An Iraqi commander of an Iran-backed militia who allegedly plotted attacks against Jewish targets in Europe and North America applied three times to visit Singapore, the city-state’s Internal Security Department said.
Singapore would have denied entry to Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi had he attempted to travel there, the agency said, warning that conflicts in the Middle East were increasing terrorism risks in Southeast Asia.
“Baqer had applied for visas to visit Singapore on three separate occasions in 2023 and 2024, but did not eventually travel to Singapore,” the Internal Security Department said in its annual terrorism threat assessment.
The agency said it believed Al-Saadi had travelled elsewhere in Southeast Asia during that period.
“Had he attempted to enter Singapore, he would have been denied entry,” it said. “We do not discount the possibility that Baqer’s travel to this region could have been for terrorism purposes, and he could have set his sights on targeting Singapore, including US and Israeli/Jewish interests here.”
The department said it was working with foreign intelligence partners to investigate Al-Saadi’s activities. He is currently in US custody awaiting trial.
Activities by the IRGC and its network of armed proxies “have elevated the threat of terrorism beyond the immediate theater of conflict in the Middle East,” the agency added.
US prosecutors identified Al-Saadi in charges filed in May as a senior figure in Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed group designated by Washington as a terrorist organization and linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
According to US authorities, Al-Saadi directed and encouraged attacks against US and Israeli interests and called for Americans and Israelis to be killed in retaliation for the war against Iran.
The published notice did not explain what the committee report contained or specify which parts of it the government opposed.
The cabinet took the decision at an August 23 meeting and it was formally communicated on September 8 by Iran's first vice president, IRNA said, citing the country's national database of laws and regulations.
The cabinet named the president's legal affairs office and the presidential office for science, technology and the knowledge-based economy as government representatives in the matter, IRNA said.
Bill has drawn criticism over broad reach
Parliament approved the general principles of legislation on combating foreign infiltration in August by 183 votes to four, but lawmakers have yet to complete consideration of its individual provisions.
A publicly circulated draft would impose new restrictions on contacts with foreign media, universities, embassies and international organizations and give the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization roles in identifying prohibited foreign links.
Some provisions would restrict sharing information with foreign institutions and certain forms of academic, cultural and civil-society cooperation.
Critics in Iran have warned that the broad wording could expose journalists, academics, researchers and other citizens to prosecution.
The notice did not say whether the cabinet opposed the legislation as a whole or only aspects of the parliamentary committee's report.
Pezeshkian government had raised rights concerns
The decision follows earlier public opposition from President Masoud Pezeshkian's administration. Vice President for Legal Affairs Majid Ansari said in August that the proposal conflicted with constitutional protections for citizens' rights and individual freedoms and would sharply restrict academic contacts with institutions abroad.
"If every type of contact and communication faces restrictions and is criminalized by law, naturally they will prefer to migrate and carry out their scientific and research activities in a free environment," Ansari said, warning that the measure could drive more Iranian researchers, doctors and academics to leave the country.
The barter-like arrangement allowed Tehran to turn payments for Iranian oil into credits for Chinese imports without sending money directly through international banking channels, Reuters said, citing two senior Iranian sources and three other people familiar with the mechanism.
Iran used the system to buy medicines, vehicles and communications equipment, while it was also used in connection with contracts worth millions of dollars to supply Iran with air defense equipment over the past year, the sources said.
Billions routed outside normal banking channels
The mechanism has been operating since at least 2021 but has become more important as Washington tightened sanctions on Iran and companies doing business with Tehran, according to the report.
A buyer acting on behalf of Chinese state-owned oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong had, at least until this year, deposited hundreds of millions of dollars a month with a China-based financial entity known as ChuXin, three people familiar with the arrangement told Reuters.
Those payments covered Iranian oil purchases. ChuXin then sent funds to Chinese exporters and companies involved in infrastructure projects in Iran, likely through other Chinese financial institutions, Reuters reported.
Around 70% of the Iranian oil proceeds handled through the arrangement went to infrastructure projects, while the rest entered accounts belonging to a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, used to pay suppliers of goods to Iran, the sources said.
The two Iranian sources confirmed the existence of the SPV, which Reuters said had not previously been reported.
Oil exchanged for access to Chinese goods
The SPV is managed by two entities, one acting on behalf of China's Ministry of Commerce and another linked to Iran's central bank, according to all five sources.
When Iran's central bank approves an importer to use funds held in the SPV, the Iran-linked entity informs its Chinese counterpart so payments can be made to suppliers, three of the sources said.
The structure gives Chinese manufacturers access to payment without dealing directly with Iran, according to the report. Reuters said there was no indication that the Chinese manufacturers supplying civilian goods had broken sanctions.
Reuters could find no record of a financial institution called ChuXin in Chinese corporate registries, and one source said it may exist only on a spreadsheet.
China says unaware of arrangement
China's foreign ministry told Reuters it was "not familiar with the situation you describe" when asked about the mechanism.
"China has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and have not been authorized by the United Nations Security Council," the ministry said.
Iran's UN missions in New York and Geneva did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Iran's central bank, China's commerce ministry, the National Iranian Oil Company and Zhuhai Zhenrong also did not respond to questions about their reported roles.
US pressure raises stakes
China has long been the main buyer of Iranian oil. More than 80% of Iran's shipped crude went to China in 2025, averaging around 1.4 million barrels per day, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters.
The arrangement has helped Tehran keep trade flowing despite years of sanctions, while giving China access to discounted Iranian crude.
Its importance has grown as the United States has increased economic pressure on Iran during the six-month-old war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned countries in August to cut business ties with Tehran or risk losing access to the dollar-based financial system.
Reuters said it could not determine how the US naval blockade on Iranian oil exports had affected the China trade mechanism. No Iranian crude cargoes had successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz to China since the blockade was reinstated on July 14, according to the news agency.
A UN embargo on exports of most major conventional weapons to Iran was restored in September 2025 along with other sanctions.
Andrea Ghiselli, an international politics lecturer at the University of Exeter who studies China's relations with the Middle East, told Reuters that Beijing wanted to resist US pressure without putting major Chinese banks and companies at risk of exclusion from the international financial system.
"They want plausible deniability," he said.
