TOP STORIES
The United States will send the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President Donald Trump’s efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program and potentially its missile program too.
The Trump administration covertly sent thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran after the regime’s brutal crackdown on demonstrations last month, U.S. officials said, an effort to keep dissidents online following Tehran’s stifling of internet access.
Trump: We Have to Make a Deal with Iran or It Will Be ‘Very Traumatic’ | Times of Israel
US President Donald Trump says, “We have to make a deal with Iran, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic.” “I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump tells reporters in the White House when asked whether his thinking on Iran has changed following his meeting yesterday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They should have made a deal the first time. They got Midnight Hammer instead,” Trump reiterates, referring to the June 2025 US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, which came in the middle of negotiations with Tehran. . . . “If the deal isn’t a very fair deal and a very good deal with Iran, it’s going to be a very difficult time for them,” he adds. A reporter appears to ask about a timeline for Iran to make a deal, and Trump responds, “I guess over the next month.”
UANI IN THE NEWS
UANI to Display Downed Iranian Drone at Munich Security Conference | Iran International
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) will display a downed Iranian Shahed-136 drone—described as a "terror weapon" central to Russia's war in Ukraine—during a briefing at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. “The Iran-Russia military partnership represents a direct and growing threat to European and global security. The international community must act with urgency to disrupt Iran’s aggression, cut off the regime’s illicit funding networks, and impose meaningful costs on those who enable this dangerous alliance,” Jeb Bush, Chairman of UANI said in a statement. The drone, acquired with help from Poland and Ukraine, follows prior UANI displays at UK Parliament, US Congress, and UN. The briefing urges stronger European drone defenses and disruption of funding for Iran-Russia drone programs.
Iranian State TV’s Broadcast of Women Without Hijab Angers Critics | Agence France-Presse
At the annual nationwide rallies on Wednesday marking the anniversary of the revolution, state television for the first time showed women taking part who proclaimed their support for the authorities but were bareheaded. Critics accused authorities of a cynical move after the Islamic republic was shaken by protests last month that were suppressed by a crackdown that according to rights groups left thousands of people dead. . . . Jason Brodsky, policy director at US-based group United Against Nuclear Iran, said the move to feature women without hijab served as “a pressure valve” at home and abroad amid the protest crackdown.
DIPLOMACY
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that US President Donald Trump believes the Iranians could be forced to accept “a good deal,” though the premier clarified that he is skeptical of the possibility. . . . He said that he made it clear to the White House that any agreement “must include the components that are important to us, to Israel, and in my view also to the entire international community—not only the nuclear issue, but also ballistic missiles and Iran’s regional proxies.”
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS
Is Help Still on the Way for Iranian Protesters? | Bernard-Henri Lévy in the Wall Street Journal
Lévy: “I hope [the Trump administration] has grasped that the era of containment is over, that deterrence doesn’t work against a state that has made internal terror, regional destabilization and the end of the world both a mode of governance and a program. I hope that the American armada deployed in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Oman and at the entrance to the Persian Gulf isn’t a mere negotiating backdrop, bargaining chip or communications ploy, but that as I write, it is identifying its targets, pinpointing the weaknesses in enemy defenses, mapping the nerve centers of power—that it is preparing to strike. The time for regime change has come. That is what Mr. Trump promised the women and men who, bare-handed and at the risk of their lives, defied this murderous regime when he announced that ‘help is on the way.’”
PROXY WARS
Senior Hamas Officials Meet Iran’s Larijani in Doha to Discuss Conditions in Gaza | Jerusalem Post
A delegation of senior Hamas officials met in Doha on Wednesday with the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to discuss regional developments and the condition of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Iranian media reported. According to a statement by Hamas, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, chairman of the group’s Shura Council, led the delegation in talks with Ali Larijani in the Qatari capital. . . . The head of the Hamas Shura Council expressed solidarity with Iran, condemning offensive actions against the country.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian Teen Protester Risks Execution over Policeman’s Killing: NGO | Agence France-Presse
An Iranian teenager who took part in nationwide protests in January is facing execution after being convicted on charges of killing a policeman during the demonstrations, an NGO said on Thursday. Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that Saleh Mohammadi, 18, had already been sentenced to death, although the Iranian judiciary said no final and “enforceable” verdict had been issued in the case.
Iran Turns to Digital Surveillance Tools to Track Down Protesters | New York Times
When Iranians began protesting their government in late December, an ominous text message landed in some of their phones. Their “presence at illegal gatherings” had been noted and they were under “intelligence monitoring,” the Iranian authorities texted them. “It is advised that you refrain from attending such illegal gatherings, which are desired by the enemy.” Iran’s government most likely tracked the protesters through location data emitting from their phones, researchers later concluded. The move was part of a new phase by the authorities to combat opposition by tapping a vast digital surveillance infrastructure to track down dissenters who participated in the recent antigovernment demonstrations, according to human rights groups, researchers and documents.
Deaths in Iran’s Crackdown on Protests Reach More than 7,000, Activists Say | Associated Press
The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,003 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists said Thursday.
Iran’s Crackdown Is Now Targeting Its Own Politicians | Wall Street Journal
Iran’s theocratic rulers are extending their clampdown beyond the streets and into the broader political sphere, targeting politicians who took a stand against the bloody crackdown on protesters. At least seven members of Iran’s reformist movement—designed to change the Islamic Republic from within—were arrested in recent days, including its leader. The arrests come as the realization that Iranian security forces carried out one of the biggest waves of political killing in recent history creates fractures within the country’s political system. That has prompted many in the reformist camp to stake out much bolder positions against the regime, putting them at risk.
Iran Releases Two Senior Reformists Arrested After Nation-Wide Protests | Agence France-Presse
Iranian authorities have released on bail two senior reformist figures who were arrested in recent days following anti-government protests in January, local media reported.
NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran Fortifies Underground Complex Near Nuclear Site, Satellite Images Show | BBC Verify and News
Iran has been fortifying an underground complex near one of its nuclear facilities, according to analysis of new satellite images. . . . The photos, first analysed by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based think tank, show tunnel entrances being strengthened at Mount Kolang Gaz La—also known as Pickaxe Mountain.
HOSTAGES
British Tourist Detained in Iran: ‘I Naively Thought We’d Be OK’ | Telegraph
A British woman detained with her husband in Iran has said she “naively and ignorantly thought that we’d be OK” when she made the decision to travel to the country. Lindsay and Craig Foreman were taken into custody in January last year during a world motorcycle tour and were later charged with espionage. The couple, from East Sussex, deny the allegations and are in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
EUROPE & IRAN
Who Runs Iran Is for Iranians to Decide, Says UK Minister | The National
Hamish Falconer, the UK Middle East minister, has drawn a clear line between support for Iranians seeking their rights and deposing the regime. Speaking at an event in the British Parliament, Mr Falconer said the UK government would seek to maintain pressure on the situation through diplomatic and economic pressure.
Safety Body Urges EU Airlines to Avoid Iran Airspace Until March 31 | Reuters
The European Union's aviation safety regulator on Thursday recommended the bloc's airlines stay out of Iran's airspace until March 31, saying it was extending an earlier warning. “The presence and possible use of a wide range of weapons and air-defence systems, combined with unpredictable state responses . . . creates a high risk to civil flights operating at all altitudes and flight levels,” the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said in a bulletin.