Israel used WhatsApp to target Iran officials during war, ex-minister says

On Sunday, Trump shared a video on his Truth Social platform showing Ali Motahari saying in a 2022 interview that Tehran’s initial goal in pursuing nuclear activities was to build a bomb.

“When we first entered nuclear activities, our real goal was to build a bomb. No point denying it… the whole system, everyone who started this. We had started and we wanted to go all the way. If we could keep it secret and test the bomb, it would be over,” Motahari said in the widely shared video interview in April 2022.

On Monday, Motahari responded to Trump’s post, saying he had held no official role in parliament or Iran’s nuclear decision-making team at the time.

“Trump has posted my interview as if it reflects the official decision of the Islamic Republic to build a nuclear bomb. It shows how empty-handed he is when he relies on the personal opinion of an ordinary individual, not an official report,” Motahari said.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also weighed in, accusing Trump of ignoring US intelligence assessments that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and instead relying on “the personal analysis of an Iranian citizen from 2022.”

In March, US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a congressional hearing that Iran was not building nuclear weapons but discourse in Tehran urging the acquisition of a bomb was emboldening advocates for such a move in decision-making circles.

Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons, citing a religious edict by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banning their use, and says its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.

Motahari's resurfaced comments, however, sparked backlash inside Iran, with IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency publishing a commentary that accused the former Iranian official of handing ammunition to Israel and the West.

Tasnim said Motahari's 2022 remarks, that Iran would have built a bomb if secrecy could have been maintained, “sound more like news than analysis” and could be as destructive “as the missiles of the Zionist regime.”

The outlet also stressed that political figures in senior institutions carry greater weight than ordinary analysts and must be more considerate, warning their words can reverberate domestically and regionally.

Tasnim also criticized Mohammad Sadr, a Khamenei-appointed member of Iran’s Expediency Council, who said on Sunday the assassination of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi was the work of Israel.

Raisi was killed along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials in May 2024 when their helicopter went down in mountainous terrain near the border with Azerbaijan. Iranian authorities have consistently said poor weather caused the crash and denied any suggestion of foul play.

In the phone call, Putin expressed optimism that talks on the "snapback" mechanism would reach a “desirable result," according to Iran's readout of the call.

Pezeshkian's conversation with Putin took place on the eve of a meeting between the deputy foreign ministers and political directors of Iran, France, Britain, and Germany Geneva.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the Geneva talks would focus on the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, Iran’s nuclear program, and the removal of sanctions, as Europe’s deadline for restoring UN sanctions on Iran under the Resolution's "snapback" mechanism nears.

A French diplomat told Al Arabiya that the Tuesday talks with Tehran in Geneva represent “Iran’s last open window.”

In his phone call with Putin, Pezeshkian thanked Moscow for supporting Tehran’s “right to enrichment,” reiterating that Iran has never sought nuclear weapons under its religious and defensive doctrine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier held a separate phone call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

Lavrov expressed Moscow’s readiness to participate in efforts to secure an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program and help normalize the situation.

Moscow stressed its willingness to continue “effective participation in diplomatic efforts” to strengthen stability and security in the Middle East.

Araghchi, in turn, briefed Lavrov on his Friday talks with counterparts from EU, Britain, Germany, and France regarding the nuclear file.

On Friday, EU foreign policy chief urged Iran to engage with the United States and cooperate with the IAEA to avert the return of UN sanctions, following what she called an important phone call with the foreign ministers of Iran, UK, France and Germany.

"Europe is committed to a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue. With the deadline for the snapback mechanism fast approaching, Iran’s readiness to engage with the US is crucial. Iran must also fully cooperate with the IAEA."

Before the 12-day war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks, but negotiations collapsed when Islamic Republic officials insisted uranium enrichment must continue inside Iran.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday rejected calls by Tehran moderates for direct negotiations with the United States, insisting that Washington’s hostility cannot be resolved through talks.

“There is a sense that a war is coming, that Iranian revenge is in the works. The Iranians will not be able to live with this humiliation for long,” Jacques Neriah told 103FM.

Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting Iran's military and nuclear sites, killing 1,062 people including 276 civilians.

Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty soldier, according to official figures published by the Israeli government.

