On the first day of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury against Iran, the United States military struck a school in the south of the country multiple times, reportedly killing at least 175 people, mostly young children.

“I swear, it was the government that hit the school,” Alireza, my 33-year-old relative, insisted in an Instagram voice message to me. He claimed that Iran’s own armed forces had struck the Minab school. I shared multiple Western media sources and investigations revealing that American Tomahawk missiles had inflicted the damage. Where did Alireza, living in Iran, attain such misinformation, and why was he adamant about his position, even after the Pentagon tacitly admitted fault?

In Iran’s hyper-polarized society, events like the Minab tragedy spawn conspiracies, suspicions, and outright denials of reality rather than shared moments for mourning. Everything is part of a struggle for narrative control of this war. Nuance be damned. The result is bitter ruptures among Iranians inside and outside of the country as we reckon with the unrest and transformation of our besieged, beloved homeland.

The Iranian government tightly controls media inside the country. This isolation is entrenched by international sanctions, which deprive ordinary citizens from accessing the world. Persian-language media based outside of Iran have filled this vacuum—and they have their own motivations and state funding sources.

In the past decade, Iran International and Manoto, two London-based channels with mysterious origins and a clear anti-Islamic Republic editorial direction, have become the de facto sources of information for millions of Iranians. Both promote the son of Iran’s deposed last king, Reza Pahlavi, as the head of an inevitable government-in-waiting. Iran International received an initial investment of $250 million from the Saudi Arabian crown prince; Manoto’s funding comes from private venture capital sources with cultural ties to Israel and fondness for the Pahlavis. Pahlavi has also received support from Israel in the form of a reported cyber campaign that created automated bot followers and fake engagement with his social media posts.

On the algorithmic battlefront, Iranian state television and media (and other accounts sympathetic to the current government such as the media collective Explosive News) have set a new standard for 21st-century AI agitprop with offerings ranging from Lego rap videos to AI-generated film trailers, all supporting a narrative of this war as an American strategic blunder and distraction from the Epstein files. Through statements on X, Iranian officials are hoping to influence panic in the oil markets and exploit Trump’s lack of cohesive messaging about this war by, well, trolling him. Official Chinese accounts have waded in. For a brief while, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to disprove convincingly an internet theory that he was dead.

We are now in a new era in which the digital world increasingly determines the analog one instead of vice versa. Donald Trump claims that Iran is a master manipulator in this kind of warfare, even as he excels at it too, timing Truth Social statements with the opening and closing of financial markets. All of this makes the intelligibility of this war an example of contemporary warfare itself. Narratives, economies, and geopolitics move in lockstep.

The post Iranians Are Stuck in the Middle of an Information War appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

Tehran: Iran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said on Saturday that the war with the US and Israel had killed more than 3,400 people in the country. The announcement came during a two-week ceasefire in the conflict, which began in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Foundation chief Ahmad Mousavi, quoted by ISNA news agency, said 3,468 “martyrs” had died in the recent conflict.

A previous toll issued on April 12 by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization had put the death count at 3,375.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been killed, including 1,701 civilians – among them at least 254 children – as well as 1,221 military personnel.

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The United Nations Economic and Social Council has just appointed Iran to the Committee for Programme and Coordination—the body that sets the global direction on human rights, women’s rights, disarmament, and counter-terrorism.

In the same round of votes, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan were elected by acclamation to the Committee on NGOs—the very tribunal that decides which civil society organizations are allowed to enter the sacred temple of human rights in Geneva.

Only the United States had the courage to call Iran, Cuba, and Nicaragua “unfit.” The rest of the so-called “free world”—Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland, and Austria—approved the appointments.

The theocratic Iran that slaughters dissidents, brutally represses women who dare to show a lock of hair, finances Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, spreading terror from Lebanon to Yemen, and that has massacred thousands of protesters in recent months, will now sit and decide global policies on women’s rights and the fight against terrorism.

This is the third major appointment for Iran at the UN in just one month. First, the Iranian regime was elected vice-president (Abbas Tajik) of the UN Commission for Social Development, which deals with “the promotion of democracy, gender equality, and the guarantee of tolerance and non-violence.” Then Tehran secured the vice-presidency of the commission tasked with implementing the United Nations Charter.

With its total surveillance apparatus and the re-education camps in Xinjiang—where one million Uyghurs are “re-educated” through forced labor, sterilizations, and indoctrination—Beijing will now oversee the NGOs that dare to criticize authoritarian regimes.

The scene is worthy of the Palace of the Absurd: a Tibetan dissident or a Hong Kong human rights lawyer who requests a hearing at the UN only to find themselves facing a Chinese Communist Party official who decides whether their voice deserves to be heard.

Then there’s Cuba. The island that exports misery and repression, where opponents end up in prison for “crimes against the revolution,” now sits with veto power over the NGOs that would like to denounce these violations.

