12day

Revolutionary guards say suspects apprehended in northeastern Iran as materials for making weapons are also seized.

Iran has arrested eight people suspected of attempting to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures during the country’s 12-day war with Israel and the United States to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, according to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The IRGC released a statement on Saturday alleging that the suspects had received specialised training from Mossad via online platforms.

It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.

The news comes as state media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the June conflict, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.

Following an Israeli military bombardment that began on June 13, killing top military officials and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians, Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities.

The US also carried out extensive strikes on Israel’s behalf on Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict, the worst blow to the Islamic republic since its 1980s war with Iraq.

During the 12-day war, Iranian security forces began a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints and “public reports”.

Iranian citizens were called upon to report on any individuals they thought were acting suspiciously during the war that ended in a US and Qatar-brokered ceasefire.

Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist who was killed in Israeli air strikes.

Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.

The Israel-US-Iran conflict has also led to an accelerated rate of deportations for Afghan refugees and migrants believed to be illegally in Iran, with aid agencies reporting that local authorities have also accused some Afghan nationals of spying for Israel.

“Law enforcement rounded up 2,774 illegal migrants and discovered 30 special security cases by examining their phones. [A total of] 261 suspects of espionage and 172 people accused of unauthorised filming were also arrested,” police spokesperson Saeed Montazerolmahdi said earlier this month.

Montazerolmahdi did not specify how many of those arrested had since been released.

He added that Iran’s police handled more than 5,700 cases of cybercrimes such as online fraud and unauthorised withdrawals during the war, which he said had turned “cyberspace into an important battlefront”.

Tehran says it carried out widespread internal arrests as Israel, US launched huge strikes on the country in June.

Iranian police arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the country’s 12-day conflict with Israel and the United States in June, according to state media citing a law enforcement spokesperson.

Following massive Israeli air strikes that began on June 13, which killed top military officials and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians, Iranian security forces began a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints and “public reports”. The US also carried out extensive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict on Israel’s behalf.

Iranian citizens were called upon to report on any individuals they thought were acting suspiciously.

“There was a 41 percent increase in calls by the public, which led to the arrest of 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war,” police spokesperson Saeid Montazerolmahdi said.

He did not say what those arrested were suspected of, but Tehran has spoken before of people passing on information that may have helped direct the Israeli attacks.

Since the end of June, Iran has executed seven men convicted of spying for Israel.

Deportations of Afghans

The Israel-US-Iran conflict has also led to an accelerated rate of deportations for Afghan refugees and migrants believed to be illegally in Iran, with aid agencies reporting that local authorities have also accused some Afghan nationals of spying for Israel.

“Law enforcement rounded up 2,774 illegal migrants and discovered 30 special security cases by examining their phones. [A total] 261 suspects of espionage and 172 people accused of unauthorised filming were also arrested,” the spokesperson added.

Montazerolmahdi did not specify how many of those arrested had since been released.

He added that Iran’s police handled more than 5,700 cases of cybercrimes such as online fraud and unauthorised withdrawals during the war, which he said had turned “cyberspace into an important battlefront”.

TYRANNICAL leaders in Iran have demanded citizens act as undercover informants to turn in anyone who dares oppose the regime, insiders say.

Panicked mullahs have also ordered “telecom cages” be installed around prisons as the regime wages war against its own people.

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Political prisoners – largely banished to death row on trumped-up charges – have been subject to extreme torture and a disturbing rate of executions in the face of growing tensions in the Middle East.

Insiders say their treatment is being weaponised to deter opposition.

The fight against repression has loomed large for decades in the rogue state – but the so-called 12-day war last month has made the barbaric Ayatollah more fearful than ever of being toppled.

Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, CEO and Founder of United Against Nuclear Iran, said the Ayatollah is “on his heels” and is “engaging in a purification campaign”.

He told The Sun: “The Ayatollah is incredibly weak and I think what he’s doing is out of fear that his regime is going to collapse.

“He’s looking around, most of his generals have been killed. Those that are alive, he is probably suspicious that they are spies.

“There’s no clear succession, and I think the Ayatollah is on his heels.

“He’s doing everything he can to try to find some sort of path to a succession, and the continuation of this revolutionary regime.”

With Ali Khamenei’s grip weakened by the unprecedented Israeli and US blitz, the incapacitated supreme leader has discharged fresh hell on his own people in a corrupt bid to stifle uprising.

Sources inside Iran told The Sun how a direct alert has been issued to the public, urging them to report any activity linked to resistance groups of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Regime loyalists have been implored to act as informants – compiling detailed reports with photos, times, locations, licence plates and facial features of suspected individuals.

Orders were publicised in an official government news outlet – marking a distinct shift in the paranoid regime’s usual strategy of covert suppression.

Insiders noted it points to the regime’s growing perceived threat posed by the PMOI’s grassroots operations.

