Latest news with #Mashhad
Arab News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Afghanistan faces new crisis as hundreds of thousands forced back from Iran
KABUL: Ahmad Nazir had nothing with him except his work clothes when he reached the Islam Qala border crossing and entered Afghanistan, forced, like hundreds of thousands of others, to suddenly leave Iran. Nazir, 24, has worked at a restaurant in Tehran for the past four years. He arrived at Islam Qala — part of the main route connecting Afghanistan's Herat and Iran's Mashhad — on July 6, which was the deadline that Iranian authorities set for undocumented Afghans to leave. 'Two days ago, the Iranian police took me from the restaurant and put me on a bus to Islam Qala. I came with nothing but my work clothes,' he told Arab News. A native of the central Parwan province — some 600 km from Herat — Nazir is now waiting for his family to help him return home. He is one of nearly 450,000 Afghans who returned to the country since June, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration and local nongovernmental organizations helping the returnees. 'Approximately 30,000 Afghans are returning from Iran each day through the Islam Qala border crossing, and most are forcibly deported. They include both undocumented refugees and Afghans with legal documents,' said Abdul Fatah Jawad, director of the Ehsas Welfare and Social Services Organization, which is providing help in Herat province. 'Most families arriving at the Islam Qala border crossing have no tents, forcing many to improvise makeshift shelters to shield themselves and their children from the scorching sun. They wait in these harsh conditions for their turn to receive limited cash assistance before continuing on to their home provinces.' Many have nowhere to go as they moved to Iran decades ago with their whole families. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities, which have vowed to support all those returning, do not have the means and funding to do so. 'The people of Herat have shown tremendous support, offering food and transportation to returning families,' Jawad said. 'Ehsas is providing cooked meals and water to up to 3,000 people each day, but this support is far from sufficient given the scale of new arrivals. A significantly broader and more urgent response is needed from the government, international organizations, and those with the means to contribute. This is a humanitarian crisis of much greater magnitude.' The exodus from Iran is worsening a crisis caused by a similar deportation drive that has been underway in Pakistan since last year. The two countries have hosted millions of Afghans fleeing war and poverty at home for the past 40 years. Official estimates suggest that over 4 million Afghan nationals were living in Pakistan, while in Iran, the figure is around 6 million, with 4 million believed to be undocumented. In 2025 alone, more than 900,000 Afghan refugees and migrants have been forced to leave both countries, pushing local systems to the brink of collapse and jeopardizing access to vital services for both returnees and the communities that host them. While many Afghans have fled the Israeli bombing of Iranian cities in mid-June, the directive for undocumented migrants to depart voluntarily has been in place since March. Iranian authorities ordered them to comply by July 6 or face deportation. Many of those returning through Islam Qala, the main border crossing, are completely unprepared to move. Some were born in Iran and have never lived in Afghanistan. Islamuddin Momini, a university lecturer from Herat who joined a convoy delivering aid to the returnees in Islam Qala, said the situation was 'extremely grim,' with many people arriving visibly traumatized. 'They are living in a state of psychological shock, compounded by severe shortages of food, water, and shelter,' Momini told Arab News. 'Upon returning to their home provinces, returnees will face a new set of challenges, including limited access to employment, education, and livelihood opportunities. Addressing these medium to long-term needs requires comprehensive support systems to facilitate their reintegration into society — an especially difficult task amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis and prevailing restrictions.'
