TOP STORIES
‘Death to the Dictator’: Iranian Students Hold Protests for Third Day | Guardian
Students at universities in Iran have held a third consecutive day of protest just over a month after the violent suppression by security services of mass street demonstrations left thousands dead. . . . The demonstrations on Monday spread to campuses including all-women Al Zahra University in Tehran, where anti-government slogans were chanted and an Iranian flag was burnt and torn, but did not move to the streets. . . . A Telegram channel for Iranian students, Anjmotahed, said an attack by the Basij state-backed militia at Sharif University in Tehran left several students injured and an ambulance arrived at the campus. Universities have sent text messages to students warning them of disciplinary consequences. In a bid to ridicule Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, some students climbed up trees in the campus and hung toy mice from its branches—a way of saying he was hiding underground like a mouse. Reports said students chanted “death to the dictator,” “for every one killed, a thousand will follow” and “the blood that has been spilled will never be washed away.”
US Refuelers, Cargo Planes Spotted at Ben Gurion Airport as Iran Tensions Ramp Up | Times of Israel
American refueler and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Monday, amid a massive US buildup of military forces ahead of a potential attack on Iran. . . . Around the same time, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was seen arriving at Crete’s Souda Bay, likely as part of a supply stop at the US Naval Support Activity base located there.
US Partially Evacuates Beirut Embassy amid Rising Iran Tensions | BBC News
The US government has ordered all non-essential staff to leave its embassy in the Lebanese capital of Beirut after a security review, a senior State Department official has told the BBC. . . . Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has delayed a planned trip to Israel without announcing a reason.
UANI IN THE NEWS
UANI Senior Advisor Norman Roule Breaks Down the Latest on the U.S.-Iran Talks | i24
Roule: “Iran is at a point in its history where its leaders have to decide whether the Islamic Republic will survive or not.”
DIPLOMATIC & MILITARY MATTERS
Iran is expected to submit a “draft agreement” to the Americans by Tuesday, two sources familiar with the details told i24NEWS. The US administration expects the Iranians to submit a comprehensive proposal for an agreement, not just a document of principles or general proposals, but a draft resolution that can be discussed at a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Geneva. . . . President Trump and senior US administration officials are expected to review the draft agreement that will be sent to them - and this may decide whether to hold the meeting on Thursday face-to-face, or whether the chances of a diplomatic agreement have been exhausted and therefore the attack should be launched. “It’s hard to see Trump sending his people to meet with the Iranians if the gaps after the Iranian proposal are still large,” a U.S. official told i24NEWS.
Little Hope for Breakthrough as Iran Prepares New Offer | Israel Hayom
There is deep skepticism that Iran's proposal, set to be presented Tuesday to Oman's foreign minister, will include any substantive changes from previous offers, and a breakthrough at the upcoming meeting in Geneva appears unlikely, a regional diplomat familiar with the negotiations said. According to the diplomat, Tehran has already signaled publicly that it intends to focus on technical issues, including oversight of its nuclear facilities and the timeframe after which it would be permitted to resume uranium enrichment. No Iranian concession is expected on the core issue of enrichment itself, nor is there any indication that Tehran will agree to discuss its ballistic missile program or its support for regional terrorism. . . . Meanwhile, Iran's rapid trials are continuing, most conducted remotely via video. Special tribunals established to prosecute participants in the protest movement handed down death sentences at the start of the week to dozens of young people accused of burning mosques and committing other offenses. It remains unclear whether the executions have been carried out, but families have received official notifications.
Iran said on Monday it does not support an interim agreement in talks with the United States and is seeking a swift, result-oriented deal focused on lifting sanctions and addressing nuclear issues, as the two sides prepare for another round of negotiations within days. . . . [Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail] Baghaei said US threats against Iran during the talks would not alter Tehran’s approach, adding that Iran’s armed forces remain on heightened alert while diplomacy continues.
Trump Iran Airstrikes Decision to Be Guided by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff’s Advice | Guardian
Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump’s Top General Warns of Iran Strike Risks | Axios
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine has been advising President Trump and top officials that a military campaign against Iran could carry significant risks, in particular the possibility of becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict, according to two sources with knowledge of those internal discussions. . . . No one is advocating for an invasion or “boots on the ground” military action, the sources said. . . . Trump posted on Truth Social that Caine would like to avoid war, but thinks it will “be something easily won” if necessary. “He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump wrote.
Security Cabinet Told That Trump Is Pushing for Iran Deal in Stages—Report | Times of Israel
[Sunday’s Israeli] security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem dealt at length with the direction of ongoing talks between Iran and the US, according to the Maariv daily. Ministers were told that Trump is pursuing a deal based on stages, as he has done in Gaza and elsewhere, with the most pressing issue—Iran’s nuclear program—being handled in the first stage. The issues of Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for armed terror groups will be handled in subsequent stages according to the Trump vision, reports Maariv.
If the Iranian regime “makes perhaps the most serious mistake in its history,” [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] warns, “and attacks Israel, we will respond with strength that it can’t even imagine.”