This NGO Committee has the power to accredit or de-accredit thousands of civil society groups. With a majority of dictatorships inside it, the risk—already highlighted by UN Watch—is glaring: the few independent voices at the UN that denounce the Uyghur genocide, Iranian repression, and Cuban prisons will be rejected, while the puppet NGOs created by the regimes themselves will be promoted—those that chant the mantra of “human rights with Eastern characteristics.”

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch said: “It’s like putting Al Capone in charge of the fight against organized crime.” He’s right, but it might actually be even worse.

At least Al Capone never pretended to be the champion of international legality.

They call it “multilateralism,” but it is the surrender of Western universalism to the most hypocritical cultural relativism.

The UN no longer defends human rights. It defends the right of dictators not to be disturbed while they trample them.

The latest mention of Iran by the UN Women agency dates back to October 5, 2022: “Standing with Iranian women, free to exercise autonomy over their own bodies”. Eureka!

In the past month, the UN Women agency has written about poverty and war in Sudan, Lebanese women victims of Israeli bombs, online misogyny, sport as inclusion, and the empowerment of Christina Koch (the first woman on a lunar mission), Dolores Huerta (trade union leader and feminist), Jane Goodall, Maya Angelou, and Aretha Franklin (the famous “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”). Zero on Iran.

Zero on Bita Hemmati, the first Iranian woman sentenced to death by the regime for the January protests, along with three other demonstrators-protests during which the regime killed at least thirty thousand people. Among the charges against those sentenced to death, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, there is also “collaboration with the United States,” in addition to “moharebeh,” a term present in a Quranic verse that means “waging war against God.” The regime accused her of throwing objects, participating in protest demonstrations, and being a “threat to national security.” In Iran’s theocracy, a woman is not a sovereign body; she is merely territory to be conquered and a symbol to be subjugated.

The statistics are chilling and speak a language that no Western euphemism can soften. In 2025, Iran officially carried out 1,630 death sentences, the highest number ever. The ayatollahs’ regime has thus sent at least four citizens to death by hanging every day. Crimes punishable by capital punishment in Iran range from drug trafficking to “corruption on Earth”- the charge frequently used as accusations against protesters in recent years.

Bita Hemmati will be the first woman explicitly hanged for participating in the January 2026 protests. Hemmati had appeared in a video broadcast by state television in January, while being interrogated by the Revolutionary Guards and “confessing” her crimes.

The regime uses the gallows as a pedagogy of terror: sham trials, confessions extracted under torture, judges issuing verdicts “in the name of Allah.” Just like in the case of the wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi, executed at the age of nineteen.

Where have the great feminist marches gone?
Where are the influencers who shout “my body, my choice” when it comes to white, bourgeois bodies, but fall silent in front of Iranian bodies that are whipped, blinded by pellets, or hanged for claiming the same principle?

Contemporary feminism, at least in its mainstream version, has carefully chosen its enemies: white patriarchy, colonialism, Islamophobia. The Shia theocratic patriarchy, on the other hand, is absolved with the excuse of anti-colonialism or “geopolitical complexity,” while Western universities host conferences on “queer Islam” or on the veil as an act of resistance. Cultural relativism, once a sophisticated critique of ethnocentrism as Claude Lévi-Strauss intended it, has thus become an alibi for cowardice.

On the cover of Italian weekly L’Espresso, Bita Hemmati would have looked far better than the “colonialist” Israeli soldier: young, blonde, without a veil, free. But the Iranian regime laughs at our cowardice. And it’s about time we stopped giving them that pleasure.

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President Trump told PBS News on Monday that “lots of bombs” will go off in Iran if the ceasefire expires without a deal.

“Then lots of bombs start going off,” Trump told reporter Liz Landers over the phone, when she asked what would happen if the ceasefire lapses without a peace agreement.

Trump told Bloomberg on Monday that the truce, which began on April 8, expires on “Wednesday evening Washington time,” adding that he is “highly unlikely” to extend it if his administration and Iranian officials cannot reach a deal.

The president has repeatedly threatened Iran with further bombings, after 1,701 civilians, including at least 254 children, in the Middle Eastern country were killed in the first 39 days of U.S.-Israeli strikes prior to the ceasefire, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

With the ceasefire deadline rapidly approaching, Trump administration officials are set to head to Islamabad, Pakistan, this week for a second round of peace talks. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Hill on Sunday that Vice President Vance will lead that delegation, which also includes U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

The Hill has reached out to Vance’s office for clarification on when he will depart for Islamabad.

Iran has sent mixed signals on whether it will participate in the talks. Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Asim Munir, a key mediator in the talks, reportedly told Trump that the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz was a “hurdle” to continued diplomacy.

