Iran’s Fake Facebook Profile Used Romantic Manipulation To Gather Intel On Israelis
A screenshot of the fake facebook account
Iran used a fake Facebook account to gather information about Israeli targets who Iranian intelligence was interested in, Israel's internal security service revealed on Monday.
According to Shin Bet, the Iranian operator had created the profile under the name of Sara Puppi, pretending to be a young Jewish girl with connections and business in Israel.
The account added thousands of friends in a very short period, and after speaking with targets on Facebook, the operator would get the victims to switch to WhatsApp.
Shin Bet managed to put an operative in the Facebook account posing as a follower.
The Iranian agent asked the Shin Bet operative to gather information about Israeli figures and examined the operative's willingness to harm them. The Iranian tried to push the Israeli agent into accepting his/her offer with emotional and romantic manipulation as well as delivering sums of money equaling thousands of dollars.
The operator, who transferred funds to the Shin Bet operative using Bitcoins, used business reasons as a cover story for the assigned missions, such as revenge against those who owed him money or harming personal opponents and even a desire to harm LGBTQ+ people in general.
The targets of the missions also included representatives of companies and diplomats from Arab countries working in Israel.
Shin Bet says the operator also tried to get its operative he thought was working for him to put up signs against Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to harm relations between Israel and Russia.
Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji is in Venezuela to visit oil facilities and sign contracts in the energy sector, unnamed sources revealed to Bloomberg.
Heading a delegation of more than a dozen people, Owji arrived in Caracas on Saturday and visited the Paraguana refining complex in western Venezuela with an official of Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petróleos de Venezuela PDVSA, Asdrubal Chavez.
According to the sources who asked not to be identified, the two were expected to sign energy cooperation deals on Monday.
Asdrubal Chavez is the cousin of the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the former president of Citgo a subsidiary of PDVSA, a transporter and marketer of transportation fuels and petrochemicals based in Houston, Texas.
Iran and Venezuela have been slapped with sanctions by the US, which doesn’t currently import oil from either nation, and has in recent years reimposed sanctions on Iranian state entities, including the national oil company NIOC, and in 2019 blacklisted PDVSA.
The two countries strengthened their cooperation in 2020, with Venezuela importing condensate from Iran, key to thin its extra-thick crude oil. Iran has also stepped in to help its South American ally with engineers, refined products and spare parts for its oil industry.
In March, a rare meeting between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and high-ranking American officials in Caracas prompted speculation that sanction relief was on the table to free up oil supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A senior member of the Saudi royal family has lamented the low level of ties between Riyadh and Washington, especially a lack of US support in confronting threats posed by Iran-backed Houthis.
Prince Turki al-Faisal – who is the former Saudi intelligence chief and a former ambassador to Washington -- made the remarks in a video interview with Saudi newspaper Arab News published on Monday.
"We've had our ups and downs over the years, and perhaps at this time it's one of the downs, particularly since the president of the United States in his election campaign said that he will make Saudi Arabia a pariah and of course he went on to practice what he preached", he said.
Al-Faisal also criticized Joe Biden's decision to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition’s offensive operations in Yemen.
Referring to attacks by the Houthis, he said, "Saudis consider the relationship as being strategic, but (feel) as being let down at a time when we thought that America and Saudi Arabia should be together in facing what we would consider to be a joint, not just irritant, but danger to the stability and security of the area”.
Houthis target Saudi energy facilities and civilian areas with drones and ballistic missiles, which Riyadh and other say are provided by Iran while the Houthis say the coalition carries out air strikes against Yemeni civilians in areas under its control. Houthis have launched dozens of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia since September 2021.
At least 40 teachers and teachers' union activists have been arrested in 10 cities across Iran during and after a round of nationwide protests on Sunday.
Iranian teachers staged demonstrations across the countryon May1, the international Labor Day, organized by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations.
The number of teachers detained during the protest rallies has reportedly been estimated at between 20 and 70, while some have been released so far. A few union activists had been arrested on the eve of Sunday demonstrations.
According to the council, security officers raided the homes of numerous teachers and activists on Monday and used violence during their arrests.
Reports say at least 30 other the teachers have also been summoned and threatened by the Intelligence Ministry in Tehran or its offices in other cities. At least 30 people have been detained by the Intelligence Ministry officers and taken to undisclosed locations.