The PMOI has long fought for a secular, democratic Iran, and is understood to be gaining traction amid frustration with economic hardship, political repression, and international isolation.

Iranians have lived under the iron-fist rule of fanatics ever since the revolution in 1979 saw the country transformed into an Islamic republic.

The close-knit cadres have attempted to thwart opposition by any means necessary for 46 years – but now lie incredibly vulnerable.

Anxious mullahs forced a complete shutdown of internet access in government offices during the conflict last month to take full control of information flow.

Iran regime massacres inmates

by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)

IRAN’S ruthless regime massacred defenceless inmates at a prison before blaming their deaths on shrapnel from airstrikes, insiders revealed.

Cold-blooded regime dictators have also ordered the arrest of hundreds after accusing them of having links to arch-foe Israel.

As Israeli missiles rained down on a nearby military site on June 16, panicked inmates at Dizel-Abad Prison in Kermanshah begged to be moved to safety.

But they were instead met with a hail of bullets from the regime’s merciless enforcers in a “deliberate and cold-blooded act”, a witness said.

The source from within the prison said: “The prisoners insisted they be moved from areas where windows had shattered and where they feared further missile strikes.

“The regime’s answer was bullets.

“The special forces opened fire directly at unarmed, defenseless inmates who were merely trying to flee a danger zone.”

Insiders said the prisoners faced live ammunition after guards began beating inmates when they tried to breach internal doors in a bid to get to safety.

At least ten people were killed and a further 30 injured.

Regime authorities are now said to be attempting to cover up the deaths.

One source said: “Officials are planning to falsely attribute the deaths to shrapnel from the airstrike, not their own gunfire.”

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Universities were mandated to create “war monitoring rooms” on every campus – which continue to put the personal social media activity of professors and students under surveillance.

Meanwhile, the Supreme National Security Council is installing “telecom cages” at prisons around the state to sever any external communications inmates have.

Jamming devices have been deployed to disrupt messages and calls being made – preventing any contact with the outside world.

It comes as execution numbers have spiralled in recent weeks – with 424 recorded since March 21, according to figures from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

In just three days during the conflict between Israel and Iran, 17 prisoners – including one woman – were executed.

One source said: “This surge is a deliberate tactic to instill fear and crush resistance.”

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Wallace, who served as the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the regime has ramped up its “vicious clampdown” to prevent “people pouring out in opposition in the streets”.

The ex-diplomat added: “You see real Iranians suffering every day in those streets, and we cannot forget about them.

“The only path ultimately for the regime to fall is solely in the control of the Iranian people.

“Sadly, the Iranian people will suffer, and many will likely have to die for that to happen, and they’re being persecuted as we speak today.

“I’m sure there are people being imprisoned and likely will meet their death because of the crackdown of that state security apparatus.

“It’s really essential that we do not forget the people of Iran that are the victims of this regime.”

The NCRI has warned how four political prisoners are facing severe torture as regime enforcers try to extract forced confessions to try and link them to the deaths of two notorious regime judges.

Arghavan Fallahi, Bijan Kazemi, and father and son Mohammad and Amirhossein Akbari Monfared have been subjected to prolonged interrogation and could face the death penalty.

Despite this, defiant campaigners have continued their “No to Execution Tuesdays” movement – uniting activists and the families of inmates.

Zolal Habibi, of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Sun: “Even in the midst of war, the clerical regime in Iran has not paused its machinery of executions and repression for a single day.

“This chilling reality underscores a deeper truth: the primary war in Iran is not external, but internal — a war between the Iranian people and their organised resistance on one side, and the ruling religious dictatorship on the other.

“Yet amid this brutality, the resilience of the Iranian people shines through.

“Last Tuesday, political prisoners across 47 prisons -the most tightly controlled spaces in the country – continued their campaign against the death penalty for the 74th consecutive week.

“Their defiance is a source of pride for every Iranian who dreams of freedom.”

When US President Donald Trump entered the war between Israel and Iran late on Saturday night, the region was braced for escalation.

The US dropped 17 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs and two dozen cruise missiles on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan, assisting Israel, which had already been trading missile fire with Tehran since July 13.

Iran’s response soon came. On Monday evening, it launched 14 missiles aimed at the US Air Force’s Central Command in the Middle East, at Al Udeid in Qatar, a neutral country. Those missiles flew over the capital, Doha, spreading alarm.

Yet instead of leading to the “rathole of retaliations” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned against, the attack presaged a truce that Trump announced hours later, and that was facilitated by sophisticated diplomacy involving Qatar, the US and Iran.

So, how did a ceasefire emerge from the smoke of an attack?

What options did Iran have?

A military response against a US base was an obvious choice, because the US has exposure in Iran’s neighbourhood.

