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Newsweek
29-07-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Iran Says US Plotted to Overthrow Government
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Iran's top spy agency on Monday accused the United States and Israel of plotting to install a puppet government in Tehran led by the exiled son of the last Iranian monarch. The alleged operation in June, which coincided with Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear enrichment sites, was part of "a premeditated and multifaceted war," Iran's Intelligence Ministry said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department and Israel's Foreign Ministry for comment. Why It Matters Tehran is intensifying efforts to root out alleged espionage following its two-week missile war with Israel. It said the conflict was publicly centered on Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, with a parallel objective of regime destabilization in line with longstanding U.S. and Israeli interests. Tensions between Iran and the United States have escalated sharply despite the ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump. Iran claimed political and symbolic success by surviving the Israeli attack, while the Israeli and U.S. militaries said their bombing campaign dealt significant damage Iran's strategic infrastructure, setting back its nuclear ambitions for years. Iranian worshippers chant slogans as they hold up posters of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli protest after their Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, July 25, 2025. Iranian worshippers chant slogans as they hold up posters of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli protest after their Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, July 25, 2025. Vahid Salemi/AP Photo What To Know The Iranian Intelligence Ministry said the United States and Israel attempted to deploy armed security forces to Tehran as part of the "regime-change scheme" to put in power Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of Iran's last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A CIA-backed coup in 1953 had restored the pro-Western shah, only for the 1979 Islamic Revolution to topple the monarchy and usher in the current theocracy. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi fled the country that year, while U.S.-based Reza Pahlavi has long pushed for non-violent regime change, but has limited support inside Iran. "The U.S. and the Zionist regime plotted to install a puppet exile government headed by the disgraced Pahlavi heir, coordinating closely with known Zionist operatives," Iran's spy agency said. The ministry said it seized arms including rocket launchers, explosives and U.S.-made weaponry in its border areas, and alleged that Israel had coordinated with separatist groups, including ISIS elements, to spark internal unrest. Tehran said it arrested dozens of people accused of participating in the plot, "disguised as civil or religious groups," seeming confirming the wider security crackdown on alleged Mossad agents following the 12-day conflict, in which Israel attacked nuclear and military sites across the country and killed top Iranian commanders and scientists. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei avoided assassination by relocating to a fortified underground bunker during the Israeli strikes. Israeli defense chief Israel Katz publicly acknowledged that Israel had intended to kill Khamenei. Israeli media said this week that Iranian authorities arrested at least 35 Jews suspected of spying, including two Americans. What People Are Saying Iran's Intelligence Ministry said via the Tasnim news agency: "The war preparation included deceptive negotiations, misuse of international organizations, illegal resolutions from the IAEA Board of Governors, media propaganda, and intelligence operations by [U.S. Central Command], the Pentagon, and Zionist-linked corporations utilizing advanced satellite and cyber technologies. "However, Western intelligence agencies, relying on delusional analysis and misinformation from anti-Iran groups, underestimated Iran's resilience. The enemy's strategy, modeled on failed U.S. regime change operations, was crushed by Iran's unified defense." Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in June: "If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out. Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders…so in the end it wasn't realistic." U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social in June: "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" What Happens Next The United States has supported European demands for Iran to demonstrate compliances with nuclear regulations or face new sanctions at the United Nations.
11-07-2025
- Politics
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says Iran threatens her life after its war with Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Iran's security services have threatened the life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi after her native country's war with Israel, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and activists said Friday. Mohammadi said that the threats have come through both her lawyer and other indirect channels as she's kept up public statements about the Islamic Republic's theocracy, women's rights and others issues, the committee said. 'The clear message, in her own words, is that 'I have been directly and indirectly threatened with 'physical elimination' by agents of the regime,'' the committee said in its announcement. The Free Narges Coalition Steering Committee, which advocates for the 53-year-old laureate, said that the threats came from Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Iran's government hasn't responded to Mohammadi's recent remarks, and Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The warnings about Mohammadi came as Iran has made arrests and conducted executions in the wake of the 12-day war with Israel, raising concerns of a further possible crackdown targeting human rights activists and others. Mohammadi has been giving a series of interviews with media abroad during the war, further raising her profile, while Israel at one point began striking targets synonymous with Iran's ruling theocracy. She herself fled Tehran for a time during the Israeli airstrikes and said: "War does not have the capacity for the fundamental transformation that the Iranian people seek.' 'In Iran, there is a misogynistic and religious government helmed by (Supreme Leader Ayatollah) Ali Khamenei who has taken us to hell while promising paradise,' Mohammadi told the Wall Street Journal recently. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is taking us to hell while promising freedom and democracy.' Mohammadi has been out on a medical furlough from prison, where she is serving 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran's government. She has kept up her activism, despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. That includes backing the nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, which have seen women openly defy the government by not wearing the hijab.
Associated Press
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says Iran threatens her life after its war with Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's security services have threatened the life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi after her native country's war with Israel, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and activists said Friday. Mohammadi said that the threats have come through both her lawyer and other indirect channels as she's kept up public statements about the Islamic Republic's theocracy, women's rights and others issues, the committee said. 'The clear message, in her own words, is that 'I have been directly and indirectly threatened with 'physical elimination' by agents of the regime,'' the committee said in its announcement. The Free Narges Coalition Steering Committee, which advocates for the 53-year-old laureate, said that the threats came from Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Iran's government hasn't responded to Mohammadi's recent remarks, and Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The warnings about Mohammadi came as Iran has made arrests and conducted executions in the wake of the 12-day war with Israel, raising concerns of a further possible crackdown targeting human rights activists and others. Mohammadi has been giving a series of interviews with media abroad during the war, further raising her profile, while Israel at one point began striking targets synonymous with Iran's ruling theocracy. She herself fled Tehran for a time during the Israeli airstrikes and said: 'War does not have the capacity for the fundamental transformation that the Iranian people seek.' 'In Iran, there is a misogynistic and religious government helmed by (Supreme Leader Ayatollah) Ali Khamenei who has taken us to hell while promising paradise,' Mohammadi told the Wall Street Journal recently. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'is taking us to hell while promising freedom and democracy.' Mohammadi has been out on a medical furlough from prison, where she is serving 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran's government. She has kept up her activism, despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. That includes backing the nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, which have seen women openly defy the government by not wearing the hijab.
