Iran’s IRGC says it arrested 12 people for alleged collaboration with Israel
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says alleged spies were connected to ‘series of actions planned against our country’s security’; Tehran frequently claims to foil Mossad plots
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Sunday that 12 people had been arrested on suspicion of serving as operatives collaborating with Israel and planning acts against Iran’s security.
“As the Zionist regime and their Western backers, most notably the United States, have not succeeded in their sinister goals against the people of Gaza and Lebanon, they are now seeking to spread the crisis to Iran with a series of actions planned against our country’s security,” the statement said.
Israel has been at war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza and engaged in daily fighting with the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon — both Iranian proxies — since Hamas committed its onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Revolutionary Guards added on Sunday that members of the network of 12 operatives were arrested in six different Iranian provinces, but did not say when.
Tehran frequently claims to foil Mossad operations in the country, but the veracity of such claims is unclear.
The arrests Sunday came in the immediate wake of a series of devastating security breaches suffered by Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the violent explosion of thousands of pagers, walkie-talkies, and other electronics.
Among those hurt in the attacks, widely blamed on Israel, was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, who is reported to have lost an eye.
In August, Iran reportedly arrested at least two dozen people whom it suspected of involvement in the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed while visiting Tehran in late July, in a blast widely blamed on Israel.
Shortly after the assassination, The Telegraph reported that the Mossad had enlisted agents from within the Revolutionary Guards to plant explosives in the Tehran guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying.
The Hamas chief was visiting Tehran at the time to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected after the president, Ebrahim Raisi, was killed in a helicopter crash in May, along with the country’s foreign minister and five others.
The Iranian investigation into Raisi’s death concluded that the crash was caused by bad weather, although an Iranian member of parliament reportedly said that the late president had carried a Hezbollah pager of the type targeted last week.