Khaleej Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
UAE-Iran flights resume after Tehran opens airspace
Flights between Dubai and three cities in Iran via flydubai have returned to full operations since Friday, July 4, following the lifting of airspace restrictions in the region. A flydubai spokesperson confirmed to Khaleej Times 'flights to Bandar Abbas, Mashhad and Tehran in Iran have resumed.' 'We continue to monitor the situation closely and amend our schedule as required, adding more capacity or revisions where necessary,' added the spokesperson for the Dubai-based carrier, noting: 'Customers are advised to ensure their contact details are up to date and to check the status of their flights before they travel.' Iran announced on Thursday that it has reopened its airspace, including over Tehran, after closing it on June 13 due to the conflict with Israel, according to Iranian state media IRNA. "Tehran's Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini international airports, as well as those in the north, east, west and south of the country, have been reopened and are ready to operate flights," IRNA announced. Flights from Sharjah Sharjah-based Air Arabia will resume previously suspended flights to Tehran, Shiraz, and Lar starting July 6. 'Customers are advised to book via the website or by calling our contact center. (We) remain fully committed to the safety of our customers and crew, and we appreciate your patience and understanding during this period,' Air Arabia posted on its website. Still suspended Meanwhile, Emirates has yet to revise its earlier announcement of flight cancellations to/from Tehran until July 9. 'Customers connecting through Dubai (via Emirates) with final destinations in Iran will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin until further notice,' Emirates noted, adding: 'Customers impacted by flight cancellations must contact their travel agency for rebooking. 'We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers. We continue to closely monitor developments. The safety of our passengers, employees and operations will always be our top priority,' added the Dubai-based airline.
ABC News
01-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Federal politics: Five Australians evacuated from Iran on commercial flight — as it happened
Five Australians have been evacuated from Iran on a commercial flight from Mashhad airport in the country's east to Dubai. Meanwhile, Labor is defending its plan to double the tax on superannuation accounts with balances of $3 million and more, after criticism from former prime minister Paul Keating. Take a look back at the day's coverage below.
ABC News
29-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
If Iran's regime fell tomorrow, Iranians wouldn't be united on what comes next
From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was also interested in understanding whether the ambitions of the 1979 Revolution lived on among "ordinary" Iranians, not just political elites. I first lived on a university campus, where I learned Persian, and later with Iranian families. I conducted hundreds of interviews with people who had a broad spectrum of political, social and religious views. They included opponents of the Islamic Republic, supporters, and many who were in between. What these interviews revealed to me was both the diversity of opinion and experience in Iran, and the difficulty of making uniform statements about what Iranians believe. When Israel's strikes on Iran began on June 13, killing many top military commanders, many news outlets — both international and those run by the Iranian diaspora — featured images of Iranians cheering the deaths of these hated regime figures. Friends from my fieldwork also pointed to these celebrations, while not always agreeing with them. Many feared the impact of a larger conflict between Iran and Israel. Trying to put these sentiments in context, many analysts have pointed to a 2019 survey by the GAMAAN Institute, an independent organisation based in the Netherlands that tracks Iranian public opinion. This survey showed 79 per cent of Iranians living in the country would vote against the Islamic Republic if a free referendum were held on its rule. Viewing these examples as an indicator of the lack of support for the Islamic Republic is not wrong. But when used as factoids in news reports, they become detached from the complexities of life in Iran. This can discourage us from asking deeper questions about the relationships between ideology and pragmatism, support and opposition to the regime, and state and society. The news reporting on Iran has encouraged a tendency to see the Iranian state as homogeneous, highly ideological and radically separate from the population. But where do we draw the line between the state and the people? There is no easy answer to this. When I lived in Iran, many of the people who took part in my research were state employees — teachers at state institutions, university lecturers, administrative workers. Many of them had strong and diverse views about the legacy of the revolution and the future of the country. They sometimes pointed to state discourse they agreed with, for example Iran's right to national self-determination, free from foreign influence. They also disagreed with much, such as the slogans of "death to America". This ambivalence was evident in one of my Persian teachers. An employee of the state, she refused to attend the annual parades celebrating the anniversary of the revolution. "We have warm feelings towards America," she said. On the other hand, she happily attended protests, also organised by the government, in favour of Palestinian liberation. Or take the young government worker I met in Mashhad: "We want to be independent of other countries, but not like this." In a narrower sense, discussions about the "state" may refer more to organisations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij, the paramilitary force within the IRGC that has cracked down harshly on dissent in recent decades. Both are often understood as being deeply ideologically committed. Said Golkar, a US-based Iranian academic and author, for instance, calls