The Iranian government has arrested a “Zionist spy” in the southern province of Kerman, according to a report Tuesday via the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The firm cited a local prosecutor who claimed the suspect was an agent of the “Zionist intelligence service,” apparently referring to Mossad.
The prosecutor described the suspect acting as a businessman who had traveled abroad, adding to a neighboring country, “with the aim of transmitting data and receiving education to engage in acts of sabotage. “
He said the alleged spy planned to “undermine security” in Kerman before being arrested by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The suspect had planned to meet with an Israeli agent in a neighboring country to get a new mission, he said.
The report alleged that the suspect communicated with his Israeli superiors from inside Iran via encrypted technology.
Iran occasionally announces the detention of others it says are spying for foreign countries, adding that the United States and Israel provide no evidence to back up those claims.
Iran’s leaders have also recently claimed that popular unrest across the country opposing the regime’s repression is orchestrated through Israel and the United States.
Last month, Iranian media reported on the regime’s arrest of a dozen members of the Baha’i organization on charges of spying for Israel.
The General Intelligence Department of the northern province of Mazandaran said in a statement that two of those arrested had been “trained” at the Baha’i Center in Haifa, Israel, the global hub of the devout group.
He said they had formed a network of Mazandaran spies.
The Baha’i International Community said the arrests were part of an Iranian crackdown on faith fanatics over the past month, which included arrests, beatings, house demolitions, and denial of higher education, among other measures.
A week earlier, Amnesty International published a report saying Iran had intensified its “ruthless” persecution of the Baha’is, the Islamic Republic’s largest non-Muslim minority.
In August, Iran arrested several members of the organization and accused them of spying for Israel.
The Baha’i faith was founded in Iran in the mid-nineteenth century. His Prophet, Baháʼu’lláh, was exiled from Iran and went to Baghdad and then to Turkey. The Ottoman government imprisoned him in Acre in elegant Israel, then under Ottoman control.
In July, Iranian media reported that an alleged Israeli spy network of five other people had been arrested in Iran, when such mass detention was announced within a week.
Israel is believed to have carried out a series of attacks on Iran in recent years, adding to the sabotage of nuclear facilities and the killing of the country’s former nuclear program chief. Jerusalem has never claimed responsibility for the incidents, but reports have highlighted its involvement. .
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