TEHRAN – Iran national volleyball team will face Brazil early Thursday in the 2026 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

Team Melli will meet Bulgaria, Argentina, and Belgium in the following days in Pool 2.

“We are fully-prepared for the VNL and I am optimistic about the match against Brazil,” Iran coach Roberto Piazza said. “We have trained well in the previous days and we are determined to focus on our matches.”

The 2026 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League is the eighth edition of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League, an annual men’s international volleyball tournament. It is currently held from 10 June to 2 Aug. 2026, with the final round to take place at the Beilun Gymnasium in Ningbo, China.

Following the results of the 2025 Nations League, the Netherlands were relegated and replaced by Belgium as the highest-ranked non-VNL team in the FIVB World Rankings.

Tehran Times

TEHRAN – President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that Iran will never give in to threats and pressure amid the latest fighting between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other.

“The people of Iran will never surrender to any violation of their dignity, independence, or territorial integrity,” Pezeshkian said.

The president pointed to the “miscalculations” of the United States and Israel in the wake of a war they launched against Iran on February 28.

“Those who designed policies of pressure and destabilization against the country thought that the measures they had put in place would quickly break the will of the Iranian people. However, the effective and wise presence of the people in the public arena defeated all such calculations and showed that Iran’s social capital is the country’s greatest pillar of security and progress,” he said.

Pezeshkian said a state of neither war nor peace is not beneficial. However, he added: “War is certainly not in the country’s interest, but if anyone seeks to violate Iran’s dignity, territory, or sovereignty, we will not surrender or back down. They can only dream of such a thing… This is not something we will compromise on.”

An April 8 ceasefire halted the US-Israeli war, but diplomatic efforts aimed at permanently ending the conflict have so far failed due to what Iran calls Washington’s “excessive” demands.

Despite the truce, Iran and the United States and Israel have recently exchanged fire, with Tehran accusing both sides of violating the ceasefire. Officials say Iran remains open to talks but will respond with force to any act of aggression.
Tehran Times

Iran’s highest operational command unit has ordered closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz shortly after the launch of fresh American military aggression against the country, despite the Islamic Republic’s warnings against such military adventurism.

“From this moment, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the passage of all vessels, including oil tankers and commercial ships, and any traffic will be targeted,” the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement issued in early Thursday.

The headquarters noted that the order has been issued “following the continued acts of aggression by the criminal United States and in view of the start of attacks by that country’s aggressive military against several areas in the southern province of Hormozgan.”

“Claims by the United States that ships are transiting the aforementioned strait are rejected.”

In an unequivocal warning, the headquarters additionally asserted that “the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic will deliver a forceful and decisive response to any aggression and hostile action by the aggressive and terrorist US military in the region.”

IRGC strikes trespassing vessels

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy, meanwhile, issued a separate statement, announcing that the force had struck two vessels trying to cross the waterway illegally.

The IRGC Navy likewise noted that the waterway “will be closed until further notice.”

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Army have announced a series of coordinated retaliatory military operations targeting US military installations across the region, including assets in Bahrain.

The statements, issued in early Thursday, described the operations as a response to American aggression targeting various regions in southern Iran.

Two-wave operation targets 18 US military assets

The IRGC said its Aerospace Force and Navy conducted a retaliatory operation in two separate waves in reprisal for attacks on the Corps’ coastal outposts and service units, law enforcement posts, and the Bandar Abbas airport area.

“Eighteen key targets belonging to the criminal US military” were struck and destroyed at the Ali al-Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber airbases in Kuwait, as well as the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain.

Drone strikes against US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain

Separately, the Army’s Public Relations Office reported a drone operation targeting the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

“In response to a ceasefire violation and attacks on parts of southern Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army used various explosive-laden drones to strike the US Fifth Fleet,” the office noted.

It added that communication antennas and radar systems associated with the fleet’s Patriot air defense system were targeted in the counterstrikes.

The Army said its forces remained fully prepared for further confrontation and would continue operations until the “punishment of the aggressor” was completed.

Meanwhile, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s highest operational command unit, also issued a statement, attributing the halt brought about to the latest round of the aggression to “powerful and decisive response” by the armed forces.

Also on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said US bombing in Iran would stop shortly, claiming that senior Iranian officials had called to ask him to halt the latest attack.

