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Iranian authorities will press capital crime charges against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations, prosecutors said Tuesday, as alarm grows that the Islamic republic could extensively use the death penalty to crack down on the protests.The office of the Tehran prosecutor said in a statement quoted by state television that an unspecified number would be charged with “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, a sharia law term which is a capital crime in Iran and used widely in the past in death penalty cases.”A number of rioters whose charges are consistent with moharebeh will soon be sent to court,” it said.Rights groups have said hundreds, and potentially even higher numbers, have been killed in the protests.Iranian state media emphasises that dozens of members of the security forces were killed at the hands of “rioters”.Iran is the world’s most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups. Last year, it hanged at least 1,500 people, Norway-based Iran Human Rights group (IHR) said.Twelve people were executed over the last major protest wave from 2022 to 2023, according to IHR. Another 12 people have been executed on charges of spying for Israel since a war in June between the two foes.It is “extremely worrying to see public statements by some judicial officials indicating the possibility of the death penalty being used against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings”, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.IHR said it feared the Islamic republic “is seeking to conduct rapid trials without observing fair trial standards for detained protesters”.It highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.It is not clear what the charges against him are and the case has not been reported by state media.

An Iranian went on trial in France Tuesday accused of promoting “terrorism” on social media in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens held by the Islamic republic for over three-and-a-half years.Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 39-year-old Iranian, was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting and inciting “terrorism” on social media over comments she is said to have made, including on Palestinian militant group Hamas attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, according to French authorities. Esfandiari was released in October pending her trial, whose date was scheduled long before the current protests erupted in Iran against the Iranian authorities.”I’m here today to finally speak about the facts, as there have been a lot of wrong stories about me in the media, and a lot of lies,” she said as she entered the courtroom for the four-day trial, in which several groups battling antisemitism are plaintiffs.French citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris were arrested in Iran in May 2022, but they were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied.They were immediately taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran, but are still waiting to leave Iran.Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in November that Iran would allow Kohler and Paris to return home in “exchange” for France freeing Esfandiari.France has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such an exchange deal.But it has downsized its staff at its embassy in Tehran after mass protests erupted nationwide last week, in one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.Relatives of Paris and Kohler told AFP that they were in good health and being well looked after by the remaining embassy staff.The demonstrations have triggered a crackdown that activists say has killed at least 648 people during an internet blackout.France has described Kohler and Paris as “state hostages” taken by Tehran in a bid to extract concessions. They were convicted on espionage charges their families have always condemned as fabricated.Dozens of Europeans, North Americans and other Western citizens have been arrested in the last few years in similar circumstances.Iran has previously carried out exchanges of Westerners for Iranians held by the West, but insists foreigners are convicted fully in line with the law.

The former empress of Iran, widow of the shah deposed by the Islamic revolution, on Tuesday urged the Iranian security forces to support protests shaking the clerical leadership that ousted her husband.Farah Pahlavi, 87, echoing calls made by her son the former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, said she believed “light will triumph over darkness” despite a crackdown by authorities that activists fear has left hundreds dead.She left Iran on January 16, 1979 alongside her husband Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, just two weeks before the return to the country of Islamic revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Her husband died in 1980.Farah Pahlavi had on January 2 welcomed the protests as “filling my heart with pride”, but this is her first statement since they grew into large-scale demonstrations last week calling for an end to the Islamic republic.”I know that the dark-minded have cut off your lines of communication with the outside world out of fear of hearing your voice, but know that your message is too loud to be silenced,” she said, referring to an internet blackout that has lasted over four days.Addressing the Iranian security forces, the former empress, or “shahbanu”, added: “Remember that the survival of no government and the preservation of no benefit justify the shedding of the blood of your compatriots. “Hear the cries of anger and rage of the protesters. Join your other brothers and sisters before it is too late and do not tie your fate to the fate of the murderers,” she said.Describing the people of Iran as “my children”, she added: “Be strong and believe that soon you will celebrate freedom together in Iran, and light will triumph over darkness.”Farah Pahlavi was the third wife of the shah, who she met while a student in Paris. Their romance was an international sensation in the 1960s and 70s and she became an icon, with her image captured by the likes of artist Andy Warhol.Her son Reza has emerged as one of the key diaspora figures in the protests, calling for nightly rallies and urging support from US President Donald Trump. Commentators have noted that pro-Pahlavi slogans urging a restoration of the monarchy have been frequent chants.

