live Iranian Security Personnel Reportedly Killed Near Pakistan Border

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has reiterated that the agency is unable to verify the status of Iran's declared nuclear material and facilities due to a lack of access and information from Tehran.

Iran stopped granting the IAEA access to sites hit by US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities in June last year.

Speaking at the opening of the United Nations atomic watchdog's Board of Governor's meeting in Vienna on September 7, Grossi described the situation as a "matter of serious proliferation concern" that needed to be addressed with "the utmost urgency."

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Grossi called on Iran to engage constructively with the IAEA and urged a return to diplomacy and negotiations over its nuclear program.

"I call on Iran to engage with the Agency constructively in order to make possible the full and effective implementation of Agency safeguards in Iran and to fulfill its responsibilities," Grossi stated.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on September 7 that he was alarmed by the resumption of attacks between the United States and Iran, warning that the violence was affecting the wider Persian Gulf region.

"Recent reports of civilian deaths and injuries, including at a wedding in Hormozgan province, are particularly concerning," Turk said on September 7 while addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Turk was referring to reports in Iranian and international media that a wedding party was hit by a US strike on September 1.

Moin Arjmand, director of the Balochistan Human Rights Documentation Network, a foreign-based monitoring group that documents human rights abuses in Iran, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda on September 2 that the wedding site was located close to a telecommunications tower that was destroyed in the alleged strike.

US Vice President JD Vance said on September 3 that the United States is investigating but that he was "skeptical" of reports coming out of Tehran.

Turk, the UN human rights commissioner, criticized the Iranian authorities in his comments on September 7, accusing them of using the war as a pretext to pursue even more brutal oppression.

"Since March 2026, 59 people have been executed on national security-related charges -- more than the number put to death on the same charges in the whole of 2025," he said.

Iran has warned South Korea of “serious consequences” if it were to become part of operations ensuring safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

The comments follow local media reports last week that Seoul was considering sending forces to aid US efforts at ensuring navigation in the strait.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said in a Korean-language social media post on September 7 that South Korea must not send military forces to the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz.

Any such act, Baqaei warned, can “only be regarded as directly supporting” the United States and “it will lead to serious consequences.”

Iran has consistently targeted its Gulf neighbors -- the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- with missiles and drones since the beginning of the conflict on February 28.

Two Iranian security personnel were killed in an armed attack near the city of Zahedan in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan Province, which borders Pakistan, according to Iran’s official news agency, IRNA.

Quoting the provincial deputy security chief, Ali Khalilabadi, IRNA reported that the men came under attack on September 6 while carrying food and equipment for the Basij militia.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province has been experiencing a low-intensity insurgency with Sunni Baluch militants and other separatist groups, most notably Jaish al-Adl (formerly Jundallah), launching occasional attacks against security forces.

The insurgents have used the porous, roughly 900-kilometer-long Iran-Pakistan border to retreat into neighboring Pakistan. In Pakistan, ethnic Baluch militants are also waging an insurgency, seeking independence from Pakistan.

The security situation on both sides of the border, as well as the involvement of ethnic Baluch populations, has long been a source of tension between Iran and Pakistan.

In January 2024, Iranian security forces, while pursuing a group of retreating militants, fired missiles and shells inside Pakistani Balochistan. In response, Pakistani jets carried out strikes inside Iran claiming that they had targeted the hideouts of anti-Pakistan militants.

The Iranian government said it is raising fuel prices for heavier consumers -- those using more than 110 liters a month -- as US sanctions and a blockade of the country's ports continue to cripple the domestic economy.

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said the price of the first and second quotas, which allow up to 110 liters, will remain ⁠unchanged.

However, the price ‌of the third quota will be doubled to 100,000 Iranian rials per liter -- about 4.5 US cents based on free-market rates.

The new rates will take effect on September 8, officials said.

Other motorists will still be able to purchase 60 liters at ‌15,000 rials a liter and an additional 50 liters at 30,000 rials a liter, Mohajerani said.

Iranian gasoline prices are among the lowest in the world. A wider increase in prices was discussed, but the authorities held off, likely worried it could lead to new street protests.