The IRGC, however, categorically rejected the claim, calling it “a cover to escape war.”

The headquarters further stated that the Iranian military response to US atrocities would continue, without specifying timing or scope.

The coordinated retaliation came after fresh explosions were reported across parts of Hormozgan and other southern regions of the Islamic Republic, as the US military confirmed launching a new wave of unprovoked assaults against the country.

In response to the latest aggression, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has also ordered closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“From this moment, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the passage of all vessels, including oil tankers and commercial ships, and any traffic will be targeted,” the command unit said in a statement.

Press TV

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has unleashed a masterful literary broadside against Washington’s latest brazen act of economic piracy, wielding William Shakespeare’s pen to strip bare the hollow arrogance of a superpower caught red-handed stealing Iranian assets.

In a post on X on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei quoted directly from British playwright William Shakespeare’s Macbeth to eviscerate US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s shameless boast that Washington had seized roughly one billion dollars in Iranian cryptocurrency holdings.

“Now does he feel his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief,” Baghaei wrote.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman paired Shakespeare’s immortal lines with video footage of Bessent openly crowing at the Reagan National Economic Forum, “We seized about a billion dollars of their crypto and just outright seize it… Just outright grab the wallets.”

The metaphor is drawn from the tragic fall of a usurper king whose stolen crown and robes no longer fit. It lays bare the ugly truth of a declining American empire, reduced to the role of a common thief, desperately clutching ill-gotten gains that belong to the Iranian people.

This fresh provocation unfolds against the backdrop of ongoing indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Pakistan.

Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that these negotiations are deliberately sabotaged by America’s shifting positions and outright refusal to fulfill even the most basic commitments regarding sanctions relief.

Tehran has made its red line crystal clear that any genuine agreement must include the immediate and unconditional return of billions of dollars in Iranian funds unlawfully frozen in foreign banks, money that is the rightful property of the Iranian nation, not war booty for Washington or a slush fund for its Zionist allies.

Senior Iranian officials have firmly rejected any framing of this lawful restitution as a “concession,” insisting that at least half of the frozen assets must be released to Iran without delay upon any memorandum of understanding.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf says the country’s strategy to put an end to the current US-Israeli aggression is to simultaneously pursue war and diplomacy to defend the rights of the Iranian nation.

In an audio message addressed to the Iranian nation released on Monday, Qalibaf said that Iran is ready to immediately resume its military operations to respond to US and Israeli violations of the ceasefire announced in early April.

His comments came after Iran carried out missile attacks on the Israeli regime in response to its violations of the terms of the ceasefire, which also include the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.

The operation came despite ongoing efforts to mediate a deal between Iran and the US that could put a permanent end to the US-Israeli aggression on the country that began in late February.

Qalibaf, who has led Iran’s indirect negotiations with the US, said Tehran has been serious in its pursuit of diplomacy to end the aggression.

However, he insisted that military response to US violations of the ceasefire in the Persian Gulf and against Israel’s attacks in Lebanon is also a firm part of Iran’s strategy to reach its objectives in the current confrontation.

“If we view diplomacy merely as closed-door negotiations and diplomatic smiles, we are doomed to fail from the very start. And if we rely solely on military operations and war, we cannot fully defend our rights,” Qalibaf said in his message.

He said the recent escalation in the confrontation with the US and the Israeli regime was due to the continued US blockade on Iran’s maritime trade and Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“America’s naval blockade against the Iranian nation and breaching the agreement reached about Lebanon were clear violations of the ceasefire,” said the parliament speaker.

“It was natural for us to give a decisive response in defense of the rights of the Iranian nation,” Qalibaf said, praising the country’s armed forces for acting “with authority.”

Qalibaf said the situation in Lebanon was an example of how diplomacy alongside military action can push back the aggressor. “Diplomacy does not hinder military operations, nor do military operations hinder diplomacy,” he said.

He explained that the military domain serves as the “driving engine of power-building,” deterring the enemy from fantasizing about launching  an act of aggression. The diplomatic field, he added, must transform that power into tangible, legal and economic achievements.

The chief negotiator made clear that Tehran has no trust in the US as it engages in diplomacy with Washington. “Our goal is to end the war and establish lasting security, not to normalize relations with the United States,” he said.

