Iran’s underground missile and ammunition facilities withstood the 12-day conflict and US strikes thanks to two decades of hardening and design, said Iran’s passive defense chief in an interview with the Story of the War podcast on Saturday.
John Hurley, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Iran has managed to channel about $1 billion to Hezbollah this year despite Western sanctions that have crippled its economy.
“There’s a moment in Lebanon now. If we could get Hezbollah to disarm, the Lebanese people could get their country back,” he told Reuters in an interview published on Sunday.
Hurley said the key to curbing Hezbollah’s power was to “drive out the Iranian influence and control that starts with all the money they are pumping into Hezbollah.”
He spoke in Istanbul as part of a regional tour to Turkey, Lebanon, the UAE and Israel aimed at tightening financial and diplomatic pressure on Tehran.
Pressure campaign on Iran
The remarks come as the US intensifies its so-called maximum pressure campaign on Iran, whose economy is reeling under renewed UN snapback sanctions imposed after talks to limit its nuclear and missile activities collapsed in September.
Western governments accuse Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons capability, a charge Iran denies, insisting its program is for civilian energy.
Washington last week sanctioned two individuals accused of funneling Iranian funds to Hezbollah through money exchanges, in a bid to sever the group’s financial channels. The Treasury said the network had helped move tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in Lebanon.
Founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah has grown into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force. It has fought multiple wars with Israel and is a key member of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” alliance.
The group remains designated as a terrorist organization by the US and several Western states.
An investigation by Le Figaro in October found that Iran’s Quds Force had helped Hezbollah reorganize after the 2024 war with Israel and the assassinations of its longtime leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.
Lebanon’s fragile government has pledged to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah, under a US-backed truce with Israel. But the group continues to wield significant political influence and has resisted full demobilization, arguing that its weapons are essential to defend the country.
US officials say Iran’s financial and military backing remains central to Hezbollah’s survival. “Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they’re still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies,” Hurley said.
The dissident activist made the remarks in Berlin on the sidelines of the annual forum of the World Liberty Congress, a movement she co-founded in 2022 along with Russian activist Garry Kasparov and Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.
“We intend to increase pressure on dictators by uniting opposition movements from different countries," she said.
Alinejad compared Iran’s compulsory hijab laws and political repression to the Berlin Wall, telling Iran International that Iranians are destroying this wall through their defiance.
The World Liberty Congress is holding its second annual gathering on the sidelines of the Freedom Week marking the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The gathering has brought together 180 participants from 60 countries including opposition figures, lawmakers, and rights activists from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China.
The event aims to coordinate global strategies to defend democracy and counter the spread of autocracy.
Practicing democracy in exile
Alinejad said the three founders of the World Liberty Congress had decided not to stand in this year’s internal elections to demonstrate democratic accountability.
“Mr. Leopoldo López, Garry Kasparov and I oppose Khamenei, Maduro and Putin, and to prove we are not like the dictators, we told the Berlin parliament that in the World Liberty Congress elections we will step aside so others can present themselves as the congress’s president, vice president and secretary this year.”
“This is an exercise to show democratic countries that we can hold elections and free ourselves from dictators,” added Alinejad.
The activist previously defined the World Liberty Congress as an alternative to the United Nations, which she said "has become a place to unite dictators."
The city’s water resources are in exponential decline, Reza Haji-Karim, head of Iran’s Water Industry Federation, told the website Didban Iran.
“Water rationing should have started much earlier. Right now, 62 percent of Tehran’s water comes from underground sources, and the level of these aquifers has dropped sharply.”
The crisis, he said, is the result of years of neglecting scientific warnings about groundwater depletion and climate change.
“The only way to save Tehran is through a chain of measures – from wastewater recycling and consumption reform to cutting agricultural water use,” he added.
Unannounced rationing begins
Residents of Tehran have reported repeated overnight water cuts in several districts in recent days. The Tehran Water and Wastewater Company said the outages are intended to refill storage tanks and prevent the city’s distribution network from collapsing.
Local media outlets reported that nightly rationing has already started in parts of the capital and now continues until early morning hours.
The government may be forced to reduce water pressure to almost zero at night when demand is low, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said Saturday, urging households to install storage tanks.
"Pipeline infrastructure in our country is more than 100 years old; the pipes have become worn out, and some of them were also damaged during the 12-day war" with Israel in June, the minister said.
Presidential warning and vanishing reserves
President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Thursday that if rainfall does not resume by the end of autumn, Tehran will face water rationing, adding, “If it still doesn’t rain, we will have no water and will have to evacuate the city.”
The Tehran Regional Water Company has said that the capital’s five major dams are now only 11 percent full.
Ali Shariat, secretary-general of the Water Industry Federation, blamed the deepening crisis on “mismanagement and fragmented decisions in agriculture and industry.”
“My honest advice to the public is to take the president’s words very seriously. He has told the truth – bitter but undeniable,” he added.
“Continued inaction may lead to forced migration from Tehran,” Shariat added.
Dams near collapse
A video posted on social media on Thursday showed the dry bed of the Latian Dam near Tehran, whose manager said only half of its remaining 10 percent capacity can be used. Officials in neighboring Alborz province reported that the Karaj Dam is now more than 90 percent empty, with only seven percent of its reservoir remaining.
