Trump cites Israeli assessment of strikes on Iran to prove Pentagon wrong

The judiciary’s official news outlet, Mizan, reported on Wednesday that Edris Aali, Azad Shojaei, and Rasoul Ahmad Mohammad were put to death at Urmia Central Prison in northwest Iran.

The three were charged with "corruption on earth" and "enmity against God," accusations often levied in cases involving alleged collaboration with foreign governments.

Authorities said the men had worked to smuggle components hidden in shipments of alcoholic beverages, which they claim were ultimately used in the assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official.

While Iranian state media did not name Fakhrizadeh directly in its recent coverage, the allegations correspond with earlier reports linking the men to his killing.

Fakhrizadeh, a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and a prominent figure in its nuclear development efforts, was shot dead in an attack east of Tehran in November 2020. Iran has blamed Israel for orchestrating the assassination.

Contested confessions and accusations of torture

Human rights organizations have raised concerns about the case. According to an exclusive report by Iran International, all three men—reportedly Kurdish cross-border porters known as kolbars—were convicted based on confessions obtained under severe duress.

Aali and Shojaei were reportedly detained for months in Ministry of Intelligence facilities before being transferred to Urmia Prison.

Family members told media outlets the men denied involvement and said their televised confessions were extracted under torture. Ahmad Mohammad, an Iraqi national from the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, was arrested two years after the killing, allegedly after his phone number was found in Aali’s contact list.

Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the assassination, though officials have not denied involvement. In the years following the incident, Israeli media and intelligence sources have described it as a remote-controlled, AI-assisted operation using a weapon smuggled into Iran in parts and reassembled inside the country.

An Israeli intelligence officer told Channel 12 in 2022 that the operation relied on facial recognition to avoid harming Fakhrizadeh’s wife, who was in the car with him, and took less than three minutes to carry out.

Iran’s former Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said in 2022 that efforts to apprehend the main perpetrators had failed, with several suspects fleeing the country shortly after the attack.

Fakhrizadeh, long described by Western intelligence agencies as the architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, was sanctioned by the United Nations and had survived previous assassination attempts.

According to the report, the arrests targeted what authorities described as an “active espionage and sabotage network” that intensified operations after Israel’s attack on June 12, which killed several senior Iranian military and nuclear figures.

Those killed included IRGC commanders Hossein Salami and Mohammad Bagheri, nuclear scientist Ali Akbar Tehranchi, and former nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi, the report said.

Those detained are accused of conducting intelligence operations for Israel, including controlling micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) and suicide drones, building improvised explosives, photographing sensitive military installations, and transmitting data to Israeli forces. Fars said more than 10,000 MAVs were seized in Tehran alone.

The arrests were based on public tips and security operations and were concentrated in the provinces of Kermanshah (126), Isfahan (76), Khuzestan (62), Fars (53), Lorestan (49), and the capital Tehran, where exact figures have not been released. The official numbers exclude detained foreign nationals.

The US-based human rights website HRANA reported on Wednesday that 823 Iranian citizens were on political or security-related charges since the outbreak of the war.

According to the report, 286 people were detained for their online activities, including sharing content about Israel’s attack on Iran.

The total number of arrests made by Iranian security and law enforcement forces on national security grounds has reached 537, HRANA said.

Iran’s judiciary announced that three men convicted of espionage for Israel — Majid Mosayebi, Esmail Fekri, and Mohammad Amin Mahdavi-Shayesteh — were executed over the past two weeks.

Emergency bill for war espionage

Iran’s parliament passed an emergency bill this week to increase penalties for espionage and collaboration with “hostile states,” allowing suspects to be tried under wartime conditions.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said those arrested in the context of Israel’s recent attacks would be prosecuted under “wartime legal provisions.”

Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on state TV that current espionage laws are “too general” and inadequate for addressing recent cases, adding that legal reforms are needed to handle detainees linked to the conflict with Israel.

The bill, passed with 221 votes in favor, none against, and one abstention out of 223 members present, would bar the UN nuclear watchdog’s inspectors from accessing Iran’s nuclear facilities. The legislation must now be ratified by the Supreme National Security Council. 

IAEA access blocked unless 'security guaranteed'

Parliamentary presidium member Alireza Salimi said the bill prohibits IAEA inspectors from entering Iran unless the safety of Iran’s nuclear facilities and peaceful activities is “guaranteed”—a determination that would fall to the Supreme National Security Council.

The legislation’s conditions for resuming cooperation with the IAEA include, full assurance of Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, guarantees of Iran’s right to uranium enrichment under Article 4 of the nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty (NPT), confirmation that the UN Security Council will not trigger the “snapback” mechanism under Resolution 2231.

The bill further criminalizes any act of allowing IAEA inspectors into the country without such guarantees and applies to both safeguards and additional protocol cooperation.

Parliament also voted to impose penalties on officials permitting unauthorized access.

“This legislation is a response to attacks on our sovereignty and peaceful nuclear infrastructure by the Zionist regime and the United States,” Salimi said.

Tehran says it does not seek nuclear weapons and suggests a resolution adopted this month by the IAEA declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations paved the way for Israel's attacks.

The move comes amid a halt in fighting between Iran and Israel, after 12 days of missile and drone attacks that saw unprecedented strikes on Israeli cities and Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure.

No peace, only pause

While the guns have fallen silent for now, Iranian lawmakers stressed that the current calm does not constitute a ceasefire agreement, calling it "only a pause in attacks.”