Trump denied that Munir advised him to drop the blockade in a call with The Hill on Monday morning. In a Truth Social post later in the day, he doubled down on his insistence for a deal before the U.S. will allow ships to come and go from Iranian ports.

As for whether Iranian officials will be in Islamabad, Trump told PBS News, “I don’t know.” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters Monday that the regime has “no plans for the next round of negotiations” with the U.S.

“I mean, they’re supposed to be there,” Trump said of Iranian officials. “We agreed to be there, although they say we didn’t. But no, it was set up. And we’ll see whether or not it’s there. If they’re not there, that’s fine too.”

Asked what he wants from negotiations in Islamabad, Trump repeated that Iran “cannot have” a nuclear weapon.

“We’re not negotiating anything other than the fact that they will not have a nuclear weapon,” he told PBS News. “And that’s pretty basic when you get right down to it.”

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated on Sunday that United States President Donald Trump cannot unilaterally deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, establishing a rigid public posture as efforts to extend a fragile two-week ceasefire stall.

The declaration coincides with parallel warnings from Tehran and Washington over operational control of the Strait of Hormuz, further complicating Pakistani-mediated negotiations aimed at permanently concluding the six-week conflict.

The competing declarations regarding nuclear capabilities and maritime sovereignty fundamentally threaten the April 8 truce, which is scheduled to expire this week.

A failure to bridge these structural divides risks transitioning the conflict from localized aerial bombardments into systemic regional warfare, a development that would cement the current blockade on global energy markets and trigger promised allied military strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure.

In remarks delivered to domestic Iranian media on Sunday, Pezeshkian clarified Tehran’s strategic framing of the ongoing conflict, which formally commenced on February 28 following joint US and Israeli military strikes.

The Iranian President asserted that his administration has no intention of attacking any sovereign nation and has not initiated any war, categorizing Iran’s military actions strictly as an exercise of its legal and legitimate right to self-defense.

Pezeshkian emphasized that Iran does not seek to expand the scope of the current hostilities, though he maintained that the nation’s nuclear program remains an inviolable sovereign right.

Pezeshkian’s statements follow direct diplomatic boundaries established earlier by his administration. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh informed the Associated Press that Tehran categorically refuses to transfer its enriched uranium to the United States, labeling the matter non-negotiable.

Khatibzadeh noted that while a substantial volume of indirect messages has been exchanged between the delegations, the US continues to insist on demands that the Iranian government views as excessive, preventing the transition to direct, face-to-face meetings.

Providing an institutional update on the diplomatic proceedings, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, confirmed that while the negotiating team has achieved incremental progress, a substantial gap remains between the Iranian and American delegations.

Iran’s top negotiator corroborated this assessment, stating that only a few specific points of insistence and established “red lines” remain unresolved between the parties.

In Washington, President Donald Trump offered a succinct assessment of the negotiation process, characterizing the indirect discussions as “very good” without elaborating on the specific diplomatic frameworks under review.

However, the US President issued a firm caveat regarding maritime security, emphasizing that Tehran cannot place the United States under pressure regarding the contested status of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strategic waterway, which historically accommodates approximately one-fifth of the world’s globally traded oil and liquefied natural gas, has emerged as the central economic theater of the conflict. Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref stated on Sunday that while Iran seeks to end all wars in West Asia, Tehran remains the sovereign authority responsible for managing the Strait of Hormuz.

Aref warned that the Iranian government will secure its maritime rights either “at the negotiating table or on the ground.”

Currently, the Persian Gulf is effectively paralyzed by reciprocal institutional blockades.

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney is actively patrolling regional waters, enforcing a naval blockade that the US military asserts has completely halted Iran’s commercial maritime exchanges.

In direct response, the military spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to commercial transit under the strict management of the Iranian armed forces, directly tying the resumption of international shipping to the removal of the US blockade.

As the diplomatic delegations exchange parameters, allied military forces are visibly preparing for the potential collapse of the Islamabad-mediated talks. An unnamed senior Israeli military official recently informed the Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv that the Israeli army and the US military maintain “very close and precise coordination” in anticipation of a sudden rupture in the ceasefire.

The official explicitly warned that in the absence of an agreement, allied forces are prepared to deliver a “very deadly and backbreaking blow” to Iran.

Significantly, the official confirmed that allied military planners have updated their strategic target matrix to prioritize Iranian energy facilities. According to operational data provided by the Israeli army, US and Israeli warplanes deployed more than 37,000 munitions against various targets in Iran during the initial 40 days of active combat, substantially neutralizing the country’s immediate defense infrastructure.

The human cost of these bombardments has been extensive. On Sunday, Ahmad Mousavi, head of the state-run Iranian Veterans Foundation, stated that more than 3,500 people lost their lives during the hostilities.

This data aligns closely with April 12 statistics released by the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization, which recorded 3,375 fatalities.

