to re-emerge as staunch anti-imperialist strongholds. They will find a ray of hope in the resistance of Iran, an already hardened opponent.
On a strategic scale, no matter what the outcome of the aggression, the masses will rise, and the failure of imperialism is preordained by history. The case may be that in a worst case scenario for Iran, and in the short to intermediate terms, the power facts created by Zio-imperialism may prove difficult to deal with, but the rights of peoples, the right-based facts, will not disappear and every regional revolt will hold dear the memory of the struggle of Iran for Palestine.
With the irrational laws of capitalism in command of history, the war will be prolonged, and for the retreating and indebted empire, its costs will no longer be its profits, since dollar hegemony is no longer what it used to be. Whether in the short or long term, Iran will prevail, and the reason will be based on respect for humans and the environment.
Sanctifying the Abnormal
From a global perspective, recent moves by the US, including the attack by "Israel," are designed to sabotage the momentum of multipolarity driven by China. The trail of imperialist aggression, a trail of tears writ large, paved not only by bombs but also by backroom deals, aims at broadening the normalization agreements with Arab states.
In reality, such maneuvers do not pursue the legitimation of a settler colonial state concocted on the basis of ancient myth to further imperialism, but rather the legitimation of a global US empire. Normalization will sanctify the abnormal, the same political forces that have desolated the planet for profits.
On a more concrete plane, the backroom deals include debt relief packages and other geopolitical bribes to countries like Turkey and Egypt, nations that need not be invaded to surrender. All they need is for the additional loans that service their outstanding debts be delayed for a few weeks.
These bribesﾠare also intended to boost the repressive institutions of Arab regimes to suppress peoples' commitment to Palestine, a commitment nonetheless that has more to do with the Arab masses' own plight for better living standards, since the struggle for Palestine is a struggle for bread and dignity at home as well.
It is a struggle against the same international financial class, the same dollar-based power fabric.
Crisis of Consciousness
To add insult to injury, Arab mainstream media portrays the war like a football match, while in the absence of revolutionary ideology and an efficient revolutionary force, the populace sits by the wayside, crying its own fate in life in tandem with the televised tragedies. It fails to move into the Molotov alternative at its disposal.
Such is the depth of the crisis of revolutionary consciousness. The guns of the US are pointed at them, yet they turn their guns against each other.
Supposedly revolutionary forces in the region, bamboozled by a liberal democracy, which is of the same mindset as destroying the South for profits, resort to compromising policies that re-internalize the defeatism of the masses. Such a downward spiral of 'do the wrong thing and reap the faulty consciousness' reinforces the external as well as the self-inflicted onslaughts of US imperialism.
All in all, these putative revolutionaries misdiagnose the immense historical power of the West gained by years of colonial slaughter. They miss the principal contradiction between North and South and place secondary contradictions as a guiding principle for action.
The resilience of Iran in the shadow of a rising South led by China, however, will shatter such illusions. The labor aristocrats of the South, a sleezier replica than their counterparts in the North, will lose face, and a new anti-imperialist movement, more radical, is set to emerge.
Cracks in the Castle
Yet even within this US pressure, fractures within the regional circle of capitalists are appearing. Inter-capitalist contradictions are always with us. Not many want to see Netanyahu imposing his racket upon them.
On June 15, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman phoned Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in the wake of Israeli attacks on Iran, and he condemned the aggression, expressed condolences, and declared that "the entire Islamic world is united in backing Iran."
At face value, this could be read as a remarkable shift, an olive branch across once-hostile lines – there is some disdain for Trump's unrefined style, but that is a secondary concern here. The case may be that the Saudi gesture may have been a calculated attempt to prevent the blowback from reaching US military assets housed across the Gulf.
From Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia to Al Dhafra in the UAE and the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, the region is studded with imperial infrastructure. The Gulf monarchies may also fear Iranian retaliation because they sit directly in its path.
Such epiphenomena expose the frailty of states carved by the colonial scalpel to deprive the Arab masses of their resources, whose security is offered by the rate of tribute paid to the empire. However, the bottom line for such Gulf concerns arises upon their future share of imperial rents as a result of outright American victory.
Iran Is Not Alone
Yet, the word on the regional street tells a different story. From Cairo to Sana'a, from Amman to Manama, ordinary people continue to reject the imperial project in all its forms. They rally for Gaza, they speak for the resistance, and they see Iran not as a sectarian threat but as a defiant symbol of anti-colonial struggle.
The imperial order may still govern states, but it no longer governs the spirit of the masses. And, Iran, unlike many of its neighbors, has not only survived the imperialist onslaught, but it has also emerged as a fortress against imperial control.
It has built a resilient military infrastructure, preserved national industries, and forged strategic ties with China, Russia, and the BRICS+ framework. It is not isolated; it is embedded in a rising multipolar order. And that order is now under siege as Iran is being attacked. They will not stand still, and the potentialities of their reaction to the aggression are a Pandora's box waiting to open.
One thing is clear, however: Iran survived the first strike, and it is delivering blow after blow at the enemy. The aerial bombardment will not dislodge its government, and the war augurs the precipitous demise of a sick empire.
Al Mayadeen – September 8, 2022
Iran becomes 100% self-sufficient in production of military drones
This latest achievement marks a new phase in the development of Iran's military capabilities.
The commander of Iran's air forces, Brig. Gen. Hamid Vahedi, said on Thursday that Iran has achieved full self-sufficiency in supplying its air forces with combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“We have achieved 100% self-sufficiency in the field of unmanned aircraft, but we must not stop in these efforts," the IRNA news agency quoted Vahedi as saying.
The commander also noted that Iran has become the leading state in the Middle East in the field of combat drones.
“We have made good progress in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, the Air Force has made two very useful UAVs: Kaman-12 and Kaman-22," Vahedi added.
Kaman-12, unveiled in early 2019, is an Iranian homegrown combat-oriented drone capable of conducting military operations with air-to-surface missiles, as well as electronic warfare and reconnaissance. Kaman-22, unveiled in 2021, is the first wide-body combat drone in Iran capable of carrying all types of cargo, with the ability to detect, monitor, gather information, and photograph distant targets, as well as high combat capability through the use of various intelligent ammunition.
Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made substantial headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere. Iranian officials have repeatedly underscored that the country will never stop working to strengthen its military capabilities for defense purposes.
On September 1, Wall Street Journal reported that the US Navy, along with "Israel," Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries, are working to establish a network of unmanned drones to limit Iran's military in the region; a program that the Pentagon hopes will serve as a model for operations around the world.
“If the enemies make a mistake, these drones will present them with a regrettable response,” Abdolrahim Mousavi, an Iranian army commander, told reporters during a recent visit by President Biden to the region thousands of miles away from home.
Just a few days ago, the Iranian navy seized and towed an American USV equipped with sensors, cameras, radars, and other data collection technologies.
On September 2, the Iranian navy seized two American military unmanned research vessels in the Red Sea before releasing them.
This comes in light of the continued growth of Iranian naval capabilities, as the Iranian armed forces and IRGC periodically reveal the introduction of new equipment and technologies to their naval fleet.
