Live Coverage: Nationwide protests started in Iran before noon on Saturday after activists earlier in the week called for fresh demonstrations against the government.
While Saturday is the first day of the week and a workday in Iran, many people have poured into the streets of Iranian cities. This video is from Arak in central Iran, where demonstrators call for their citizens' support.
As President Ebrahim Raisi arrives in Tehran's Al-Zahra University for a speech on National Student's Day, female students are seen removing their hijab and holding a gathering.
@1500tasvir "Mullahs Must Get Lost," Iranian protesters in the city of Mashhad, home to the shrine of the eighth Shia imam, are heard chanting on Saturday night.
@1500tasvir Massive protests underway in Tehran's Naziabad neighborhood on Saturday night.
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Thread: The fourth televised debate among the six Iranian presidential candidates has kicked off with a focus on issues related to foreign policy.
Follow @IranIntl_En's Live Blog for the latest updates. iranintl.com/en/liveblog/ir…
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said he will "definitely negotiate" with the West if elected, and he will "definitely clinch a deal within the framework of the Islamic Republic's macro policies."
"Any agreement that has economic benefits for Iran will be pursued step by step and action by action," he said.
He also dismissed his pro-reform rival Masoud Pezeshkian's advisor @JZarif's claim that the parliament obstructed the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal by passing the Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation's Interest, saying "the Strategic Action Plan is no obstacle to the removal of sanctions."
"The Supreme Leader stressed that this law will be our strategy," Ghalibaf said.
Pro-reform candidate Pezeshkian said the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) was signed by the very administration that his rivals "criticize and find fault with, yet now they are seeking to finalize and resolve it."
"The JCPOA was an achievement of the previous (Rouhani) admin, but obstacles were created that prevented its implementation. The dispute is over who gets the credit!" he said.
"In the region, we have the potential to be a transit hub from east to west and bring significant benefits. Why haven't we achieved this? Because we are in conflict both among ourselves and with our neighbors," Pezeshkian added.
He said the Islamic Republic must "address the sanctions and the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) issues if it wants to resolve economic problems and improve relations with the world."
Iran is believed to be developing chemical weapons, decades after publicly giving them up, British news website @tortoise said in an exclusive report on Tuesday.
“Iran maintains a chemical weapons program that includes… incapacitating agents for offensive purposes,” the US ambassador to the @OPCW Nicole Shampaine told @tortoise. “This is an area that is a significant concern to us.”
"While the world has been focused on Tehran’s nuclear program, reports from inside Iran and statements from the US government point to a growing industry of pharmaceutical-based weapons ... which are based on substances such as fentanyl... and are aimed at rendering targets unconscious," the report said.
"Leaks from regime-backed universities in Iran appear to show that fentanyl and other central nervous system-acting substances are being developed into aerosolized forms for use on civilians in riot control situations," @tortoise added.
The report added that "both the American and Israeli governments say they have intelligence that Iran is developing such weapons but won’t give more detail."
"Several leaks published by Iranian hackers opposed to the Islamic Revolutionary regime in Tehran appear to show academic papers discussing the development of such chemicals," the Tuesday report noted.
#BREAKING A chopper carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister @Amirabdolahian has been involved in an "incident" in Jolfa region, northwestern Iran, according to Iranian media reports.
A deputy provincial governor general says the chopper has crashed, and rescue teams have been dispatched, but Iran's state TV says it has had an "emergency landing" amid foggy weather.
Three helicopters were in the convoy, with two reaching their destination safely, according to media reports.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News says Raisi's companions managed to establish contact, raising hopes for a resolution without loss of life.
The foggy weather is hindering rescue efforts.
Rescue teams are using drones to find the Iranian president's chopper in an area between Kalibar and Varzaghan regions in northwestern Iran, said the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society's Relief and Rescue Department.
The scandal surrounding the German corporation @BoschGlobal's delivery of surveillance technology to Iran has expanded to include Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and China.
https://t.co/AKOLMETnTviranintl.com/en/202308081259
@BoschGlobal Iranian activists told @DasErste that the Danish security company Milestone Systems delivered video analysis software to Iran.
The German outlet says the company sold Iran the XProtect software until 2019, which according to its website, can be used to compare faces. It also… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
@BoschGlobal @DasErste Iranian activists told @DasErste that the clerical regime also uses cameras from Sweden and the Netherlands. The companies from Sweden and Holland were not named.
Meanwhile, @GermanyDiplo remains mum on the controversial sale of @BoschGlobal security cameras to Iran’s regime that… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Thread: Iran's former foreign minister @JZarif in a Clubhouse meeting: The @NIACouncil did not receive even a single penny from Iran. There were groups who were paid, but NIAC was not one of them. My cooperation with NIAC was limited to exchange of information.
@JZarif@NIACouncil Zarif: Hossein Taeb (then chief of IRGC Intelligence) was always trying to link me to NIAC, and radical figures in both sides tried to make the same allegations because @NIACouncil held critical stances on the situation of human rights in Iran.
Zarif: In nuclear talks, we used to send (the transcripts of) all negotiations and proceedings to Khamenei. Sometimes he'd give comments, and sometimes not. In some cases, he expressed his opposition, and sometimes, we told him we were unable to achieve a certain objective.
At the ongoing meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors which is discussing Iran's nuclear program, the European Union's envoy said the Islamic Republic's program is on an "alarming" path right now, and strongly urged Iran to backtrack and "immediately" return to its commitments.
The EU's envoy to the IAEA told the Board of Governors that the latest developments in Iran's nuclear program have made it increasingly difficult to achieve a diplomatic solution.
Addressing the Board of Governors, the E3 - Britain, France, and Germany - called Iran's nuclear program a clear threat to the security of the region and the world and called on Tehran to "immediately" de-escalate nuclear tensions.