Iran is a major producer of oil and has for years heavily subsidized prices, meaning that any changes can be politically sensitive. In 2019, widespread protests erupted after a previous price hike.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Reuters

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has warned that Iran will respond more forcefully to any further attacks on its interests and security, saying the era of “proportionate responses” was over.

Speaking during an open parliamentary session on September 6, Qalibaf said: “Any aggression against Iran’s interests and security will receive a faster, heavier and more painful response.”

Qalibaf spoke a day after the US military said it had targeted and destroyed three Iranian oil tankers near the islands of Khark and Jask as well as in the Gulf of Oman.

The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes came in response to ballistic missile attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) against two US warships, which caused no American casualties.

CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper warned that continued Iranian attacks on US vessels would be met with greater economic costs and the destruction of Iranian oil tankers.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US strikes as “illegal and aggressive,” while a spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters -- Iran’s military central command -- warned that attacks on the US military could intensify and expand if the naval blockade continued.

Middle East crude oil exports recovered significantly in August but remained well below pre-disruption levels, according to TankerTrackers, a maritime intelligence service.

Exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar were down 39 percent in August compared with a January-February baseline of 18.5 million barrels per day, before Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the war launched by the United States and Israel.

The shortfall from that baseline has narrowed to 7.2 million barrels per day, from a peak deficit of 12.4 million in May, when exports were down 67 percent.

TankerTrackers said exports from most countries could recover further in the coming months.

Iran, however, is likely to remain a major exception.

Iran’s baseline exports stood at 1.68 million barrels per day, but TankerTrackers estimates they have now fallen to zero. The company said Iranian exports could remain at that level “for the foreseeable future,” depending on the outcome of any agreement.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on September 6 that it had targeted an unmanned US military vessel which was attempting to enter what it called the “protected area of the Strait of Hormuz.”

The Revolutionary Guards made the claim in a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster but provided no details on the extent of damage to the vessel or where exactly it was struck.

The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) has yet to comment.

The claim comes a day after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Tehran that the United States “will destroy” Iranian oil tankers if Iran attacks US ships.

CENTCOM said its forces struck three oil tankers belonging to the IRGC on September 5 after Iran fired missiles at US Navy vessels.

At least 10 people were killed when a fuel tanker ⁠exploded on a highway in western Iran as a result of ⁠a traffic accident, ‌state media reported on September 5.

The tanker was traveling on the Hamedan-Sanandaj Highway and was involved in ‌an accident due to a technical fault in the braking system, state media reported, citing the governor of Sanandaj.

Six people were also injured in the incident, the governor said.

Authorities said they had launched an investigation into the accident, which highlights concerns about road safety and the transportation of materials in the mountainous region of western Iran amid the US war with Iran.

There was no immediate information as to whether the incident was directly related to the war.

With reporting by Reuters

Iran's currency fell further on the open market on September 5, with the US dollar reaching 228,000 tomans -- equivalent to 2.28 million rials -- as the country grapples with soaring inflation and mounting economic pressure from US sanctions and restrictions on its oil exports.

The latest slide came just a day after Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati denied that the country was facing a serious shortage of foreign currency for imports. He attributed much of the pressure on the rial to increased “precautionary” and speculative demand as well as capital flight.

The dollar crossed the 200,000-toman mark in late August and has continued to rise despite attempts by Iranian officials to reassure markets.

Hemmati said earlier this week that Iran had “enough” foreign currency and that the central bank was prepared to inject up to $2 billion into the market if necessary. But his comments have failed to halt the continued rise in exchange rates.

The Iranian currency's decline comes amid mounting pressure on Iran’s economy from years of US sanctions, the war, and a US naval blockade that has sharply curtailed Iranian oil exports, a major source of foreign currency.

The currency crisis threatens to further drive up the cost of everyday goods. Iran’s official statistics agency put year-on-year inflation in August -- before the latest fall in the rial -- at 89 percent, while food and beverage prices had risen by more than 127 percent over the previous year.

A group of Iranian lawmakers warned in a letter to the heads of the country’s three branches of government on August 31 that persistent volatility in currency, gold, and coin markets had “increased uncertainty among the public and economic actors.”

The rial is Iran’s official currency, but Iranians commonly quote prices in tomans, with one toman equal to 10 rials.