Widespread destruction, massive military spending and plummeting oil and gold revenues have left Sudan’s economy in “very difficult times”, army-aligned finance minister Gibril Ibrahim said, nearly three years into the army’s war with rival paramilitary forces.In an interview with AFP from his office in Port Sudan, Ibrahim said the government is eyeing deals for Red Sea ports and private investment to help rebuild infrastructure.This week, Sudan’s prime minister announced the government’s official return to Khartoum, recaptured last year, but Ibrahim’s ministry is among those yet to fully return.Dressed in combat uniform, the former rebel leader said Sudan, already one of the world’s poorest countries before the war, “lost all sources of state revenue in the beginning of the war”, when the Rapid Support Forces overtook the capital Khartoum and its surroundings.”Most of the industry, most of the big companies and all of the economic activity was concentrated in the centre,” he said, saying the heartland had accounted for some 80 percent of state revenue.Ibrahim’s ex-rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement once battled Khartoum’s government but it has fought on the army’s side as part of the Joint Forces coalition of armed groups.- Smuggling -Sudan, rich in oil, gold deposits and arable land, is currently suffering the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over half of its population in need of aid to survive.Gold production is rising year-on-year, but “unfortunately, much of it has been smuggled… across borders, through different countries, and going to the Gulf, mainly to the United Arab Emirates”, he said.Of the 70 tonnes produced in 2025, only “20 tonnes have been exported through official channels”.In 2024, Sudan produced 64 tonnes of gold, bringing in only $1.57 billion to the state’s depleted coffers, with much of the revenue spilling out via smuggling networks.Agricultural exports have fallen 43 percent, with much of the country’s productive gum arabic, sesame and peanut-growing regions in paramilitary hands, in the western Darfur and southern Kordofan regions.Sudan’s livestock industry, also based predominantly in Darfur, has lost 55 percent of its exports, he said.Since the RSF captured the army’s last holdout position in Darfur in October, the war’s worst fighting has shifted east to the oil-rich Kordofan region.While both sides scramble for control of the territory, the country’s oil revenues have dropped by more than 50 percent — its most productive refinery, Al-Jaili near Khartoum, severely damaged.- ‘Reconstruction’ -Determined to defeat the RSF, authorities allocated 40 percent of last year’s budget to the war effort, up from 36 percent in 2024, according to Ibrahim, who did not specify amounts.Yet the cost of reconstruction in areas regained by the army is immense: in December 2024, the government estimated it would need $200 billion to rebuild.Authorities are currently eyeing public-private partnership, with firms that “are ready to spend money” including on infrastructure, Ibrahim said.Sudan’s long Red Sea coast has over the years drawn the interest of foreign actors eager for a base on the vital waterway, through which around 12 percent of global trade passes.”We will see which partner is the best to build a port,” the minister said, listing both Saudi Arabia and Qatar as “the main applicants”.An early-stage project for an Emirati economic zone had been agreed in principle, he said “and then the war erupted, and the UAE has been part of it”.”So I don’t think that project is going anywhere,” Ibrahim said, referring to widespread accusations of Abu Dhabi backing the RSF, which the UAE denies.The Russians, for their part, had also wanted “a small port where they can have supplies”, he said, adding that “they didn’t go ahead with that yet”.As the war rages on, Sudan shoulders a massive public debt bill, which in 2023 reached 253 percent of GDP, before falling slightly to 221 percent in 2025, according to figures reported by the International Monetary Fund.Sudan has known only triple-digit annual inflation for years. Figures for 2025 stood at 151 percent — down from a 2021 peak of 358. The currency has also collapsed, going from trading before the war at 570 Sudanese pounds against the dollar, to 3500 in 2026, according to the black market rate.Ibrahim, 71, first joined the government in 2021 as part of a short-lived transitional administration. He retained his position through a military coup later that year.He is among several Sudanese officials sanctioned by Washington in its attempt to “limit Islamist influence within Sudan and curtail Iran’s regional activities”.