PROXY WARS
Report: Iran-Linked Terror Plots Targeting Israeli Embassies Abroad | Israel Hayom
An Israeli source quoted on the Saudi television channel Al-Hadath warned that the threat level facing Israeli diplomatic missions abroad is extremely high, with multiple warnings of planned attacks. According to the Israeli source, “We may evacuate several of our embassies.” He added, “We have raised the readiness threshold at our embassies in Europe, the Far East, and Latin America.” “There are warnings about the intent of elements linked to Iran to carry out terrorist attacks against our interests abroad,” the source was quoted as saying. “We have asked former security personnel and former senior officials to return to the country as soon as possible.”
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Anti-Government Student Protests Spread to More Iranian Universities | BBC News
A fresh wave of anti-government protests staged by students at several Iranian universities that began on Saturday has spread to more campuses, footage confirmed by BBC Verify and BBC Persian shows.
Iran Protester Dies After Torture in Guards’ Custody, Source Says | Iran International
A 35-year-old protester arrested after January demonstrations in Mashhad died in hospital after weeks in a coma caused by severe torture in Revolutionary Guards intelligence detention, according to information received by Iran International. Arash Tolou Sheikhzadeh was detained on February 6 when agents from the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps raided his home about a week after he shared videos of protests held in Mashhad on January 8 and 9. . . . Arash’s condition showed relative improvement during his stay in intensive care, according to a hospital source who contacted the family. His level of consciousness rose from 2.5 to 5 over three days. Despite this, his ventilator was switched off on February 15, leading to his death, the source said. “His condition was clearly getting better,” the source said. “But they turned off the ventilator and effectively killed him.”
“Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full,” said Hossein*, 21, a student at the University of Tehran. “It’s for them—our friends, classmates and compatriots, who were gunned down in front of our eyes, that we decided to boycott the classes.” . . . “They called their spilled blood foreign-backed,” Hossein added, alluding to the regime’s labelling of dissenters as agents of foreign powers. “But we know the regime can no longer kill students on campus and call us terrorists . . . We are not afraid of losing our lives. We all are willing to put our lives on the line so at least the next generations of this country will live in freedom and peace.”
Iranian Students Burn Flag, Signaling a New Phase in State–Society Rupture | Iran International
The burning of the Islamic Republic’s national flag at three Iranian universities on Monday marks a new high in the widening rift between the state and the people. The protest movement in Iran is no longer selectively targeting certain symbols of the Islamic Republic, as it did a decade ago. It is now challenging everything the Islamic Republic represents, including the national flag itself.
REGIME PROPAGANDA
How Tehran Whitewashes Its Crimes Abroad | Free Press and Iran International
As Iran’s security forces crushed protests, a parallel operation unfolded online, blaming a domestic uprising on a global conspiracy. In late December and early January, as Iranians took to the streets to protest the country’s economic malaise, the Islamic Republic quietly began seeding onto social media its own narrative of events, in preparation for a brutal crackdown. The uprising wasn’t organic or homegrown, according to posts by state-backed media accounts, but the shadowy work of the Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s vaunted Mossad spy agency. . . . For the Islamic Republic to rely on claims of U.S. and Israeli involvement to justify its repression isn’t new. The difference between this campaign and the Iranian regime’s frequent efforts to smear dissidents and protesters as foreign agents is that the push launched by the regime this time was not designed only, or even mainly, for domestic consumption. It was directed just as much at ideological allies and supporters abroad, inserting the Islamic Republic’s propaganda into global political discussions and seeking to whitewash the massacre of Iranian protesters. That campaign has succeeded in gaining the backing of a wide array of far-left media personalities, MAGA-aligned influencers, Russian-backed X accounts, and global bot farms.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Binance Employees Find $1.7 Billion in Crypto Was Sent to Iranian Entities | New York Times
A group of internal investigators at the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance made a series of startling discoveries last year. People in Iran had gained access to more than 1,500 accounts on the Binance platform over the previous year. About $1.7 billion had flowed from two Binance accounts to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups, a possible violation of global sanctions. And one of those accounts belonged to a Binance vendor. After uncovering the transactions, the investigators reported them to top executives, according to company records and other documents reviewed by The New York Times. Within weeks, Binance fired or suspended at least four employees involved in the investigation, according to the documents and three people with knowledge of the situation. The company cited issues such as “violations of company protocol” related to the handling of client data. The sequence of events shows that Binance, the world’s largest venue for crypto trading, has continued to find evidence of potential legal violations on its platform, even after it pleaded guilty to breaking anti-money-laundering laws in 2023.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Putin Whisperer Who Is Really Running Iran | Telegraph
Iran has a president who admits he is “a doctor, not a politician” and should not be expected to cure the country’s problems. It has a foreign minister who must ask permission before speaking to American envoys in nuclear talks. And it has an 86-year-old supreme leader who threatens to send US warships to the “bottom of the sea.” Then it has Ali Larijani. The 67-year-old security chief is the man the supreme leader Ali Khamenei trusts more than anyone else in the Islamic Republic, according to Iranian officials, and he is now effectively running Iran as it teeters between deal and destruction.
Four Killed After Iranian Military Helicopter Crashes into Fruit Market | Independent
A military helicopter crashed into a fruit market in the central Isfahan province of Iran, killing four people, according to reports. The pilot and the co-pilot were killed, along with two merchants in the market, reported state media. Emergency services rushed to the spot to put out the fire after the helicopter came down in Dorcheh, Iranian state television reported. The footage aired on local media showed debris and smoke rising from the market.