Independent monitors have presented slightly higher figures featuring greater demographic categorization. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that as of April 7, at least 3,636 individuals had been killed.

According to HRANA’s statistical breakdown, the fatalities include 1,701 civilians—among them at least 254 children—alongside 1,221 military personnel and 714 individuals whose status remains undetermined.

Kurdistan24 cannot independently verify these casualty statistics, as independent reporting access within Iranian territory remains heavily restricted by state authorities.

The execution of the conflict and the ongoing negotiations are heavily influenced by domestic political dynamics within the United States.

According to detailed reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is attempting to balance maximalist strategic objectives against the acute risk of substantial American casualties and severe economic repercussions ahead of upcoming midterm elections.

US defense officials reportedly advised the executive branch against deploying American ground forces to seize Kharg Island—the launch point for 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports—due to presidential concerns over unacceptable troop casualties.

Furthermore, traditional European partners and the NATO alliance have formally declined to join the military campaign or assist in forcibly reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

This lack of international burden-sharing has exacerbated US domestic anxieties regarding the economic fallout of prolonged high energy prices, prompting the administration to utilize unpredictable public ultimatums to compel negotiations.

Further complicating the diplomatic architecture, Iranian officials have insisted that any permanent ceasefire must comprehensively include all regional fronts, specifically linking the bilateral US-Iran negotiations to the ongoing border conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli media, including Channel 12, reported that the Israeli military has established operational control over nearly one-third of the territory between the Lebanese border and the Litani River.

While a parallel 10-day ceasefire was announced for the Lebanese theater, localized combat operations persist. The Israeli military recently confirmed the death of an additional soldier in southern Lebanon, bringing the total military fatalities on that front to 15, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally.

The instability in southern Lebanon was further underscored by a recent attack on United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers, which resulted in the death of a French soldier. While French authorities and initial UN assessments attributed the attack to Hezbollah, the group has formally denied the accusations.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem previously stated in a televised address that his forces reject a one-sided truce and remain mobilized.

Structurally, the current negotiating environment reflects an intractable convergence of local tactical realities and global strategic imperatives.

By linking the disposition of enriched uranium to the sovereign management of the Strait of Hormuz and the territorial integrity of southern Lebanon, stakeholders have transformed a bilateral security dispute into a multidimensional regional crisis.

This interdependence ensures that a diplomatic breakdown over any single variable—whether nuclear rights or maritime access—possesses the potential to unravel the entire ceasefire framework.

The immediate trajectory of the conflict now depends entirely on the ongoing back-channel discussions in Islamabad and Tehran. With the two-week ceasefire scheduled to expire this week, and both Washington and Tehran publicly reinforcing their respective red lines, the region faces acute institutional uncertainty.

The absence of a formalized schedule for direct, bilateral negotiations leaves the operative status of the Middle East suspended between a high-stakes diplomatic breakthrough and an immediate return to region-wide military engagement.

The post Pezeshkian Asserts Iran’s Nuclear Rights as Ceasefire Negotiations Face Impending Deadline appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

ran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Saturday that 3,468 people were killed in the war with the United States and Israel, according to comments carried by the ISNA news agency during a two-week ceasefire in the conflict that began in late February.

Ahmad Mousavi, head of the foundation, was quoted by ISNA as saying that 3,468 “martyrs… fell during the recent conflict.”

The announcement came during a ceasefire now in its second week in the war, which erupted in late February with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Previous Iranian and independent tolls
A previous toll issued on April 12 by the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization said 3,375 people in Iran had been killed in the war.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been killed.

According to HRANA, the dead included 1,701 civilians, among them at least 254 children, as well as 1,221 military personnel and 714 people whose status had not been classified.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) said it was not able to access strike sites or independently verify casualty tolls in Iran because of reporting restrictions.

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EA understands, from an official close to the situation, that Iranian security personnel are in Islamabad.

While this is an indication that talks are imminent, no Iranian officials are in the Pakistani capital yet.

The Iranian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers have spoken by phone.

UPDATE 1454 GMT:
In a shift of position, a “senior Iranian official” has said Tehran is “positively reviewing” involvement in talks with the US, while stressing that no final decision has been made.

UPDATE 1328 GMT:
Only one ship crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and only three on Sunday.

More than 20 vessels, including five from Iranian ports, passed throught the Strait on Sunday, the highest total during the US-Israel War.

The pre-war average was more than 120 per day.

UPDATE 0845 GMT:
The UAE is negotiating with the Trump Administration over financial support if the US-Israel War on Iran continues.

Central Bank Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama discussed the possibility of a currency-swap line with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve officials in Washington last week.

Officials say the UAE fears the war is deterring investors and undermining its status as a global financial hub. They say the Trump camp’s decision to attack Iran has drawn the Emirates into a destructive conflict whose effects may escalate.