Apart from Al Udeid airbase, its Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain. Both are just more than 200km (125 miles) across the Persian Gulf from Iran. There is also an air base in Kuwait and four logistics air bases in Oman. Further afield, the US has three air bases in Saudi Arabia, three air bases in Iraq, and an air base in Jordan.

“The US has 40,000 troops in the region [on] 19 US bases, eight of which are permanent, and Iran has said previously they will become legitimate targets if the US strikes Iran,” said Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari.

In the past, Iran’s proxies in the region have been Tehran’s “primary Iranian means of retaliating against adversary attacks,” wrote The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, on Friday.

Houthi militias could resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, and Iran could itself attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz – thus menacing two of the world’s most economically important shipping chokepoints simultaneously.

But the proxy attacks never came, demonstrating the limitations of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance”, and “how exhausted it is after months of fighting the United States and Israel”, said the ISW in a comment on its website.

Still, even as the world prepared for Iran to respond to the US attacks, an Iran historian at St Andrews University in the UK, told Al Jazeera on Monday that he thought “an ‘off ramp’ with the United States” was likely.

“There will be a lot of public bluster, but privately, I think feelers will be put out,” he said, before the Iranian strike later that evening.

How did the strike unfold?

At around 7pm local time (16:00 GMT) on Monday, Iran struck Qatar.

Qatar condemned the attack as “an extremely dangerous escalation that represents a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar”. It issued a demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Doha.

But the “feelers” Ansari had talked about appear to have been put out beforehand.

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice,” wrote Trump on social media, “which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”

The warning also allowed Qatar to prepare its air defences, shooting down 13 of the missiles and allowing one to fly “in a nonthreatening direction”, according to Trump.

Satellite images suggested the US had evacuated staff and aircraft from Al Udeid even before it struck Iran, so targeting it represented a low risk of casualties. Neither the US base at Al Udeid nor the Qatari Air Force suffered few material losses.

“I am pleased to report that NO Americans were harmed, and hardly any damage was done. Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system’,” wrote Trump three hours after the attack.

A mere two hours later, he announced the ceasefire.

“CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!),” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Trump later revealed that “Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, ‘PEACE!’”

Iran’s government was eager to put the war behind it, issuing a statement early on Tuesday saying it had delivered a “humiliating and exemplary response to the enemy’s cruelty”, and framing the ceasefire as a “national decision to impose the cessation of war on the Zionist enemy and its vile supporters”.

How are Qatar’s relations with the US and Iran?

Qatar hosts the largest US airbase in the Middle East and has worked closely with Washington on a series of tricky diplomatic negotiations, involving the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in Gaza, among others.

At the same time, it enjoys warm diplomatic and economic ties with Iran. “The South Pars and North Pars and North Field have been a joint [venture] for a long time – over 25 years,” Doha-based energy expert Roudi Baroudi told Al Jazeera, referring to gas fields that Qatar and Iran share.

The South Pars gas field alone holds almost as much gas as all the other known gas fields on the planet, said Baroudi.

Right after he announced the ceasefire, Trump thanked the emir of Qatar.

“I’d like to thank the Highly Respected Emir of Qatar for all that he has done in seeking Peace for the Region,” he wrote on Truth Social. Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian telephoned the Qatari emir on Tuesday to express “regret” over the attack the previous day.

Pezehkian clarified that Qatar and its people were not the target of Iran’s strikes. “[Pezeshkian] stressed that the State of Qatar will remain a neighbouring, Muslim, and sisterly state, and expressed his hope that relations between the two countries will always be based on the principles of respect for the sovereignty of states and good neighbourliness,” the emir’s office said in a statement.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said on Wednesday that “Qatar undertook significant diplomatic efforts with regional and international partners to defuse tensions.”

And the impact of those efforts will be felt well beyond just Israel and Iran, Baroudi suggested.

“Washington and Doha defused an unseen economic and ecological bomb,” he said, because the Gulf is a powder keg of highly inflammable oil and gas wellheads, offloading terminals and tankers.

“The whole region has over 34 refineries along the coast. We have over 105 power plants and desalination plants, so a ceasefire will put away any danger to the water and electricity [supply] of the whole region,” he said, suggesting Qatar be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since Sunday, the Middle East has lurched from escalating war to fragile ceasefire. A truce seems to be holding, and what US President Donald Trump called “The 12 Day War” between Israel and Iran seems to be over – for now.

Meanwhile, Trump, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran’s leaders have all claimed that the pause in the conflict happened on their terms.

So, what’s the truth? What did Israel achieve? Did Iran manage to defend its strategic assets? And is the truce a pathway to peace?

How did events unfold?

Late on Saturday night, at Israel’s behest, the US entered the Israeli-Iranian war with strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, “completely obliterating” them, in Trump’s words.

On Monday, Iran struck back, firing missiles at the largest US airbase in the Middle East, Al Udeid in Qatar.