“We have no trust in the opposite side,” he asserted.

Press TV

TEHRAN – Persian carpets are often introduced through familiar ideas: tradition, craftsmanship, heritage, and identity. While these remain essential, they do not fully explain why these objects continue to resonate, specifically with contemporary global audience increasingly attentive to timeless art.

What distinguishes handwoven Persian carpet is not simply the time required to produce it, but the way time becomes integral to its structure. Unlike industrial production, each knot registers a moment of attention. These carpets are where time is captured.

This condition is not unique to Iran. Textile traditions across the world, from Ottoman court carpets to Chinese silk weaving and European tapestry, also embody extended artists. Yet Persian carpets offer a particularly legible range of ways in which time can be visually organized.

Persian carpets do not exist outside time; It is not about singular notion of timelessness, but a set of distinct temporal experiences: spiral, continuous, and rhythmic. rather, they engage with it through multiple visual strategies.
Different carpets operate through a different mindset. Consider the 16th century Ardabil Carpet. Its central medallion draws the eye inward, creating a moment of visual pause. The composition feels concentrated and composed, not unlike large-scale European tapestries produced in workshops such as “Gobelins” where attention is similarly directed and sustained. Time, in this instance, appears static. In Arabesque designs, there is no fixed beginning or end. Lines extend, return, and continue, allowing the eyes to move over without destination, just like cloud or wave patterns in East Asia; Surfaces resist linear reading.

Different carpets narrate different stories. “Hunting 16th century’s carpet” introduces eternal movements. Riders and animals appear in a scene, with repetitive, continuous and unresolved activity. A similar cyclical quality can be observed in certain Central Asian textiles, where figurative elements circulate without a fixed endpoint. Re-known “Polonaise carpets”, which also in fact belongs to Safavid dynasty, woven with silk and metallic threads, interact with light in ways that shift throughout the day. Another material, another dimension. Related effects can be found in Italian Renaissance textiles. On the other hand, “Geometric carpets” and “Tribal carpets” present more measured rhythms. Repeated motifs suggest order, still subtle variations prevent complete uniformity. Time here is structured, though never rigid.

In a cultural moment shaped by speed, optimization, and repetition, Persian carpets do not simply represent the past. They propose an alternative relationship to time. Timelessness, in this sense, is not defined by permanence, but by the ways in which time is held and experienced.

Tehran Times

TEHRAN – Iran’s Leader has approved pardons or sentence reductions for more than 2,000 convicted individuals ahead of Eid al-Ghadir, a major Islamic festival, according to the Judiciary.

The clemency was granted by Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei following a request from Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. It covers prisoners convicted by general and revolutionary courts, military tribunals, and state penal institutions.

Judiciary spokesperson Ali Mozafari said on Friday that eligibility criteria include the absence of a private complainant, no significant prior criminal record, and evidence of rehabilitation after serving part of the sentence. Factors such as age, family situation, and the nature of the offense are also taken into account.

“The principle in the judiciary is the full execution of sentences,” Mozafari said. “But when it becomes clear during enforcement that a person has reformed and continued punishment is unnecessary, pardon or sentence reduction becomes possible.”

He added that the majority of the more than 2,000 inmates covered by the decision are expected to be released immediately.
Mozafari also outlined strict exclusions, noting that individuals convicted of security-related offenses, espionage, actions against domestic or international national security, or threats to public safety are not eligible for clemency under any circumstances.

“In the current situation where the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in an imposed war with global arrogance, the United States, and the Zionist regime, dealing with crimes against national security is carried out with full decisiveness, and this category of convicts is excluded from any reduction or pardon,” he said.

Cases involving private plaintiffs are also excluded unless the complainant grants consent.

Such pardons are regularly issued on major religious and national occasions. Eid al-Ghadir, observed on the 18th of Dhu al-Hijjah, commemorates the appointment of Imam Ali (AS) as the successor of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon Him).

Provincial and central pardon commissions reviewed eligible cases despite time constraints due to the holiday period and the country’s heightened security posture, Mozafari said. He added that decisions are made strictly according to legal criteria, without external influence.
The Judiciary spokesperson added, “No pressure, demand, or consideration outside legal frameworks has any effect on the review process.”

Tehran Times