Emirati officials added that if the UAE runs short of dollars, it may be forced to use the Chinese yuan or currencies of other countries for oil sales and transactions.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:
China has expressed concern over the “forced interception” of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship by the US.

“The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is sensitive and complicated,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said. He urged all parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement in a responsible manner, avoiding further escalation to “create the necessary conditions for normal transit through the Strait to resume”.

UPDATE 0819 GMT:
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran is not committed to negotiations with the US in Pakistan on Tuesday, as “distrust of the enemy and vigilance in interactions are an undeniable necessity”.

However, he added, “War is not in anyone’s interest, and while resisting threats, every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran has no plans for talks since the US has violated the two-week ceasefire agreement. He said Tehran cannot forget American attacks during previous diplomatic talks.

US proposals were “unserious” and its demands “unrealistic”, the spokesman said, declaring that Tehran does not believe in ultimata.

A “senior Iranian official” said Tehran’s “defense capabilities”, including its missile program, are not open to negotiation.

They said gaps between the two sides over Iran’s nuclear program have not narrowed.

UPDATE 0747 GMT:
On Saturday, before the US intercepted and boarded an Iranian cargo ship, passage through the Strait of Hormuz was at its highest level since the US-Israel War began on February 28.

More than 20 vessels crossed the Strait. Five of them, including three liquified petroleum gas tankers, loaded products from Iranian ports. The shipments included oil products and metals.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:
Iran has continued its executions of detainees on the pretext that they are working with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service to plan attacks inside the country.

Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi were hanged this morning. They were charged with “enmity against God” and cooperation with hostile groups.

UPDATE, APRIL 20:
Oil prices have risen amid tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over a second set of US-Iran talks in Islamabad.

In early trading on Monday, Brent crude surged 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.4% to $87.90.

UPDATE 2242 GMT:
Tehran’s joint military command Khatam al-Anbiya says the US violated a ceasefire by firing at the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska, sailing from China to Iran, in the Gulf of Oman.

A spokesman said, We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military.”

The US military confirmed that the destroyer USS Spruance fired “several rounds” as it intercepted the Touska. Marines then boarded the vessel.

UPDATE 2044 GMT:
A French ship has been damaged by an attack in the Strait of Hormuz.

The shipping company CMA-CGM said the vessel “was the subject of warning shots yesterday”. Its “crew is safe and sound”.

UPDATE 2037 GMT:
The UK military has escalated its threat assessment for the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to Critical, the highest possible risk level.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, citing a “high level of activity by naval forces in the region”, said the current environment creates a severe “risk of attack or miscalculation” for all commercial shipping.

UPDATE 2024 GMT:
Donald Trump says a US destroyer intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, which was then boarded by Marines, in the Gulf of Oman.

Trump said the USS Spruance enforced the American blockade on Iranian ports by firing on and seizing the US-sanctioned Touska, “nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier”.

UPDATE 1729 GMT:
The White House has reversed yet again, saying that Vice President J.D. Vance is heading the US delegation to Islamabad for the second set of talks with Iran.

But Iranian State media say Tehran has rejected the discussions, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”.

UPDATE 1359 GMT:
Donald Trump now says that Vice President J.D. Vance will not lead the US delegation in the second set of talks with Iran.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said (see 1311 GMT) that Vance was going to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday night.

Trump claimed the Secret Service could not accompany Vance: “It’s only because of security. JD’s great.”

UPDATE 1311 GMT:
Donald Trump says US representatives will travel to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday night for the second set of talks with Iran.

Vice President J.D. Vance will again lead the American delegation, said Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Trump said real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner will also return to the talks.

UPDATE 1308 GMT:
Iranian media say two tankers were turned around by Iran’s military as they tried to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The vessels, sailing under the flags of Botswana and Angola, were forced to change course after “unauthorised transit” through the waterway.

UPDATE 0859 GMT:
Knocking back Donald Trump’s tweets, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh says:

I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States. This is a non-starter, and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are non-starters.

Khatibzadeh rejected a second set of talks with the US, saying it was maintaining “excessive” demands: “We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian chided, “Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?”

UPDATE 0744 GMT:
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, US officials depict a rattled, chaotic Donald Trump.

It was Good Friday afternoon in a nearly empty West Wing soon after the president learned that an American jet had been shot down in Iran, with two airmen missing. Trump screamed at aides for hours. The Europeans aren’t helping, he said repeatedly. Gas prices averaged $4.09. Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis — one of the biggest international policy failures of a presidency in recent times — had been looming large in his mind.

Trump demanded that the military immediately rescue the two airmen of the downed F-15E jet fighter, but the officials needed to establish how to carry out the difficult mission in the mountains of southwest Iran.

A “senior administration official” said aides kept Trump out of the room as they received minute-by-minute updates “because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful”.

