Iran nuclear official says Tehran has ‘ample options’ to defend itself - Iran International

Iran nuclear official says Tehran has ‘ample options’ to defend itself | Iran International

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Iran nuclear official says Tehran has ‘ample options’ to defend itself

14 hours ago

Iran has sufficient options and the resolve to defend itself under current wartime conditions, an Atomic Energy Organization spokesman said Friday on the sidelines of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna.

“If you are under attack, you have all the cards at your disposal to defend yourself,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Therefore, we have more than one card; of course, we have sufficient cards and options.”

“But beyond these options, we have the resolve — a strong resolve to defend our country,” he added.

Kamalvandi also said Austrian authorities had issued visas about two weeks ago for AEOI chief Mohammad Eslami to attend the conference before canceling them under what he described as US pressure.

“This is not just an issue concerning Iran; this is an international issue,” he said, adding that other countries should respond.

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Democrats seize on Iran war costs to hit Trump ahead of midterms

15 hours ago

100%

*he current price of gasoline at a filling station in San Diego, California, U.S., August 19, 2026.*

Democrats are intensifying attacks on President Donald Trump over the Iran war as the midterm elections approach, seeking to tie the six-month conflict to an issue closer to American voters’ wallets: the rising cost of gasoline and everyday goods.

Democratic lawmakers have increasingly portrayed the war not simply as a foreign-policy dispute but as a contributor to the cost-of-living pressures weighing on American households.

“There’s no plan. No strategy,” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado said. “The President started a war with Iran that he doesn’t know how to win or get us out of. Americans are paying the price every day.”

The argument comes as disruptions to oil supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have pushed energy prices sharply higher, making gasoline an increasingly prominent political issue ahead of the November elections.

Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut sought to connect those costs directly to the war, saying commuters were paying nearly $1 million more a day for gasoline than in July.

“This is a crisis that is only beginning,” she said. “We are about to enter a winter where millions of Americans will experience the disastrous effects of Trump’s illegal war in Iran.”

Public opinion suggests widespread concern over both the war and energy costs.

A Marquette Law School national poll conducted September 2-9 found that 80% of adults said gasoline prices had risen over the previous six months, including 55% who said they had risen “a lot.”

Only 20% approved of Trump’s handling of gasoline prices, while 80% disapproved. On Iran, 26% approved of his handling of the conflict and 73% disapproved, while 79% said the war had not been worth its cost.

Trump has continued to defend his approach while suggesting an end to the conflict may be approaching. He said this week that Iran wanted an agreement and that “hopefully we're toward the end of the war,” though negotiations remain stalled.

Vice President JD Vance has argued that ending US involvement could itself carry severe economic consequences, saying this week that leaving the region while Iran continued attacking shipping would risk a worldwide energy crisis.

Democrats, however, are increasingly trying to make the economic consequences of the war part of their argument to voters.

Representative Ro Khanna of California on Friday introduced what he called the Illegal War Refund Act, proposing $1,700 payments to taxpayers funded from the Defense Department budget.

“Trump’s illegal war in Iran has cost Americans in food and gas prices an estimated $230 billion,” Khanna said. “Today, I introduced the Illegal War Refund Act to put that money back in the pockets of Americans.”

The conflict continues more than six months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28. The US naval blockade has sharply restricted Iranian oil exports, while attacks on shipping and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have added pressure to global energy markets.

For Democrats, the prolonged war abroad and higher prices at home are increasingly becoming a single argument as the midterms approach.

Tehran ‘ashamed’ as Iranians struggle to make ends meet

19 hours ago

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Behrouz Turani

100%

*Workers sort freshly harvested dates in a palm grove in Bushehr province, southern Iran, September 15, 2026*

Iran’s economic hardship has grown so acute that senior government officials are increasingly acknowledging in public the scale of the pressure on ordinary households.

“We are ashamed that the public’s income does not cover their expenses, especially for wage earners,” First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Thursday. “You cannot increase salaries by 20% when inflation is running above 60–70%.”

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani has disclosed a roughly 310-trillion-toman shortfall in expected tax revenues during the first half of the current year, while the head of the Food and Drug Administration says medicine prices have risen roughly 103% this year.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered an equally stark assessment of the public mood, invoking the 2019 fuel-price protests as a warning against imposing further economic pressure.

“People are now on the edge; if I impose another pressure, they may fall off,” he said.

The warning has not prevented the government from doubling the gasoline price for high-volume consumers, highlighting the difficult choices facing Tehran as it tries to contain household pressure while confronting the economic costs of war.

**The household squeeze**

The free-market dollar has traded at around 2.30–2.33 million rials this week, with the Iranian currency losing roughly 44% of its value against the dollar over the past six months.

Food and beverage inflation has officially exceeded 127% year on year, contributing to a sharp contraction in consumption of protein, dairy products and legumes among urban working-class households.

State-run ILNA has published unusually blunt reports on the cost of living, including unofficial bread-price increases in Tehran, families cutting meat from their diets and rents doubling.

The financial daily Donya-ye Eghtesad has warned of signs of a “new inflationary regime” in which persistent price rises are shaping contracts, expectations and everyday economic decisions, making confidence in the rial increasingly difficult to restore.

The approaching academic year provides another measure of the squeeze.

According to