RFE/RL's Radio Farda breaks through government censorship to deliver accurate news and provide a platform for informed discussion and debate to audiences in Iran.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that children as young as 12 can participate in defense-support roles. Amid ongoing US-Israeli strikes, the IRGC announced the launch of a broad campaign to mobilize public assistance in roles like security patrols and working at checkpoints.
Iran is inviting children 12 and older to sign up under a new program “for combatants defending the homeland,” with applicants directed to mosques and registration booths. Iran has a track record of recruiting children for security and even combat roles, and used child soldiers in the war with Iraq.
From "bone-shaking" strikes and "terrifying moments" to the fear of "more brutal" rule if the war ends -- civilians inside Iran shared their experiences with RFE/RL after nearly a month of US-Israeli strikes.
As the war approaches its one-month mark, ordinary Iranians describe sleepless nights, constant fear, and a country being destroyed. Some want it to end. Others are holding out for victory. Nearly all are exhausted.
President Donald Trump said the United States is "talking to the right people in Iran" about a deal to end the war, while Tehran launched attacks on Israel and Kuwait and US media outlets reported that thousands more troops may be headed to the region.
Human rights groups have condemned Iran's hanging of three men in the first executions over January protests and warned they fear more executions to come. Authorities in Iran are trying "to frighten the public" and keep them in line in order to remain in power, says Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam.
Strikes that targeted the largest oil field on Earth, an area called South Pars that is shared by Qatar and Iran, may impact ordinary Iranians, say experts. The facilities process fossil fuels that supply Iranian homes with both heating and cooking gas.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has claimed that Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, was killed in a wave of air strikes on Tehran that also took the lives of other senior Iranian officials.
Flames and smoke shut down Dubai International Airport in the United Emirates on March 16 after an Iranian drone strike hit a nearby fuel tank. One of the world's busiest airports, Dubai has been repeatedly hit since Iran launched strikes on Gulf nations after it was attacked in February.
As US and Israeli strikes continue, one resident of Tehran described living with the fear that her neighborhood could become the next target. She said the streets are heavily patrolled by security forces and that residents fear leaving the city because of attacks on transit checkpoints.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda spoke to a woman in Tehran, who described her fear and what she is seeing amid the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
Several senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, took to the streets of Tehran for the annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause despite an intense wave of air strikes by the United States and Israel.
Iran must continue to keep a key Gulf shipping lane closed, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in his first public comments since being named to succeed his late father, hours after several vessels were targeted in strikes as Tehran looks to choke off oil supplies from leaving the Middle East.
Iran has seen 16 of its mine-laying ships attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, according to US Central Command, which released footage of several strikes on the vessels. The ships were hit on March 10, US officials say, following warnings by US President Donald Trump to Iran.
US President Donald Trump will determine what constitutes "unconditional surrender" by Iran in the face of US-Israeli bombardment, the White House said on March 10, amid questions about how long the war may last.
US and Israeli forces continued to strike government targets in Iranian cities and military sites on March 10 as US defense chief Pete Hegseth warned new attacks will be the heaviest yet. Iran responded with its own strikes on nearby countries, including Bahrain.
After the Iranian women's soccer team declined to sing along with their country's anthem at an Asian Cup game, an Iranian state TV presenter denounced them as "wartime traitors." Fearing for their safety, five of the players reportedly left their training camp in Australia on March 9 to seek asylum.
Chanting against Iran's newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, could be heard in video posted on social media. Voices chanting "Death to Mojtaba" echoed through buildings in a Tehran residential neighborhood on March 8.
US President Donald Trump said the military operation launched against Iran last month will end "very soon" and vowed to hit the country "much, much harder" if it blocks oil supplies in the Middle East.
The election of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new leader by Iran's Assembly of Experts following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack marks the first time that the son of a supreme leader succeeds his father in the Islamic republic.
Load more
