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Rights group HRANA reported that Iran executed at least 2,003 people over the past year, a 29% increase from the prior period, with UN experts warning Tehran uses capital punishment to silence dissent. The grim milestone came as commentators drew uncomfortable parallels to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's proposal to livestream the execution of a soldier convicted of a mass shooting, noting that only Iran and Afghanistan currently carry out executions publicly on a routine basis. Critics, including Guardian columnists, argued that Hegseth's plan risks putting the US in the same company as authoritarian states it condemns, while highlighting Iran's own well-documented record of public executions as a tool of political control.