Teachers say they will continue their protests until authorities meet their demands including the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants as well as the freedom of their colleagues who have been imprisoned for their trade union activities.
People from different walks of life, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and even staff members of the judiciary department and prison guards, have held regular protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.
Iranian officials were silent on Monday regarding reports that the European Union wants to send its envoy back to Tehran to jump start the stalled nuclear talks.
Iran on Monday was in a total confusion, as it was not clear if Ramadan ended or not, and if there was a public holiday. The foreign ministry did not hold its weekly press briefing.
Western diplomats told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the EU is offering to send its top negotiator Enrique Mora to Tehran again to persuade Tehran to show flexibility.
Mora, the senior EU official chairing the Vienna process, has told Iranian negotiators he is ready to return to Tehran to open a pathway through the deadlock, diplomats told the Wall Street Journal. Mora failed to convince Tehran to return to the talks during his March 27 visit.
Talks in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have been in limbo since mid-March when Iran insisted that its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) be removed from the US list of terrorist organizations. The US has not agreed to the demnd.
Reuters reported on Monday that the West has almost given up on the process and is contemplating what to do next.
"They are not yanking the IV out of the patient's arm ... but I sense little expectation that there is a positive way forward," one source, who like others quoted spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitiviy, told Reuters.
Western diplomats told the Wall Street Journal that they want to put the onus back on Tehran, making it clear the talks could fail unless Tehran took a step to end the stalemate. Mora, they said, will try to persuade Tehran to leave the issue of IRGC's delisting to a future point and sign off on the deal now. Tehran has so far not responded to the proposition, the report said.
In a phone talk with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's on April 20, the EU foreign policy Chief, Josep Borrell expressed frustration over the pause in the talks and called for fresh contacts between Enrique Mora and Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani.
Iran insists that it will not give up on its demand for the removal of the IRGC from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), calling it a 'red line' it will not cross at any cost
The Biden administration is adamant that it will only negotiate the delisting of the IRGC if Tehran also agrees to discuss other issues which are important for Washington, presumably Iran's aggressive regional policies and support for militant groups, which are also outside the JCPOA purview.
Despite the deadlock in the talks that appears to have much to do with the IRGC regional activities and pledge to take revenge on American officials for ordering the targeted killing of Ghasem Soleimani, officials in Tehran have shown no signs of softening their rhetoric in the past few weeks
Soleimani, commander of the Qods (Quds) Force, the IRGC's extraterritorial arm, was killed in a drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020 on Trump's orders.
The pause in talks has given ample opportunity for JCPOA critics in both Tehran and Washington. The Republicans have highlighted the prospect that lifting US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran accepting JCPOA limits on its nuclear program would see Tehran repatriate billions of dollars currently frozen by creditors wary of punitive US action.
US Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) reiterated Sunday that no nuclear deal with Ian was better than a bad deal. “It’s 2022. It's not 2014. Some of the original deal sunsets are even closer… to ending a pathway where Iran could ultimately achieve its goal,” a reference to the belief that Tehran is bent on producing nuclear weapons.
A missile attack targeted an oil refinery in Iraq's northern city of Erbil on Sunday causing a fire that was later brought under control, the Iraqi security forces said in a statement.
A missile also landed in the outer fence of the refinery without causing any casualties, the statement added.
Earlier on Sunday, the anti-terrorism authorities in Kurdistan region said six missiles landed near the KAR refinery in Erbil, adding they were launched from Nineveh province.
The security forces said they found a launch pad and four missiles in the Nineveh Plain after the attack and defused them.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said the armed forces will pursue the perpetrators of what he called a "cowardly attack", while discussing the security situation in a phone call with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, the prime minister's office said on Twitter.
Three missiles also fell near the refinery on April 6, without causing any casualties. Sources in the Kurdistan Regional Government told Reuters then that the refinery is owned by Iraqi Kurdish businessman Baz Karim Barzanji, CEO of major domestic energy company the KAR Group.
In March, Iran attacked Erbil with a dozen ballistic missiles in an unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region that appeared to target the United States and its allies. Later reports emerged that KAR Group might have been the target for plans to export natural gas to Europe.