During a meeting of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, spokesperson Ebrahim Rezai said, “We have not entered a truce. There is no peace. If the Zionist regime commits another act of aggression, we will respond with greater force.”

According to Rezaei, Iran received the request to halt fire indirectly from the United States through a third-party regional intermediary.

Rezai also said that Iran has the legal right under Article 10 of the NPT and Article 60 of the 1969 Vienna Convention to suspend cooperation with the IAEA due to “attacks on the peaceful nuclear infrastructure” by Israel and the US.

Lawmakers accuse IAEA of espionage and bias

Parliament members criticized the IAEA and its Director General Rafael Grossi, accusing the agency of providing “false reports,” politically biased behavior, and facilitating espionage against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Rezai said there are plans to file formal complaints against IAEA officials for alleged misconduct and spying.

Lawmakers also called for international legal action against Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging war crimes proceedings and demands for reparations.

Ali Khezrian, a key proponent of the bill, accused the US, European powers, and the IAEA of exploiting Iran’s transparency to enable military targeting of its facilities.

“They have weaponized technical reports and paved the way for Israel's acts of sabotage,” he said.

Khezrian argued that Iran’s nuclear cooperation had consistently exceeded legal obligations, and accused Western powers of demanding Iran cease uranium enrichment entirely — a right enshrined under Article 4 of the NPT. “They attack our nuclear sites and then ask to inspect the damage. How can we trust such a system?” he said.

Iran has had a fractious relationship with the UN watchdog, barring a third of its inspectors two years ago, calling the organization politically motivated. In another move in 2022, Iran removed several of the agency's monitoring cameras.

Iran to accelerate nuclear program

Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in a fiery speech before the vote, praised the armed forces and warned the West not to underestimate Iran’s capabilities.

“We remain fully armed and ready to retaliate. Our peaceful nuclear program will now advance even faster,” he said.

Ghalibaf added that Iran’s missile responses had forced both the US and Israel to backtrack on their strategic goals while Israel says the country has achieved its objectives.

The speaker's remarks were met with chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” from lawmakers in the chamber.

Also on Wednesday, IAEA chief Grossi said the inspectors' return to Iranian nuclear facilities is the organization's number one priority.

The arrests targeted individuals with criminal records, suspected terrorism ties, and past deportation orders, Homeland Security said. One US citizen was also taken into custody after allegedly threatening to shoot federal officers while shielding an illegal Iranian national.

In Alabama, agents arrested Ribvar Karimi, a former sniper for the Iranian army from 2018 to 2021. Karimi was found with an Iranian military ID card and had entered the country in October 2024 on a K-1 fiancé visa under the Biden administration, Homeland Security said. He never adjusted his immigration status and is now in federal custody pending removal.

Mehran Makari Saheli, a 56-year-old Iranian citizen and ex-member of the IRGC, was arrested on June 22 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the department said. Saheli, who also admitted ties to Hezbollah, had previously been convicted as a felon in possession of a firearm. He was ordered removed in 2022 but remained in the US illegally, officials said.

Other arrests included individuals in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Mississippi, and New York. Among them was Behzad Sepehrian Bahary Nejad, detained in Houston while carrying a loaded 9mm pistol and previously arrested for domestic violence. Hamid Reza Bayat, also arrested in Houston, had been ordered removed in 2005 and has multiple drug convictions.

In Mississippi, Yousef Mehridehno—once a lawful permanent resident—was taken into custody after being listed as a known or suspected terrorist earlier this year, DHS said. His residency had been revoked in 2017 for lying on his visa application and suspected marriage fraud.

Several of those arrested had been living in the US for years despite removal orders, some with criminal records that included drug trafficking, firearms violations, and fraud. All are now in ICE custody awaiting removal proceedings, Homeland Security said.

The meeting came just days after a fragile ceasefire ended the 12-day war between Iran and Israel that drew in the United States and marked the most direct military confrontation between the parties in decades.

“Diplomacy and dialogue are the only path to resolving the unnecessary crisis over Iran's peaceful program,” said Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani. He accused the United States and Israel of launching an illegal war on Iran.

Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon said, "If there were a Nobel prize for deception, the Iranian regime would win it every single year."

Iran’s actions, Danon said, left no room for trust. “While the diplomats and politicians talked, Iran built. While you negotiated, they enriched. While you hoped, they lied.”

“These strikes, in accordance with the inherent right to self-defense, collective self-defense, consistent with the UN Charter, aimed to mitigate the threat posed by Iran to Israel, the region, and to more broadly international peace and security,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, the US Ambassador to the UN.

“We must all urge Iran to seize this opportunity for peace and prosperity and abide by its international obligations.”

US forces attacked Iranian nuclear sites - Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - on Saturday, in a mission dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer."

Nuclear material

Germany raised alarms about the aftermath of the strikes, suggesting Iran may be moving sensitive nuclear materials out of view.

“We are particularly concerned by any possible relocation of nuclear material since the recent military strikes,” said Germany’s ambassador to the UN.

Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said: “The situation remains extremely fragile... It is critical that Iran does not miss this window for diplomacy.”

Woodward warned that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is now “40 times the limit set by the JCPOA” and stressed, “It is urgent that the IAEA have full access, especially on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles.”

Russia, in contrast, condemned the Israeli and American airstrikes.

“The actions of the US and Israel directly violated the UN Charter,” said Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya.

“They constitute a direct and very dangerous challenge to the authority of the NPT, especially Iran’s right guaranteed under Article 4 of the treaty to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, including uranium enrichment.”