It appeared as though the Middle East was poised for a broader, longer war.

But within hours, Trump announced on Truth Social, his social media platform, “It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE.”

Trump called it “the 12 Day War … that could have gone on for years and destroyed the Middle East”.

Four hours after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect, Israel launched a strike against Iran in retaliation for what it said were two ballistic missiles entering its airspace, launched from Iran. Both were intercepted. Israel’s retaliation destroyed a radar station near Tehran.

Trump was furious. “I’m really unhappy that Israel went out this morning,” he told reporters.

“We’ve got two countries that have been fighting so hard and for so long, that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”

Iran said it did not fire those missiles. By 11:30 GMT the ceasefire was back in effect. Trump spoke to Netanyahu.

“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

What did Israel achieve?

Israel has long claimed that Iran is its number one existential threat, but it has never before struck Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

On June 13, it crossed that red line, bombing the surface installations of the Natanz fuel enrichment plant and the Isfahan nuclear technological complex. Iran retaliated by launching drones and missiles at Israel.

Israel had struck nuclear installations in Syria and Iraq before, but it has now proved it can carry out a complex mission much further afield.

It also withstood international accusations that its mission wasn’t legal. Israel claims it was anticipatory self-defence, but not everyone agrees that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb, or that it planned to use it against Israel imminently.

“I speak with world leaders and they are very impressed by our determination and the achievements of our forces,” Netanyahu said on June 18.

Finally, Israel proved it can convince the US to enter a limited Middle Eastern offensive it has started. In previous wars in 1967 and 1973, the US had provided material support to Israel when it was attacked, but had not assisted it with direct operational involvement.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for “standing alongside us”.

Operation Rising Lion against Iran took place in the wake of conflicts that Israel has waged against Iran’s regional allies – the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah have been weakened over the past two years.

Did Iran manage to defend its nuclear programme?

Israel managed to significantly damage surface targets in Iran, and the US claims to have destroyed underground nuclear facilities.

But while satellite photography shows that their missiles hit their mark, there is no independent confirmation available to verify what was destroyed. That will need on-site inspections.

“At this time, no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow,” said Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, on Monday, after the US strikes. “Given the explosive payload utilized, and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” he said.

Also unknown are the whereabouts of 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of highly enriched uranium that the IAEA has said Iran now possesses.

Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, suggested the nuclear programme would emerge unscathed. “Preparations for recovery had already been anticipated, and our plan is to prevent any interruption in production or services,” he said on Tuesday in a statement carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Meanwhile, confusion lingers over the source of two ballistic missiles that hit Israel on Tuesday morning, three and a half hours after the ceasefire began. Iran’s government officially denied having launched the missiles.

So who did? And were they fired accidentally – like the Iranian missile that accidentally brought down a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2021, killing 176 people?

How likely is another strike on Iran?

What Israel and Iran have agreed to is a ceasefire. They haven’t made peace.

On Iran’s nuclear programme, experts say that there are – broadly speaking – two possible future paths.

Renewed UN inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities and a new treaty with Iran, perhaps resembling former US President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of 2015, might help Tehran ease global pressure on its programme, though it was Trump who pulled out of the JCPOA, not Iran.

This is where European powers can play a role. Three of them, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on June 20, along with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, in an effort to avert US strikes. That bid failed, but although the EU cannot alone leverage Iran into a compromise, it can act as a counterpoint to US-Israeli hard power.

“Iran will try to involve the Europeans diplomatically by proposing enhanced monitoring and making commitments in its nuclear programme,” Ioannis Kotoulas, an adjunct lecturer in geopolitics at Athens University, told Al Jazeera.

“The US could accept a peaceful nuclear programme – [US Secretary of State Marco] Rubio has already said so. The likelihood is that the US won’t try to force regime change,” he said. “Europe is now Iran’s only way out. Russia is unreliable.”

But Israel has previously tried to scupper any nuclear deal between the West and Iran, and is unlikely yo accept a fresh agreement.

And will Iran even be open to a compromise, after the US pulled out of its previous nuclear deal with Tehran, then changed goalposts during recent talks, and finally joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities while they were supposed to be negotiating an agreement?

“That really depends on dynamics within the country and how any climbdown is phrased, but there have already been calls to cease uranium enrichment from activists within the country,” Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at St Andrews University, told Al Jazeera.

So far, Iran sounds unyielding in the pursuit of its nuclear programme.

On Monday, the national security committee of Iran’s parliament approved a bill pushing for the full suspension of Tehran’s cooperation with the IAEA if approved in a plenary session.

Meanwhile, Trump emphasised on Tuesday on social media that he would not allow Iran’s nuclear programme to resume.

If that fundamental tension remains intact, another round of strikes and counterstrikes that suck in the US might only be a matter of time.