UPDATE 0708 GMT:
Iran Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has emphasized, “It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot. If US does not abandon this blockade, transit through Strait of Hormuz will certainly be restricted.”

He said he forced Donald Trump’s representatives to pull back a US warship in the Strait.

We dealt decisively with a US attempt at minesweeping, viewing it as a ceasefire violation. I told the US delegation in Islamabad that if their minesweeper moved an inch further, we would fire. They requested 15 minutes to order a withdrawal, and they complied.

UPDATE 0607 GMT:
An Israeli reservist was killed and nine others wounded by an explosive device in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

During battalion operations, an engineering vehicle drove over a bomb that had been planted by Hezbollah, said the Israel Defense Forces.

One soldier was seriously wounded.

After the blast, the IDF struck several targets in the area.

UPDATE 0604 GMT:
UN Secretary General António Guterres has condemned Friday’s attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon which killed a French soldier and injured three others.

I strongly condemn Saturday’s attack on @UNIFIL_ during which one French peacekeeper was killed & another three were injured.

I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends & colleagues of the fallen peacekeeper, and wish a full & fast recovery to the injured…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 18, 2026

UPDATE 0557 GMT:
Israeli forces are demolishing homes in Bint Jbeil and other border towns in southern Lebanon, reports Lebanese state media.

Bint Jbeil is about 5 km (3.1 miles) north of the Israeli border, There was heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the town before a 10-day ceasefire took effect at midnight on Thursday.

UPDATE 0553 GMT:
Commenting on talks with the US, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Saturday that gaps remain over nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” he told State media. “There are some issues on which we insist….They also have red lines. But these issues could be just one or two.”

He added, “We are still far from the final discussion.”

UPDATE 0548 GMT:
At least 3,468 people in Iran have been killed by the US-Israel War, says the State-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been slain, including 1,701 civilians. Among them were at least 254 children.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran has tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, restricting the transit of all shipping until the US lifts a blockade on Iranian ports.
Amid a two-week temporary ceasefire in the US-Israel War, Tehran said on Friday that it would allow passage to commercial vessels, provided they used predetermined routes and obtained permission from the Revolutionary Guards’ Navy.

But on Saturday, politicians, officials, and commanders said the arrangements are withdrawn because of the blockade imposed by the Trump camp last week.

Around 25% of the world’s maritime oil traffic and 20% of maritime gas pass through waterway between Iran and the Gulf States. The Strait is just over 30 km (18.6) miles at its narrowest point.

On Saturday, two Guards gunboats fired on a tanker. 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman. At least two merchant vessels were hit by gunfire.

Earlier, a convoy including four liquefied petroleum gas ⁠carriers and several oil ⁠product and chemical tankers tried to pass through the waterway. There is still no word whether it was successful.

Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf jabbed at Donald Trump’s declaration that the Strait had been completely freed by Iran: “The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false. They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.”

He reiterated the conditions on passage: “Whether the Strait is open or closed and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not by social media.”

Later in the day, the Supreme National Security Council confirmed restrictions on passage “until the end of the war is definitively concluded”. As long as the US blockades Iranian ports, this is “a breach of the ceasefire [which] will prevent the conditional and limited reopening of the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran’s military declared, “This strategic waterway is under the strict management and control of the armed forces.”

The post UPDATES: US-Israel War on Iran, Day 53 — Tehran Tightens Grip on Strait of Hormuz appeared first on Human Right Activists In Iran.

The letter draws on documentation from HRA, including reports of at least 1,701 civilian deaths and damage to essential facilities such as schools, hospitals, other critical infrastructure. It raises serious concerns about potential violations of core principles of the law of armed conflict.

Within this context, Members of Congress pose a series of specific questions to the Department of Defense, including how civilian harm is assessed and mitigated, what mechanisms exist for recording and reporting casualties, how incidents such as the attack on a Lamerd Sports Hall are reviewed, and what accountability measures and amends mechanisms are in place for victims.

HRA contributed to the development of this letter by providing documentation and analysis grounded in the law of armed conflict, civilian harm mitigation frameworks, and contextual expertise on Iran.

The full text of this letter follows:

Dear Secretary Hegseth,

We write with urgent concern following U.S. military actions between February 28, 2026, and April 7, 2026, which, according to independent monitoring by Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), have resulted in significant harm to civilian life and damage to civilian infrastructure, namely the deaths of at least 1,701 civilians, including at least 254 children. There are at least 700 additional reported deaths under review.