Iran a "captive society". Rather than having a civil society, he believes Iranians are trapped by the feared Basij, who maintain control through their presence in many institutions like universities and schools. Again, this view is not wrong. But even among the Basij and Revolutionary Guard, it can be difficult to gauge just how ideological and homogeneous these organisations truly are. For a start, the IRGC relies on both ideologically selected supporters, as well as conscripts, to fill its ranks. They are also not always ideologically uniform, as the US-based anthropologist Narges Bajoghli, who worked with pro-state filmmakers in Tehran, has noted. As part of my research, I also interviewed members of the Basij, which, unlike the IRGC proper, is a wholly volunteer organisation. Even though ideological commitment was certainly an important factor for some of the Basij members I met, there were also pragmatic reasons to join. These included access to better jobs, scholarships and social mobility. Sometimes, factors overlapped. But participation did not always equate to a singular or sustained commitment to revolutionary values. For example, Sāsān, a friend I made attending discussion groups in Mashhad, was quick to note that time spent in the Basij "reduced your [compulsory] military service". This isn't to suggest there are not ideologically committed people in Iran. They clearly exist, and many are ready to use violence. Some of those who join these institutions for pragmatic reasons use violence, too. In addition, Iran is an ethnically diverse country. It has a population of 92 million people, a bare majority of whom are Persians. Other minorities include Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch, Turkmen and others. It is also religiously diverse. While there is a sizeable, nominally Shia majority, there are also large Sunni communities (about 10-15 per cent of the population) and smaller communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Baha'is and other religions. Often overlooked, there are also important differences in class and social strata in Iran, too. One of the things I noticed about state propaganda was that it flattened this diversity. James Barry, an Australian scholar of Iran, noticed a similar phenomenon. State propaganda made it seem like there was one voice in the country. Protests could be dismissed out of hand because they did not represent the "authentic" view of Iranians. Foreign agitators supported protests. Iranians supported the Islamic Republic. Since leaving Iran, I have followed many voices of Iranians in the diaspora. Opposition groups are loud on social media, especially the monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah. In following these groups, I have noticed a similar tendency to speak as though they represent the voice of all Iranians. Iranians support the shah. Or Iranians support Maryam Rajavi, leader of a Paris-based opposition group. Both within Iran, and in the diaspora, the regime, too, is sometimes held to be the imposition of a foreign conspiracy. This allows the Islamic Republic and the complex relations it has created to be dismissed out of hand. Once again, such a view flattens diversity. Over the past few years, political identities and societal divisions seem to have become harder and clearer. This means there is an increasing perception among many Iranians of a gulf between the state and Iranian society. This is the case both inside Iran, and especially in the Iranian diaspora. Decades of intermittent protests and civil disobedience across the country also show that for many, the current system no longer represents the hopes and aspirations of many people. This is especially the case for the youth, who make up a large percentage of the population. I am not an Iranian, and I strongly believe it is up to Iranians to determine their own futures. I also do not aim to excuse the Islamic Republic — it is brutal and tyrannical. But its brutality should not let us shy away from asking complex questions. If the regime did fall tomorrow, Iran's diversity means there is little unanimity of opinion as to what should come next. And if a more pluralist form of politics is to emerge, it must encompass the whole of Iran's diversity, without assuming a uniform position. It, too, will have to wrestle with the difficult questions and sometimes ambivalent relations the Islamic Republic has created. Simon Theobald is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia. This piece first appeared on The Conversation.
Asharq Al-Awsat
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran Extends Access to Airspace for Overflights after Ceasefire
Iran has expanded access to its airspace for international overflights following a ceasefire with Israel, though flight restrictions remain in place across much of the country, an official said Saturday. "In addition to the eastern half of the country's airspace being available for domestic, international and overflight operations, the airspace over the central and western parts of the country has now also been opened only for international overflights," Majid Akhavan, spokesman for the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, said in a statement carried by the IRNA state news agency. Flights to and from airports in the north, south and west of the country, including Tehran's Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini international airports, remained suspended, according to Akhavan. "All fellow citizens are requested not to go to airports located in the northern, southern and western regions of the country," he said, urging travelers to follow updates through official sources only. The move comes after Iran reopened its eastern airspace on Wednesday, following a ceasefire that ended 12 days of fighting with Israel. Iran had closed its skies entirely on June 13 after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes, prompting Iranian missile retaliation. Airports now operating include Mashhad in eastern Iran -- which Israel claimed to have targeted during the conflict -- as well as Chabahar in the southeast. Flights in other regions remain suspended until further notice.
