Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called for direct confrontation with Israel on Sunday after Hezbollah said a senior commander and four other members were killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
In a post in Arabic on X, Larijani offered condolences for the deaths, describing those killed as having “reached their wish.”
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “continues his adventurism to the point that everyone reaches the conclusion that there is no path left except direct confrontation with Israel.”
Hezbollah said the strike on Sunday killed Tabtabai, the group’s top military official, and wounded 28 others.
Israel’s military said it targeted Tabtabai in Beirut’s southern suburbs, calling him a senior official overseeing Hezbollah’s military readiness, in one of the most significant escalations since a US-brokered ceasefire in November 2024.
Iran has condemned the attack as a violation of the ceasefire and a “war crime,” and Hezbollah has said it crossed a “red line,” adding that its leadership would decide how to respond.
The United States designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization and sanctioned Tabtabai in 2016, describing him as a key commander within the group.
“The identity of the godfather and the members of his network is now clear,” the prisoners of Ghezel Hesar facility in Karaj wrote in a report. “There is no room left for denial or claims of ignorance.”
They called on judicial authorities and the Prisons Organization to act “immediately and transparently” to protect inmates and halt the network’s activities.
Network tied to senior prison official
Esmail Farajnejad, Ghezel Hesar prison’s deputy for health affairs, according to the report.
The prisoners said his involvement dates back to his time at Rajaei Shahr prison, where they said he and several associates helped distribute narcotics and other illicit goods.
Farajnejad was later reassigned to Ghezel Hesar, but the prisoners said his reach endured with backing from a senior official they identified only as “Mr. Baay,” who subsequently rose to a powerful internal security role.
The inmates said the network reaped “significant financial gain” from drug trafficking and from securing internal appointments that kept its members in key roles.
Farajnejad, they alleged, maintained control through threats and intimidation during his tenure.
Ghezel Hesar, one of Iran’s largest and most feared prisons, recorded 183 executions in the last year, the rights group HRANA reported in October.
Role in suppressing recent strike
The prisoners said Farajnejad played a direct role in ending a strike in Ward 2 mid-October, after 15 inmates on death row were moved to pre-execution cells.
They alleged he initially relayed sympathetic messages through prisoners close to him, but hardened his stance as the protest spread.
“He called the prisoners stubborn and uncomprehending,” they wrote, quoting him as warning that executions would go ahead “in groups of thirty” if the strike continued. The inmates said protesters then escalated by sewing their lips shut.
The report ends with a warning that more names tied to the alleged network will be made public if authorities fail to act.
The prisoners said the network’s structure and beneficiaries “are now fully exposed,” and urged officials to intervene to protect those in custody.
Power plants burned more than 21 million liters of mazut on November 14, the outlet said – a volume that would require oil tankers stretching roughly 14 kilometers end to end.
Stations in Hamedan in the west, Neka in the north and Arak in Markazi province were among the biggest consumers, it added.
“We do not want to burn mazut because it damages plants and is an expensive commodity,” Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said last week. “But when gas is scarce, we are forced to use it.”
Government assurances under pressure
Officials in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration have repeatedly vowed to phase out mazut in favor of cleaner fuels.
Scheduled outages could temporarily replace “producing poison” for the public, Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani wrote on X in November last year. Her remarks came shortly after summer blackouts and the onset of household gas cuts.
State media later said Pezeshkian ordered mazut use halted at power stations in Arak, Karaj and Isfahan. Yet in several cities, especially Arak, hazardous smog persisted through mid-March, prompting repeated street protests.
Three months after the announced halt, in February, parliamentary agriculture committee spokesperson Somayeh Rafiei said all thermal plants had shifted to mazut.
In a separate August report, business outlet Tejarat News assessed mazut as an “official and relied-upon” tool in managing the energy crisis, adding that it had remained in use the previous year despite official assurances.
Tehran imposes emergency school closures
Tehran’s emergency air-quality task force met on Sunday at the health ministry’s request and approved online schooling for primary classes across the province on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The decision followed forecasts indicating that pollution would intensify through the week, task force secretary Hassan Abbasnejad said.
“After reviewing reports from the environment department, the medical university and the meteorological organization, it was decided that primary classes will be held virtually,” Abbasnejad said.
Daycare centers and preschools in districts classified as unhealthy for all groups would shut, and female employees with young children could work remotely, he added.
Calls to phase out ageing vehicles, invest in cleaner energy and bolster a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics say that without systemic change, major cities, including Tehran, will keep paying the price in hazardous air and lost lives.
As winter inversion deepens, the combination of stagnant air and growing mazut consumption is heightening concerns that Iran’s most polluted weeks may still lie ahead.
