Iran Executes 4 Men for Sabotage Plot and Alleged Mossad Links

On Monday, Iran executed four men who had been convicted of planning sabotage and were alleged to have links with Israel’s Mossad secret service. The execution followed the men’s conviction for planning to target a factory belonging to Iran’s defense ministry in 2022, located in the central city of Isfahan. According to Iran’s official IRNA news agency, the operation was orchestrated by Mossad, and the four individuals had received training from the Israeli agency in an African country before entering Iran.

The executed men were identified as Iranian nationals: Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fatehi. Their death sentences, issued by a court in September, were upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

The report did not specify the method of execution, but in Iran, hangings are commonly used for such cases.

In 2022, Iran had claimed that its intelligence agents had dismantled a group linked to Mossad, which had allegedly been planning terrorist operations within Iran. The group’s members were arrested, and a significant amount of weapons and explosives were confiscated.

Iran periodically reports on the arrests, trials, and executions of its citizens on charges of espionage for Mossad and other Western intelligence agencies.

In late December, Iran executed three men and a woman and sentenced several others to prison for their alleged links with Israel’s Mossad security service. In an earlier incident in December, another individual was executed on charges of releasing classified information to Mossad.

Iran and Israel have long accused each other of spying and engaging in a covert conflict. Israel considers Iran its most significant threat and has frequently threatened military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pledged a strong response to any aggression.

In 2020, Iran executed a man convicted of leaking information to the United States and Israel about Qassim Soleimani, a prominent general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in January of that year.

Iran does not recognize Israel and supports anti-Israeli militant groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. In the past month, a high-ranking Iranian general from the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was reportedly killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria.