The Islamic Republic is holding at least four Iranian American citizens including two individuals arrested after last month's US and Israeli airstrikes, The New York Times reported Saturday, citing rights groups and lawyers.
“Three of the Americans are in jail, and one has been barred from leaving the country,” the New York Times wrote, quoting individuals familiar with the detentions.
Hostage Aid Worldwide, a nonprofit that aids families of detainees, was quoted as saying it remains in contact with the detainees’ friends and relatives, and that all four had traveled to Iran from the United States to visit family.
Two of the four were arrested by security forces shortly after Israel’s attacks on Iran in June, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and Hengaw, independent rights groups based outside the country.
The other two were arrested last year, the report said.
The detentions “are likely to increase the already tense political climate between Tehran and Washington after the United States joined Israel’s attack on Iran and bombarded and severely damaged three of its nuclear sites in June," the report added.
One is a 70-year-old Jewish man from New York, a father and grandfather who runs a jewelry business. Rights groups and the man’s colleagues and friends said he is being questioned over a past trip to Israel.
HRANA identified him as Yehuda Hekmati on July 28.
Another case involves a California woman previously held in Evin prison, whose whereabouts remain unclear after the prison was attacked by Israel and evacuated.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian British academic formerly imprisoned in Iran, confirmed the details, according to The New York Times.
A third Iranian American woman, initially detained in December 2024, is now out of prison but cannot leave the country, the report said. “She is currently out of prison, but her Iranian and American passports were confiscated."
Her US-based lawyer said that after the war, “the Iranian judiciary elevated her case and charged her with espionage.”
Reza Valizadeh, a US-Iranian journalist and former Radio Farda employee, was also arrested in October 2024 while visiting family and later sentenced to 10 years for “collaborating with a hostile government.”
Two Iranian officials told the Times that the New York man and California woman were detained as part of a crackdown on suspected operatives linked to Israel and the US.
The arrests come as President Masoud Pezeshkian has publicly urged members of the Iranian diaspora to return, saying he would coordinate with the intelligence and judiciary ministries to ease the process, according to local media.
“We have to create a framework so that Iranians living abroad can come to Iran without fear,” he said last week.
The United States on Friday advised citizens against traveling to Iran citing what it called escalating paranoia and an unprecedented crackdown on alleged spies and opponents following the 12-day war with Israel.
"The Iranian regime, following the 12-day war with Israel, is in the midst of unprecedented paranoia and a crackdown on spies and regime opponents," the State Department said in a post on its Persian X account USA Beh Farsi.
"Anyone considering travel to Iran should reconsider their decision. We repeat: US citizens should not travel to Iran!" the post reads.