On February 28, 2026, the opening day of hostilities, U.S. strikes hit both a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, killing a reported 168 children and injuring 100 others, and a youth sports hall in Lamerd, killing 21 civilians, including 3 children, and injuring 110 others. Independent experts and monitoring groups have attributed both attacks to U.S. forces. The fact that these high-casualty incidents, involving clearly identifiable civilian objects, occurred on the first day of a campaign preceded by weeks, if not months, of intelligence gathering and target planning, raises serious concerns about U.S. targeting and precautionary measures and compliance with fundamental principles of the law of armed conflict. Minab marked the largest civilian death toll of any single U.S. attack since the Gulf War in 1991. Between February 28 and March 20, 2026, independent monitoring identified at least 12 incidents in which upwards of ten civilians were reportedly killed in a single strike. Given the limitations in the information environment, this figure is likely a significant undercount.

HRA has documented military strikes and impact damage on hospitals, emergency medical facilities, primary schools, universities, water desalination plants, power plants, civilian airports, places of worship, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and countless densely populated residential areas. Several incidents investigated by HRA affecting schools resulted in the death or injury of students. In an incident on March 5, 2026, in Tehran, a nearby attack injured 56 people while they waited in line for bread. Another attack in Eastern Tehran on March 9, 2026, killed at least 20 civilians, including a child, as two twenty-unit residential apartment buildings collapsed from a missile strike.

Furthermore, attacks on power stations disrupt services essential to the survival of the civilian population, as hospitals, water treatment facilities, and the food supply chain rely on electricity. Electricity failure will trigger cascading humanitarian consequences, including public health crises, outbreaks of infectious disease, the denial of care to the wounded and sick, and food insecurity. Iran has limited capacity to repair damaged infrastructure, meaning that disruptions to essential services are likely to persist for months, if not years. Such protracted damage deepens the reverberating effects on civilian life and will undermine pathways to recovery. The impact is exacerbated by the highly restrictive operating environment for humanitarian organizations, which severely limits their presence and ability to respond at scale.

These events, in addition to a series of wildly outrageous and threatening statements by President Trump and echoed across the administration, raise serious concerns about violations of domestic and international law. Human rights organizations and legal experts have underscored that threats that “a whole civilization will die,” or calls for indiscriminate destruction, are unlawful because they disregard the fundamental principle of distinction between civilian and military targets and signal an intent wholly incompatible with the protection of civilian life. Notably, more than 200 leading human rights, humanitarian, civil liberties, faith-based, and environmental organizations and experts have issued a joint urgent statement in response to President Trump’s threatening rhetoric.

The prohibition of such conduct is not new. President Abraham Lincoln commissioned the drafting of the Lieber Code in 1863 as one of the first modern codifications of the laws of war. It sought to regulate the conduct of U.S. forces, prohibiting wanton destruction and protecting civilian populations, grounded in the principle that even in war, military necessity must be balanced with humanity. The Trump administration’s recent statements and actions not only undermine such law, but depart from longstanding U.S. military doctrine and values that have, since the Lieber Code, affirmed the protection of civilians as a core principle in warfare.

The administration’s lethal threats and conduct carry a significant risk for U.S. servicemembers of complicity in potential war crimes, as well as moral and psychological injury associated with causing civilian harm. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has identified exposure to morally injurious events as a risk factor for suicide, and an average of more than 17 veterans die by suicide each day. The U.S. Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) specifically recognizes that battlefield “successes may ultimately end in strategic failure if care is not taken to protect the civilian environment.” Related resources have been severely defunded and deprioritized in the current administration, eroding the support and oversight capacity for civilian harm mitigation throughout Operation Epic Fury, meant to protect both civilians and U.S. military personnel.

The administration’s threats and actions have moreover damaged our credibility and standing globally, undermining the moral clarity it has historically sought to project. The military assault unleashed and threatened against the Iranian civilian population has already sown the seeds of resentment and further radicalization, counter to US strategic priorities.

In light of these developments, and statements by President Trump and the administration indicating the potential for widespread or total destruction, and consistent with Congress’s oversight responsibilities, we request immediate clarification on the following:

1. What military and legal assessments were conducted within the Department of Defense regarding civilian harm mitigation and reduction, including damage to critical infrastructure such as energy, water, and medical systems?
2. What measures were taken by your department to ensure compliance with the laws of armed conflict, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution?
3. What mechanisms are in place to track, assess, and publicly report civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure resulting from U.S. strikes in Iran?
4. How does the Department reconcile public claims that it does not target civilians or civilian infrastructure with emerging reports suggesting otherwise?
5. How does the Department reconcile the credible reports regarding the incident in Lamerd on February 28, where multiple weapons experts, including former US military personnel, have identified a U.S. Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) as responsible for the strike?
6. How does the Department plan to take accountability, including through amends for victims,  for the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure resulting from its operations, particularly in light of credible reports of extensive damage to residential homes and the loss of civilian life?

I request a response no later than May 2, 2026.

Sincerely,

Yassamin Ansari

Member of Congress

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Iran has sentenced four more protesters, including a woman, to death over mass demonstrations in January that posed one of the biggest threats to the country’s clerical rulers in years, according to two human rights groups.

