News blog about the situation in Iran
Numerous doctors arrested – reports Iranian newspaper
Updated February 3, 2026 – 5:54 p.mReading time: 25 minutes
Apparently several doctors were arrested in Iran. Trump’s special envoy is expected in Israel on Tuesday. All developments in the news blog.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is embarking on a marathon negotiation these days. On the one hand it’s about Ukraine, on the other hand it’s about Iran. He has so far been unsuccessful in both conflicts. Read the full article here.
An Iranian newspaper has reported unusually critically on the detention of medical professionals in connection with the recent mass protests. The newspaper “Shargh”, which is associated with the reform-oriented camp, published the names of 25 doctors and health care workers who were arrested at the beginning of January.
Human rights activists and activists have reported in recent weeks that doctors who treated injured demonstrators were facing consequences. Officials explain in the newspaper’s report that there is no connection between medical treatment and legal consequences. “We don’t know of any case in which someone was treated somewhere and then was imprisoned,” said the president of the Iranian Medical Association.
Research by the well-known reporter Nilufar Hamedi, who wrote the report, also allows critical voices to have their say. An anonymously quoted doctor defends the treatment of demonstrators. “Whether in the hospital, in the practice, at home or on the street, it makes no difference,” he says. The first priority of every nurse and doctor who wants to be bound by their oath is to save human lives.
A few days before the planned talks between the USA and Iran about its nuclear and missile programs, regional states are pushing for a peaceful solution. The Middle East does not need another confrontation, said Anwar Gargash, advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in Dubai on Tuesday. “I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations that lead to an agreement so that we don’t have these problems every few days.”
The priority must be to de-escalate tensions and avoid a conflict, emphasized a representative of a regional power who wished to remain anonymous. The format is still unclear, but the main meeting should take place on Friday in Istanbul. The US is primarily demanding that Iran end uranium enrichment and limit its missile program. Iran rejects this as an encroachment on its sovereignty, but at the same time signals a willingness to negotiate, at least in the nuclear dispute.
