An $870m debt-relief deal suggests that Iran International, an Iranian opposition outlet, has ties to Saudi Arabian investors, according to a Financial Times report on Thursday. The links stem from documents related to a debt-for-equity swap that Iran International conducted in December to shore up its finances. Iran International has spent hundreds of millions of dollars since its founding in 2017 by British-Saudi investors, the FT reported.
According to the report, Iran International’s parent company, Volant Media UK, has lost more than $550m over the past five years, and it owes related entities about $645m. Those numbers came from documents that the FT reported as covering the financial year ending December 2024.
Iran International says it is the “most popular Persian speaking foreign based news channel in Iran”.It employs 700 people and broadcasts into Iran from London via satellite, radio and social media outlets.
Iran International has been accused by critics of promoting “regime change” in Iran and advancing the position of the former shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, for a return to power. The outlet has long denied links to Israel or Saudi Arabia.
Iran International reported heavily on protests that struck Iran at the beginning of this year, sparked by a cost-of-living crisis brought on, in part, by US sanctions.
In January 2025, the news site reported that more than 36,500 people were killed in a crackdown on protests. Those numbers were significantly higher than those estimated by the US and other western-based human rights groups.
US President Donald Trump cited casualty numbers similar to those reported by Iran International days before launching a war on Iran on February 28, but did not disclose where he had gotten the death toll number.
A New York Times report from April said that Israel also lobbied Trump to intervene in Iran, citing the protests that engulfed the country. Israel told the US that Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, could assist in "fomenting" further riots and rebellions to collapse the Islamic Republic.
According to the FT, Volant Media issued an allotment of 648 million shares, valued at about $870m, on December 13.
On that day, all of Volant’s original 50,000 shares were transferred from British-Saudi film executive Adel Abdulkarim Alabdulkarim, who is Volant’s company director and secretary, to Info-Cast Cayman Limited, an offshore company, the FT reported.
Alabdulkarim has “significant control” of Volant, the FT reported, citing his ability to appoint or remove the majority of the company’s board of directors. But Info-Cast Cayman was listed as the immediate parent company at year-end 2024.
Saleh Hussain Aldowais is the sole director of Info-Cast Cayman, the FT reported, citing Cayman corporate records. A person with that name is the chief operations officer at the Saudi Arabian state-backed Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG).
SRMG is a publicly traded company in Saudi Arabia that operates over 30 media companies and news outlets, including ASharq Al-Awsat, Arab News and Asharq News, which has a partnership with Bloomberg.
A spokesperson for Iran International told the FT that no new funds were injected into the company as part of the debt-for-equity deal.
They said the network “has never received funding from any government or state entity - including Saudi Arabia or Israel - whether directly or indirectly”.
“Where individuals associated with the business hold other external commercial roles, those interests are entirely separate… held in a personal capacity and have no bearing on the editorial, operational or financial independence of the network,” the person added.