News18
17-06-2025
- Politics
- News18
Iran On Edge Over Israeli Spy Threat, Warns Public About Strangers in Masks, Goggles
Last Updated: Iran's Intelligence Ministry warns citizens about potential Israeli spies amid heightened tensions. Dozens arrested for alleged spying and supporting Israel Iran's Intelligence Ministry has urged its citizens to be wary of strangers wearing masks or goggles, driving pickup trucks, carrying large bags, or filming around military, industrial, or residential areas. The reason: Iran believes they might be Israeli spies. The Islamist regime has arrested dozens of people on suspicion of spying amid fears of infiltration by Israel's Mossad intelligence service in the wake of heightened tensions between the two countries. Since Israeli strikes began Friday, the Iranian regime has also arrested scores of people across the country for allegedly sharing articles online 'in support of the Zionist regime" – accusing them of disrupting the 'psychological security of society" – including 60 people in Isfahan, where Israel claims to have targeted a nuclear site. The wave of arrests comes as Tehran reels from the revelation that Mossad operatives smuggled weapons into Iran before Israel's unprecedented attack and used them to target the country from within. Elsewhere, a poster published by the state-affiliated Nour News – which is close to Iran's security apparatus – singled out for suspicion people who wear 'masks, hats, and sunglasses, even at night" and those who receive 'frequent package deliveries by courier." The poster asks people to report 'unusual sounds from inside the house, such as screaming, the sound of metal equipment, continuous banging" and 'houses with curtains drawn even during the day." Another poster, attributed to the police and published on state media, advised landlords who had recently rented their homes to notify the police immediately. Meanwhile, journalists in Iran have told CNN The fears of Israeli penetration only amplify the anxieties felt by the increasingly isolated leadership of the Islamic Republic, which has been rocked in recent years by anti-regime protests sparked by the death of a young woman in the custody of the country's so-called morality police. The same force used to crack down on those protests, the Basij (a paramilitary wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guard) has been deployed in night patrols to increase 'surveillance" in the wake of the Israeli infiltration, according to Iran's state-controlled media. Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had smuggled weapons into Iran ahead of the strikes on Friday to target Iran's defence from within, according to Israeli security officials. The officials said Israel established a base for launching explosive drones inside Iran, and the drones were later used to target missile launchers near Tehran. Precision weapons were also smuggled in and used to target surface-to-air missile systems, clearing the way for Israel's Air Force to carry out more than 100 strikes with upward of 200 aircraft in the early hours of Friday local time. The plan to disable Iranian defences seems to have been effective; Israel said all of its aircraft returned safely from the first waves of strikes, appearing to show Israeli air superiority over parts of a country hundreds of miles away. Intelligence gathered by the Mossad in Iran also gave Israel's air force the ability to target senior Iranian commanders and scientists. In an incredibly rare move, the Mossad released video from some of its operations, showing drones attacking what appear to be unsuspecting missile launchers. It is the latest operation to show how deeply Israel's intelligence services, including the Mossad, have penetrated some of Iran's most closely guarded secrets. The operations have made the Mossad appear a nearly unstoppable force in Iran, capable of hitting at some of its highest-ranking officials and most sensitive sites. (With input from agencies) First Published:
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Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Iran urges public to watch for Mossad agents in masks and sunglasses
Iran has detained dozens of individuals suspected of spying, amid growing concerns over infiltration by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, CNN reported on Tuesday. Since Israeli airstrikes began on Friday, 28 people have been arrested in Tehran, accused of working for Israel. On Monday, a man who was arrested two years ago for the same charge was executed. The move is seen as a warning to potential collaborators. Mossad infiltration fuels security crackdown These arrests follow reports that Mossad agents managed to smuggle weapons into Iran and use them to carry out attacks inside the country. Iran's Intelligence Ministry has responded by urging citizens to report any suspicious activity and has issued public guidance on how to identify collaborators. Iran advises public to look out for suspicious signs A statement from the ministry warned citizens to be cautious of unfamiliar individuals wearing masks or goggles, driving pickup trucks, carrying large bags, or filming near military, industrial, or residential sites. Another advisory, credited to the police and shared through state media, instructed landlords to inform authorities immediately if they have recently rented out their properties. Nationwide arrests over online support for Israel Authorities have also arrested many others across the country for allegedly posting content online in support of Israel. This includes 60 people in the city of Isfahan, where Israel has claimed to have targeted a nuclear facility. In response to the Israeli infiltration, Iran's state-controlled media reports that the Basij, a paramilitary force under the Revolutionary Guard, has been deployed to conduct night patrols. Indian embassy issues advisory for nationals in Tehran Meanwhile, the Indian embassy has advised Indian nationals who can leave Tehran using their own resources to move to a safer location outside the city. Trump calls for Tehran evacuation amid conflict escalation US President Donald Trump posted a message on his social media site calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran but later denied reports that he had rushed back to Washington to work on a ceasefire. Israel's air campaign on the Iranian capital appeared to broaden on the fifth day of the intensifying conflict after it issued warnings on Monday for about 300,000 people in Tehran to evacuate ahead of airstrikes.
