The fall of Assad's informant state leaves Syria riven by betrayals
After more than half a century, that suffocating regime melted away overnight in December, as rebel forces marched on the capital, Damascus. Left behind is a society divided by the suspicion and perfidy, shadowed by the question of who among them had quietly contributed to the Assads' tyranny.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Nuclear Inspectors Leave Iran After Cooperation Halted With U.N. Watchdog
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Friday that its inspectors have left Iran, days after the country — still reeling from its war with Israel — suspended cooperation with the international agency. Iran's president enacted a law on Wednesday that halts cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, effectively blocking international oversight into Iran's contentious nuclear program. This comes at a particularly critical moment, when experts are warning that the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may simply drive the country to take its program underground, making it even more difficult to determine whether it was working toward building a weapon. 'An I.A.E.A. team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,' the U.N. agency said in a statement on the platform X. Tensions between Iran and the agency had been rising since Israel launched attacks on Iranian military and nuclear sites, prompting a war that briefly drew in the United States. Iran had turned some of its ire over the attacks against the I.A.E.A., which declared last month that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. Iranian officials have argued that the censure gave Israel political cover for its attacks, which were launched a day after the agency's declaration, striking nuclear and military sites and killing nuclear scientists. It is not yet clear how badly Iran's nuclear program was damaged in the war. President Trump said that the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, in addition to Israeli strikes over 12 days of war, 'obliterated' the program. Other officials, including the I.A.E.A. director general, Rafael Grossi, have been more circumspect, saying that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium remains unaccounted for, and that the program may have been only delayed, rather than destroyed. Uranium enriched at low levels can be used as fuel for producing energy, while highly enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear weapon. Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful uses only, but the I.A.E.A. reported in May that, while it had no evidence that Iran was building a weapon, the country was stockpiling about 882 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which could enable the government to build multiple bombs. Mr. Grossi, the I.A.E.A. director general, stressed in a statement on Friday the 'crucial importance of the I.A.E.A. discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible.' Iranian lawmakers have stipulated two conditions for resuming cooperation, according to state media. One is that the safety of its nuclear program and scientists is secured and the second is an acknowledgment of what it says is its right under international law to enrich uranium. At the same time, Iranian officials have been publicly signaling a willingness to return to negotiations with Washington. 'We are for diplomacy,' Iran's deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, told NBC News on Thursday. 'We are for dialogue.' Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Iran regime escalates repression toward 'North Korea-style model of isolation and control'
In the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the regime appears to be turning inward — escalating repression with chilling speed. According to Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, the Islamic Republic is accelerating toward what he said is a "North Korea-style model of isolation and control." "We're witnessing a kind of domestic isolation that will have major consequences for the Iranian people," Aarabi told Fox News Digital. "The regime has always been totalitarian, but the level of suppression now is unprecedented. It's unlike anything we've seen before." A source inside Iran confirmed to Fox News Digital that "the repression has become terrifying." Aarabi, who maintains direct lines of contact in Iran, described a country under siege by its own rulers. In Tehran, he described how citizens are stopped at random, their phones confiscated and searched. "If you have content deemed pro-Israel or mocking the regime, you disappear," he said. "People are now leaving their phones at home or deleting everything before they step outside." This new wave of paranoia and fear, he explained, mirrors tactics seen in North Korea — where citizens vanish without explanation and information is tightly controlled. During the recent conflict, Iran's leadership imposed a total internet blackout to isolate the population, blocking Israeli evacuation alerts, and pushed propaganda that framed Israel as targeting civilians indiscriminately. "It was a perverse objective," Aarabi said, adding, "They deliberately cut communications to instill fear and manipulate public perception. For four days, not a single message went through. Even Israeli evacuation alerts didn't reach their targets." The regime's aim, he said, was twofold: to keep people off the streets and erode the surprising bond that had formed between Iranians and Israelis. "At the start of the war, many Iranians welcomed the strikes," Aarabi noted. "They knew Israel was targeting the IRGC — the very forces responsible for suppressing and killing their own people. But once the internet was cut and fear set in, some began to question what was happening." Dr. Afshon Ostovar, a leading Iran scholar and author of "Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards," said domestic repression remains the regime's most reliable strategy for survival. "Repressing the people at home is easy. That's something they can do. So it's not unlikely that Iran could become more insular, more autocratic, more repressive — and more similar to, let's say, a North Korea — than what it is today. That might be the only way they see to preserve the regime: by really tightening the screws on the Iranian people, to ensure that the Iranian population doesn't try to rise up and topple the regime," he told Fox News Digital. Inside the regime's power structure, the fallout from the war is just as severe. Aarabi said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is facing an internal crisis of trust and an imminent purge. "These operations couldn't have taken place without infiltration at the highest levels," he said. "There's immense pressure now to clean house." The next generation of IRGC officers — those who joined after 2000 — are younger, more radical and deeply indoctrinated. Over half of their training is now ideological. Aarabi said that these newer factions have begun turning on senior commanders, accusing them of being too soft on Israel or even collaborating with Mossad. "In a twist of irony, Khamenei created these extreme ideological ranks to consolidate power — and now they're more radical than he is," Aarabi said. "He's struggling to control them." A purge is likely, along with the rise of younger, less experienced commanders with far higher risk tolerance — a shift that could make the IRGC more volatile both domestically and internationally. With Iran's conventional military doctrine in ruins, terrorism may become its primary lever of influence. "The regime's three pillars — militias, ballistic missiles, and its nuclear program — have all been decapitated or severely degraded," Aarabi said. "That leaves only asymmetric warfare: soft-target terrorism with plausible deniability." Despite the regime's brutal turn inward, Aarabi insists this is a sign of weakness, not strength. "If the Islamic Republic were confident, it wouldn't need to crush its people this way," he said. "It's acting out of fear. But until the regime's suppressive apparatus is dismantled, the streets will remain silent — and regime change remains unlikely."