The authorities have so far executed seven people in connection with the protests, which were crushed in an unprecedented government crackdown that left thousands of people dead, rights groups said. Tens of thousands of others were detained or summoned for questioning.

Human rights defenders have repeatedly accused Iran of using the death penalty to instill fear in society in the wake of a wave of anti-government protests in recent years.

Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court convicted the four protesters of carrying out acts on behalf of the United States and “hostile groups,” the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a British-based organization that promotes human rights in Iran, said in separate statements.

It was not immediately clear when the verdict was issued.

The four were accused of taking part in the antiestablishment demonstrations in the capital Tehran in January, chanting protest slogans, throwing objects at security forces, damaging public property, and injuring a member of the paramilitary Basij force.

They were identified as Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife Bita Hemmati. The others were Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, two men who lived in the same apartment building as the couple.

First Female Protester Sentenced To Death

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the demonstrations that erupted on December 28, 2025, and continued for weeks.

Amir Hemmati, a fifth person and a relative of the married couple, was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” as well as eight months in jail for “propaganda against the regime.”

“The ruling contains vague accusations against the protesters, which do not meet the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold for capital punishment, interpreted as intentional killing,” the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in its statement on April 14.

“The ruling failed to provide detailed evidence of each defendant’s role or to attribute specific acts to individual defendants,” the statement added.

HRANA said in an April 13 statement that “reports concerning possible coerced confessions are among the issues that, according to legal experts, may raise serious questions about the judicial process.”

“No information has been released regarding the defendants’ access to counsel of their choosing, the details of the court sessions, or their conditions of detention,” it added.

At least 1,639 people were executed in 2025, including 48 women, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), one of the highest rates in the world.

Apart from the seven people executed so far this year over the protests, another 26 others have been sentenced to death, according to IHR.

“Whenever public protests occur, individuals who participated are often under various forms of pressure, torture, and abuse, forced to confess to certain actions,” Naeimeh Doostdar, an Iranian journalist and human rights advocate based in Sweden, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

Doostdar said the aim of the death sentences is to intimidate Iranians.

“If citizens come to believe that even chanting slogans, throwing stones, or similar actions could ultimately result in severe punishments like the death penalty, then — according to the authorities’ perspective — they will likely become more fearful and refrain from participating in future protests,” she said.

In Iran, different crimes are judged by different courts. Rape and murder cases are handled by the criminal courts, while revolutionary courts are responsible for issuing severe sentences to those found to have criticized the authorities.

Responsible for most of the death sentences issued in recent years, the revolutionary courts are not transparent, rights defenders say, and judges are known for the extraordinary abuse of their legal powers, denying lawyers access to convicted individuals, and allowing exhausting interrogations using torture to coerce suspects to confess to crimes.

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Iranian authorities have sentenced to death four more people, including a woman, over last January’s protests, several rights groups said on Tuesday.

Iran has already hanged seven people in connection with the protests, which activists say were put down in a crackdown that killed thousands and led to tens of thousands of arrests.

Rights groups accuse the Islamic Republic of using the death penalty as a tool of repression to instill fear in society, and fear it will ramp up capital punishment in the wake of the war against Israel and the United States.

The four were sentenced to death by a Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by the notorious judge Imam Afshari after being convicted of carrying out actions on behalf of the United States, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in separate statements.

The regime’s judiciary accused the group of numerous charges, including “using explosives and weapons,” “harming stationed forces on-site,” and “throwing objects including bottles, concrete blocks, and incendiary materials from the roofs of buildings,” according to the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran.

It was not immediately clear when the verdict was issued.

The four convicted were named as Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife Bita Hemmati, along with two other men, Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, who lived in the same Tehran building as the married couple.

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the protests.

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said it also believed that Hemmati was the woman who appeared in a video broadcast on state television in January being personally interrogated by judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.

“The recording and broadcasting of forced confessions from defendants in an opaque process … constitutes a blatant violation of the defendant’s rights,” it said.

According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, Iran has carried out 656 executions in the first three months of this year but the actual tally is “likely far higher” since Iran was largely offline in March when only eight were recorded.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said on Monday in their joint annual report on the death penalty in Iran that at least 1,639 people were executed in 2025 — including 48 women.

As well as the seven already executed, death sentences have been issued against at least 26 other people arrested over the January protests and several hundred more are facing charges that could see them executed, Iran Human Rights warned.

Last month, Iran executed three men who were accused of killing police officers during the protests, including Saleh Mohammadi, a young member of Iran’s national wrestling team.

“Dozens of individuals arrested during the January 2026 protests have been sentenced to death following grossly unfair, fast-tracked trials conducted without due process, access to independent counsel and reliance on torture-tainted forced ‘confessions’ as evidence,” said the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran called on the United Nations “to take immediate action to save the lives of prisoners sentenced to death, especially political prisoners and those detained during the uprising.”

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