US President Donald Trump announced a 25-percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as a rights group estimated a crackdown on protests has killed at least 648 people.Iranian authorities insisted they have regained control after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.But rights groups accuse the government of using live fire against protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now lasted more than four days. International phone calls however have resumed in Iran after being blocked for days, an AFP correspondent in Tehran said on Tuesday, but only outgoing calls could be made.Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said in a social media post on Monday that the new levies would “immediately” hit the Islamic republic’s trading partners who also do business with the United States.”This order is final and conclusive,” he wrote, without specifying who it will affect. Iran’s main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, according to economic database Trading Economics.The White House said Monday that Trump remained “unafraid” to deploy military force against Iran, but was pursuing diplomacy as a first resort.  – Large-scale killings -The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely much higher — “according to some estimates, more than 6,000”.The internet shutdown has made it “extremely difficult to independently verify these reports”, IHR said, adding that an estimated 10,000 people had been arrested. “Iranian authorities have significantly intensified their lethal crackdown on protesters since January 8, with credible reports that security forces are carrying out large-scale killings across the country,” Human Rights Watch said.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities have declared three days of national mourning for those killed.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to Al Jazeera, insisted that the government had been “in dialogue” with the protesters in the initial phase of the movement and the internet was only cut “after we confronted terrorist operations and realised orders were coming from outside the country”.Addressing Trump’s threats, he added: “We are prepared for any eventuality and we hope Washington will choose a wise option. It doesn’t matter which option they choose, we are ready for it.”- ‘Last days’ -The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, in a “warning” to the United States. In power since 1989 and now 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.”When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. “I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.”Analysts however have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership has, including the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which are charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.”These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,” Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus”.French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement condemning “the state violence that indiscriminately targets Iranian women and men who courageously demand respect for their rights”. Prize-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi told broadcaster France Inter: “The Iranian people are defenceless today, and despite all that, they are out on the streets.” Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah who has been vocal in calling for protests, said Trump was a man who “means what he says and says what he means” and who “knows what’s at stake”.”The red line that was drawn has been definitely surpassed by this regime.” 

Since Israel recognised Somaliland last month, the self-declared republic on the Gulf of Aden has become central to a struggle over military access, ports and regional influence across the Red Sea corridor.Somaliland sits astride one of the world’s most strategic maritime choke points, flanked by multiple conflicts in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.It declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but had never been recognised internationally until Israel’s move.Israel’s recognition was fiercely opposed by the Somali government as an attack on its territorial unity — a position backed by most African and Arab leaders. But Somaliland’s assets — most crucially the port and airfield at Berbera, which have been developed by the United Arab Emirates since 2016 to be capable of hosting large naval and air assets — outweighed any potential concern about the diplomatic fall-out.A Somaliland official, speaking anonymously to AFP, said new buildings and an airbase facility were recently completed at Berbera by the UAE, which has a 25-year concession to build a military base. “What is at stake right now is military access,” said Roland Marchal, an expert on the region with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. “This is a shift from the recent past” when the focus was on commercial shipping, he added. – Israel and the UAE – For the Israelis, Somaliland offers a prime spot from which to attack Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have targeted Israel to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Berbera offers another hub for the quiet military cooperation between the UAE and Israel that has expanded since the Emiratis formally recognised Israel under the US-sponsored Abraham Accords in 2020. The UAE did not criticise Israel for recognising Somaliland. The Somali government said on Monday it was cancelling all agreements with the UAE for “undermining national sovereignty”.Analysts say the Emiratis are nonetheless unlikely to formally recognise Somaliland as that would worsen its already terrible relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia. The Saudis “would view (recognition) as another affront and another example of the UAE undermining Saudi Arabia’s authority and the ‘Arab consensus'”, said Anna Jacobs, a Gulf analyst.- Turkey and China – Turkey has sided with Somalia, its key strategic partner in the region — host of its largest international military base, a planned space-port and imminent oil-drilling projects. The fragmentation of Somalia “could jeopardise Turkey’s progress and interests in the country”, said Scott Romaniuk, a researcher at Budapest’s Corvinus University.Not to mention Turkey’s long-standing opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and fear of encouraging its own separatists, the Kurds.  Turkey has nonetheless maintained a foothold in Somaliland, said Federico Donelli of the University of Trieste, and is closely allied with the UAE in other areas — highlighting the complexity of regional dynamics.Meanwhile, Somaliland is the only African territory, besides the tiny state of Eswatini, to recognise Taiwan — enough to attract the ire of China, which also has significant investments in Somalia. – United States -Washington defended what it said was its Israeli ally’s right to recognise Somaliland, although President Donald Trump said he was unlikely to follow suit, despite pressure from some within his Republican party.”The United States is not at all in a position to recognise Somaliland,” Marchal said. “The United States needs local allies. They can’t alienate Egypt, the Turks and Saudi Arabia (all supporters of Somalia) at the same time.”The United States can count on plenty of other military assets in the region, including ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf, and the Baledogle airfield in Somalia.- Somaliland -Lost in the geopolitical scramble is any assessment of Somaliland’s own case for independence. It has run its own affairs since 1991 and been far more stable and democratic than the rest of Somalia, but those are secondary considerations for its partners.”It’s sad because the merits of Somaliland aren’t discussed,” Marchal said. “What Somaliland has achieved, what it has failed at, is completely ignored.”