Associated Press
2 hours ago
- Associated Press
PHOTO ESSAY: Iranians struggled with quiet moments of fear and anxiety for 12 days of war
CAIRO (AP) — For 12 days, Tehran fell dark and silent, except for the sound of explosions. In their houses and apartments, Iranians tried to pass the hours — sleepless, eyes on the TV for news of the war. A series of images document the moments in which residents of Iran's capital struggled to hold onto something familiar amid the uncertainty. They were taken by a freelance photographer and obtained by The Associated Press outside of Iran. The AP is publishing them on condition of anonymity over fears for the photographer's safety. The photos, made under unpredictable and often unsafe conditions amid evacuation alerts and falling missiles, show the tension between normalcy and chaos. Israel said its campaign aimed to cripple Iran's nuclear facilities, which its officials maintain are for peaceful means. Israel's strikes also pounded buildings around Tehran, while Iran fired back with barrages into Israel. A ceasefire began June 24. For 12 days, Tehran was transformed. The city normally bustles at all hours, its highways packed with cars and apartment towers lit up. During the war, most of the population fled. At night, blackness descended on the city. Those who remained largely stayed indoors. Outside their windows came the rhythm of explosions — sometimes distant, sometimes close enough to shake them — and the crackle of air defenses. One night, a group of friends gathered for dinner at a Tehran home. The table was full, the atmosphere warm. Guests joked with one another. But even as they dished up food and sat down in the living room to eat, everyone was glued to the television for any news. The next night, one of the largest and most powerful explosions in Tehran struck a short distance from where they had gathered. For Sara, a 9-year-old Afghan girl, reading and drawing in her sketchbook helped her endure the days at home. She sat on the living room floor with her markers, turning to see the TV. Her family fled to Iran to escape the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan four years ago; now during Israel's campaign, they were living through a new war. The family stayed inside not just for fear of strikes. They also worried they might be detained and deported amid wartime suspicion of Afghan refugees among some. 'Afghanistan is my homeland, and so is Iran. I have two countries that feel like one,' Sara said. On one page of her sketchbook, she wrote, 'Mursal, I love you, my dear' — a message for her best friend, whose family fled back to Afghanistan during the bombardment. Sara and others are only being identified by their first names out of concern for their security. During the day, some might step outside between blasts, capturing smoke rising in the distance with their phones. After one strike hit a building, a puddle of blood remained on the street. Evacuation alerts often came late at night. Some people spent nights in subway stations for safety. They lay down sheets and blankets on the tile floor or sat on the steps, scrolling through their phones as fighter jets and explosions could be heard on the streets above. Maryam and daughter Mastaneh live in a middle-class Tehran neighborhood. During the war, their usually active home fell quiet; both became anxious and withdrawn. Before the war, Maryam would wake at 6 a.m., go to the gym, then head to work at a hotel. But once the bombardment began, the hotel closed. Maryam's workout routine fell apart. She couldn't sleep at night and wound up waking late in the day. Depressed and exhausted, she couldn't bring herself to do housework. Meanwhile Mastaneh, a university student studying French, struggled with the internet cutoffs that made it nearly impossible to take her online final exams. One explosion from a strike blasted only a few blocks away. The war's final day was the most terrifying, Maryam said, as the sound of explosions never stopped.
