The intelligence division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday it had dismantled what it described as a spy network directed by US and Israeli spy agencies inside Iran.
The announcement comes in the wake of a broad campaign of arrests and executions that Iranian authorities launched after Israeli assassinations of nuclear scientists and hundreds of military personnel and civilians during a June war exposed deep intelligence lapses.
According to a statement published by the IRGC’s intelligence arm, the group had been “created by hostile services using deceived and traitorous elements to undermine the country’s security in the second half of this autumn.”
The statement added that the network was detected and taken down “after several rounds of surveillance, monitoring, and intelligence operations."
It said its members were arrested “through the vigilance of the anonymous soldiers of Imam Zaman,” a term Iranian authorities use to refer to IRGC intelligence agents.
In June, Iran’s parliament passed an emergency bill to increase penalties for espionage and collaboration with “hostile states,” allowing suspects to be tried under wartime conditions. The bill was later approved and sent to the president for implementation in October.
In September, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said the country had executed 11 individuals on espionage charges this year, with at least nine carried out after Israel's military strike on Iran on June 13.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Iran Human Rights, have condemned the surge in executions, saying trials for alleged espionage often fail to meet international standards of due process.
Tehran maintains that it is acting within its laws to counter what it calls “organized intelligence infiltration” targeting its nuclear and defense programs.
In the aftermath of the 12-day war which culminated in US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, Tehran's intelligence forces arrested more than 700 Iranians accused of acting as agents for Israel.
The arrests targeted what authorities described as an “active espionage and sabotage network” that intensified operations after Israeli attacks which killed several senior Iranian military and nuclear figures.
The crackdown comes as Israel’s unrelenting strikes exposed deep cracks in the state’s command and control structures and intelligence competence, with critics accusing intelligence agencies of catastrophic failure.
“Where were our intelligence agencies with all their hefty budgets? How did they fail to detect the spies?” former senior lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi asked in an interview in July.
“Commanders and nuclear scientists were murdered in their own bedrooms. The intelligence community must be held accountable.”
Brigadier General Ali Belali, a veteran of Iran’s missile program, said the country’s unmanned aerial systems have become a “strategic game-changer” built upon decades of domestic innovation since the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tehran, he said Iran’s early artillery units formed during the war “became the foundation for our missile and later our drone capabilities.”
Belali traced the evolution of Iran’s missile and drone programs to the efforts of the late General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, regarded as the architect of Iran’s missile industry.
“He believed everything should be indigenous,” Belali said. “This approach to self-reliance has become the cornerstone of our defense strategy.”
He said Iran’s early efforts began with reverse-engineering Soviet-made systems such as the Scud and Frog-7, before moving to locally produced missiles capable of precision strikes.
“We built what we could not buy,” Belali said, recalling that the first missiles were fired from western Iran with limited range and accuracy. “Today, precision and range speak for themselves.”
“During the war (in the 80s), our first drone carried barely a liter of fuel and flew for 15 minutes. Today, our systems have challenged even America’s air dominance,” he said. “Their production cost and performance have upended every equation.”
Reports by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have said Iranian-designed Shahed drones, mass-produced in Russia, have been used in large-scale attacks on Ukraine, overwhelming air defenses with low-cost precision swarms.
Defense analysts say the Shahed’s simple design and low unit cost – estimated at $35,000 to $60,000 each, compared with hundreds of thousands for Western equivalents – have driven global efforts to produce cheaper unmanned systems.
Belali said such technologies have “shifted the balance” not only through deterrence but also by reducing dependency on costly conventional weapons.
“Our progress came from necessity, faith, and engineering under pressure,” he said. “The world has now recognized the impact of that path.”
Western governments have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian drone manufacturers and procurement networks, accusing Tehran of supplying drones to Russia and regional armed groups.
Iran has denied direct involvement in combat operations abroad, saying its technology serves defensive purposes.
Baha'is are a religious minority in Iran persecuted by the ruling Islamic theocracy.
“My beloved aunt was arrested while pleading for the release of her husband, who himself had been taken from his workplace just weeks earlier. They raided his office, seized files, and vanished him without a word,” said Saghar Shahidi-Birjandian in an interview with Iran International.
“When she tried to find him, they came for her too. Now both are imprisoned without charges, denied lawyers, denied bail, and even denied the right to mourn after a death in the family,” she added.
Shahidi-Birjandian’s uncle, Kourosh Ziari, was arrested on October 4 at his workplace in Gonbad-e Kavus in northeastern Iran after authorities raided his office and seized his documents.
Her aunt, Sholeh Shahidi, was detained two weeks later while advocating for her husband’s release. Both were held at undisclosed locations for weeks before being transferred to the provincial capital of Gorgan, where they remain detained without legal counsel or formal charges.
“Her disabled son, who depends on her for everything, wasn’t even allowed to see her. The cruelty feels endless, and yet all they’ve ever done is live peacefully,” said Shahidi-Birjandian.
She has launched a Change.org petition calling for the couple’s immediate and unconditional release, protection from mistreatment in detention, and the reunion of their disabled son with his parents.
Growing crackdown
Her story is not unique.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the clerical establishment to power in Iran, Baha'is have been systemically persecuted simply for their faith because the Islamic Republic does not recognize the Baha'i faith as an official religion and views it as heretical to Islam.
Authorities routinely accuse Baha'is of being spies for Israel since the Baháʼí World Centre is located in Haifa, Israel, though the site predates the creation of Israel.
Baha'is in Iran have faced arbitrary arrests, executions, confiscation of property, denial of higher education, job bans and harassment, a state-sanctioned effort to erase their community from public life despite their peaceful and apolitical beliefs.
Since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, the situation for Baha'i in Iran has deteriorated sharply, Farhad Sabetan, spokesperson for the Baha’i International Community told Iran International. There has been a coordinated wave of raids across at least six provinces including Sistan and Baluchistan, Semnan, Mazandaran, Fars, Isfahan and Tehran, says Sabetan.
In October alone, security agents raided at least twenty-two homes and businesses, seizing belongings, sealing shops, and detaining Baha'is as part of a growing campaign of intimidation amid Iran’s worsening economic and political crisis.
“Every single instance of what I just described is solely because they’re Baha'is. Authorities often come without a warrant, give no explanation, and later invent charges like acting against national security, without a shred of evidence,” Sabetan said.
“It is pressure upon pressure. They can’t have a job, their stores are sealed, they can’t go to university, and they have no access to basic rights simply because they’re Baháʼís,” he added.
Human rights advocates say the renewed crackdown on Baha'is reflects a broader pattern of repression inside Iran, as the authorities tighten their grip amid economic decline and growing unrest.
For families like Shahidi-Birjandian’s, the cost of practicing their faith remains high.