Expanding salt storms from the dried basin of Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran have forced residents to abandon nearby villages, damaged farmland and raised fears of long-term health risks, Iran’s Labor News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The outlet said years of drought and groundwater depletion have left once-fertile fields barren, destroying local agriculture and livelihoods.
Farmers told ILNA that widespread crop failure has driven them to close their orchards and shops, with some families migrating to nearby towns.
“The salt-laden winds have made breathing painful. People are leaving,” one resident said.
Local officials warned that the storms -- clouds of fine salt lifted from the desiccated lakebed -- are contaminating soil and water and triggering respiratory and even cancer-related illnesses among remaining residents.
In the village of GovarchinGhale, population has dropped from more than 470 families to around 130, mostly elderly people, according to the village council.
ILNA cited environmental experts linking the worsening crisis to decades of overpumping and illegal wells.
Urmia County Governor Rasoul Moghabeli said the number of wells in the lake basin had surged from 7,000 to over 90,000 in recent years, putting dangerous pressure on the groundwater.
Officials from the Urmia Lake Restoration Headquarters denied reports of mass migration, saying the reports were politically motivated, but acknowledged that more than 90% of water consumption in the region goes to agriculture -- much of it for water-intensive crops such as apples and sugar beet.
They warned that unless irrigation practices are reformed and unauthorized farmland reclaimed, the salt storms could expand across northwestern Iran within a decade, threatening millions of residents.
The report comes as Iran faces a deepening nationwide water emergency with 19 major dams close to depletion.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland presented the bill to Parliament, saying it aims to close a major legal gap in Australia’s counterterrorism framework by permitting the listing of state-backed organizations accused of supporting or conducting terrorist acts.
The move follows findings by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) that the IRGC was involved in two anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne in 2024.
Rowland said the new Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025 would strengthen Australia’s ability to respond to “malicious foreign actors” and serve as a warning to any state seeking to threaten the country through violence or coercion.
“This bill strengthens Australia’s counterterrorism framework, creating an environment in which it is more difficult, more risky, and more costly for foreign actors to cause harm,” she told Parliament.
Under the proposed law, the government would gain the power to list foreign state agencies or entities as state sponsors of terrorism if they are found to have directly or indirectly planned, supported, or financed acts of terrorism against Australia.
Once listed, it would become a criminal offence to collaborate with, fund, or provide material assistance to those entities. Limited exemptions would apply for diplomatic or legal obligations.
The legislation introduces new criminal offences, including preparing or participating in state-sponsored terrorist acts and offering material support to listed state actors. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies would also receive expanded powers to investigate and disrupt suspected state-linked terrorism.
ASIO findings link IRGC to attacks in Australia
The bill comes after a series of actions by Canberra against Tehran. In August, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expelled Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi following ASIO’s conclusion that the IRGC directed two arson attacks on Jewish sites -- one at a kosher restaurant in Sydney and another at a synagogue in Melbourne.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement,” Albanese said.
He described the incidents as “extraordinary acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.”
The proposed law would align Australia more closely with allies such as the United States, which designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2019.
The group, established in 1979 after Iran’s Islamic Revolution, reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and wields significant military, political, and economic influence at home and abroad. Its Quds Force oversees operations that have supported armed groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Syria.
Australia’s move follows its decision last week, along with New Zealand, to implement revived United Nations sanctions on Iran after European powers triggered the snapback mechanism over Tehran’s nuclear program. The sanctions reimposed restrictions on arms, finance, and missile activities.
Canberra has also joined G7 nations in condemning Iran’s repression of dissidents abroad and intimidation of diaspora communities. In September, Australia warned of “transnational repression” targeting journalists and Jewish groups.
Rowland said the latest legislative step reflects Australia’s evolving security environment. “The threats we face are changing,” she said. “This bill ensures that our national security laws remain fit for purpose -- robust, balanced, and capable of protecting all Australians.”
“The wound is very open,” he told Iran International.
“Forty-eight people are still in Gaza, nine from my community. Every time we mark this date, it feels like a funeral all over again.”
Daniel’s grandparents, Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Gaza border that lost more than a quarter of its residents that day, killed and captured.
They were lifelong peace activists who ferried Gazan patients to Israeli hospitals and spent decades advocating coexistence.
Yocheved, then 85, was released after 16 days — frail and traumatized. Oded, 83, was shot and dragged unconscious into Gaza, where he later died in captivity.
“He was a journalist, the first (Israeli) to interview Yasser Arafat,” Daniel said. “He warned everyone about Hamas.”
During captivity, Yocheved came face-to-face with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who assured her in Hebrew she would soon be freed.
“She was only released because she was hours from dying,” Daniel said. Even now, he added, “she wakes every morning saying she still feels like she’s in a tunnel.”
Daniel was in Paris when the attack began; his mother and daughter had left the kibbutz just hours earlier. His best friend, Dolev Yahud, was murdered, while Dolev’s sister, Arbel, spent 482 days in captivity before her release.
Although Daniel blames Iran’s longtime backing of Hamas for making the massacre possible, his message this year is clear: no more war.
Earlier this year, Daniel spoke at a two-state solution conference in Paris, where he called for renewed education and engagement between Israelis and Palestinians. “Everything begins with education,” he said.
“We don’t want any war between Israel and Iran,” Daniel said. “Change in Iran must come from the Iranian people.”
But Daniel also directed anger toward Israel’s own leadership, saying years of complacency and misjudgment left the country vulnerable.
“I do blame 100 percent our Prime Minister,” he said. “He’s been the Prime Minister for the last 20 years, and it’s his decision to neglect the diplomatic arena.”
Reflecting on Israel’s past strategy toward Hamas, Daniel said leaders wrongly believed the group could be managed or pacified through financial incentives.
He praised the Iranian diaspora for their empathy and courage. “The only people outside Israel who truly understood our pain were Iranians abroad,” he said. “They know what it’s like to live under terror.”
Standing on Tel Aviv’s Pinsker Street — one of those struck by Iranian missile fire earlier this year — Daniel reflected on resilience. “If we lose compassion, we lose who we are.”
Israel says the attack by Palestinian militants two years ago killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 people captive in Gaza, of whom some 20 are believed to be still alive there.
Palestinian health authorities say Israel's subsequent ground incursion and air attacks have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.
In Washington, US President Donald Trump said this week that Iran had sent “a very strong signal” it wanted progress toward a Gaza agreement, describing “tremendous progress” in talks.
Iranian spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani responded that Tehran would support any “lasting peace that benefits the people of Palestine and helps stop genocide.”
For Daniel, those diplomatic signals matter most if they lead to the end of the war and the return of the hostages.
“I hope the mark of two years will bring us to a year of healing,” he said. “Not another year of trauma.”
Daniel says he now carries his grandfather’s mission with him — the conviction that peace, empathy, and education are the only weapons strong enough to outlast war.