Tehran, home to nearly nine million people, depends on five dams – all reporting sharp declines.
The Laar and Mamloo reservoirs are at 1% and 7% capacity respectively, while only Taleghan remains above one-third.
This comes as the meteorological organization forecasts no significant rainfall for the rest of November.
Tehran is experiencing one of the driest periods in the past 50 years, according to the energy ministry. If current trends persist, officials warn, the city may run out of drinkable water within weeks.
The event, titled “You Will Kneel Before Iranians Again,” was attended by government officials and supporters, many of whom appeared in diverse styles of dress, including without the mandatory Islamic head covering.
Images shared on social media showed no sign of the strict dress enforcement typically seen in public spaces.
The relaxed atmosphere contrasted sharply with the intensified street enforcement of hijab laws. In recent weeks, authorities have resumed arrests, public warnings, and the closure of businesses such as cafes and restaurants for noncompliance with compulsory dress codes.
In previous years, the government has relaxed hijab enforcement at certain high-profile state events – such as Guards Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani’s funeral or major state-organized marches – to project a more moderate image while maintaining repressive controls in daily life.
Contradictions in official behavior
Two days before the ceremony, Asadollah Jafari, the judiciary chief of Isfahan province, called unveiling “a disruptive act” and urged judicial officers to intervene.
“Some individuals, by engaging in and openly displaying norm-breaking behavior, offend public decency. Since these individuals commit an act that violates the law, their actions constitute an evident crime, and judicial officers must carry out their legal duty,” he said.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the Supreme Leader’s representative and editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, has been one of the most outspoken voices against easing hijab enforcement.
In an editorial on November 1, he wrote that the spread of unveiled women had reached “a worrying level” and described the trend as “a home-wrecking and decency-destroying phenomenon.”
“What is deeply concerning is that some who speak about confronting semi-nudity make no mention of banning unveiling – as if unveiling itself has ceased to be forbidden by religion, law, or humanity, and one must only be careful that it does not turn into full nudity.”
Meanwhile, numerous reports have emerged of business closures over hijab violations in recent weeks, with police insisting that all public venues must enforce dress codes or face shutdown.
The sight of unveiled women at a government celebration in Tehran, while morality patrols reappear across the country, has highlighted the Islamic Republic’s double standard – using selective leniency in public displays even as everyday enforcement grows harsher.
“Almost all underground and under-mountain missile infrastructure remains intact and has no serious problems,” Gholamreza Jalali said, crediting long-running operational measures and engineering choices.
The priority given to aerospace and missile assets, Jalali said, guided 20 years of planning for missile cities and depots built into mountains and deep underground. Only minor repairable damage occurred at some access points, he added.
Underground networks and nuclear sites
Sensitive nuclear centers, Jalali said, were placed in safe spaces after early threat assessments, adding that he personally proposed the protected design concept years ago.
“The shadow of war was present from the very beginning of our activities, and based on the threat scenarios, it was decided that sensitive nuclear sites should be designed in secure underground locations beneath mountains.”
During the 12-day war and the US attacks on nuclear facilities, added Jalali, some foreign reports highlighted the confrontation between “bunker buster bombs” and Iranian concrete engineering. “It was an oversimplified interpretation of designs."
“Regarding the US claim of destroying nuclear facilities, it must be said that further details remain classified and confidential,” he added.
Banks cyber security not addressed yet
Jalali pointed to cyber-attacks on Iranian banks, saying two major banks shared a core platform with unresolved weaknesses. “For banking security, we designed a regional secure model and obtained funding, but execution rests with the relevant bodies,” he said.
During the June conflict, Iran’s Bank Sepah and Bank Pasargad were hit by major cyberattacks that disrupted online banking and ATM services.
Jalali also addressed the use of foreign messaging platforms by military figures, saying none of Iran’s commanders, living or dead, had ever used WhatsApp, while reports suggested some Hamas leaders had relied on it.
Advanced surveillance and data-analysis systems – spanning artificial intelligence, satellites, and signal tracking – are fully controlled by Israel and the United States, he said, adding that using such platforms exposes communications to monitoring and targeting.
“When we are in confrontation with such adversaries, we must assume total visibility across digital space.”
Former communications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in August that Iranian officials with sensitive information on their phones were easy targets for Israeli cyber operations during June's 12-day war, adding that Israel exploited platforms such as WhatsApp to track them.
“In the recent war, those who had information and were of interest to Israel were easy prey for hacking,” Azari Jahromi said, but did not identify those targeted.
Shelters kept confidential
Tehran has multiple shelter options, including metro stations, car parks, and basements, but officials avoided announcing them publicly to prevent panic, he added.
Local authorities received training to guide people in emergencies, while Tehran Municipality was working to upgrade facilities and warning systems for possible use as public shelters, according to him.
Iran had fully expected attacks on its nuclear facilities and launched a plan to prepare, he added.
Limited drills in Kashan and broader exercises at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan helped minimize risks, Jalali said, adding that chemical storage was cleared and activities scaled back before strikes, and post-attack tests confirmed no radioactive contamination.