Jacques Neriah said that operatives from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah had been instructed to distance themselves from their phones in what he believes might be a sign of a looming conflict.

In 2024, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies distributed to Hezbollah operatives were discovered to have been booby-trapped with explosives by Israel, resulting in a deadly, large-scale attack that disrupted Hezbollah’s operational capability and revealed critical vulnerabilities in their communication network.

Iran seeks to rebuild ‘Ring of Fire’

The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs wrote in an analysis that Iran is working to bolster ties with its “Ring of Fire” proxy forces following what it described as a humiliating defeat by Israel’s military.

The Israeli military launched the operation against Iran months after weakening Iran's regional proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

The regime change in Syria also ended the rule of Iran's staunch ally Bashar al-Assad, dealing a heavier blow to Iran's influence in Arab countries.

The Islamic Republic is now dissatisfied with the Syrian government and wants to see it overthrown, Neriah said.

“Syria under the rule of Ahmed al-Sharaa has managed to break the chokehold that Iran tried to place around Israel. The fall of Bashar al-Assad led to the collapse of Hezbollah as a regional force. Iran views the al-Sharaa regime as something that needs to be toppled.”

Under efforts led by the country's new top security official Ali Larijani, Tehran is willing to soften its hardline stance to avoid further military strikes from Israel and the United States, the report added citing Iranian officials.

The report comes on the same day as Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected calls by Tehran moderates for direct negotiations with the United States.

Before US airstrikes on its nuclear facilities in June, Iran’s uranium enrichment was approaching weapons grade, heightening international concern over its nuclear ambitions.

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany (E3) have warned Iran they would restore UN sanctions by the end of August by triggering the so-called snapback mechanism unless Tehran reengages in talks on its nuclear program immediately and produced concrete results.

The “snapback mechanism” is part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Under Resolution 2231, any party to the accord can file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance. If no agreement is reached within 30 days to maintain sanctions relief, all previous UN sanctions automatically “snap back,” including arms embargoes, cargo inspections, and missile restrictions.

On Friday, a phone call between Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, his E3 counterparts and European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas failed to make any progress.

An Axios report said the call started "in a confrontational tone with the Iranian foreign minister ranting about whether E3 have the right to trigger snapback."

“After E3 pushback, Araghchi expressed some openness to an extension of the snapback but stressed this is for the United Nations Security Council to decide, not for Iran,” the report said citing an unnamed source.

Following the call, Kallas urged Iran to engage with the US and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to avert the return of UN sanctions.

"Europe is committed to a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue. With the deadline for the snapback mechanism fast approaching, Iran’s readiness to engage with the US is crucial. Iran must also fully cooperate with the IAEA," Kallas wrote in a post on X.

The talks between Iran and the E3 are expected to resume in Vienna on Tuesday.

The survey of more than 1,500 adults by pollster JL Partners found that 75% of Labour voters and 65% of the wider public back a ban on the IRGC, while only 5% of Labour voters opposed it, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Three-quarters of Labour supporters said the group posed a threat to Britain’s national security.

The findings follow MI5 disclosures that security services and police have foiled at least 20 Iran-linked assassination and kidnap plots in Britain over the past two years.

“The British public are rightly under no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime. It is clearer than ever that the IRGC poses a threat to the safety and security of everyone in Britain,” the Telegraph quoted Labour MP Jon Pearce as saying.

Senior Conservative figures also urged the government to act. Lord Arbuthnot, a former chair of parliament’s defense select committee, was quoted as saying: “With MI5 telling us they have foiled at least 20 state-sponsored attacks by Iran in the UK, what on earth is holding the Government back from proscribing the IRGC?”

The IRGC, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, is already under British financial sanctions, but critics argue those measures are insufficient.

The poll showed that 51% of the public believe sanctions have failed to curb the group’s activities, and 46% doubt authorities are doing enough to counter IRGC-linked operations in the UK.

As an alternative to proscription, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has backed proposals for new legislation to give ministers powers to blacklist state agencies such as the IRGC, the newspaper said.

The poll was commissioned by the Iranian Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty, founded by Vahid Beheshti, a political activist and journalist who has staged a protest for more than 900 days outside the Foreign Office.

The debate in Britain comes as other Western allies have already taken action. The United States designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019, while Canada added the group to its terrorist list in 2023.