Iran’s judiciary announced that more than 3,000 citizens have been arrested in recent months on suspicion of cooperating with Israel, marking one of the regime’s broadest internal crackdowns since anti-government protests erupted earlier this year.
Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told Tehran’s semi-official Student News Network that 3,292 people had been detained on accusations of “collaboration with the enemy.” Of those, he said 684 were accused of carrying out “operational activities” for Israel, while 1,258 others were charged with political, propaganda, or media activity against the Islamic Republic.
Iranian authorities said 1,061 indictments have already been filed. Hundreds of assets belonging to suspects have also reportedly been confiscated by the state.
Last week, Iran’s judiciary claimed that property belonging to 100 people it called “traitors” had been seized in Isfahan province over alleged cooperation with Israel.
The wave of arrests comes as Tehran continues to suppress opposition following protests that began in January. During that earlier crackdown, more than 50,000 people were reportedly arrested as the regime moved to contain public anger over economic hardship, political repression, and growing opposition to clerical rule.
Since then, Iranian officials have intensified action against those they accuse of aiding Israel and the United States during Operation Roaring Lion, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that struck Iranian military, nuclear, and security targets.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Israel and the United States of trying to stir internal unrest while military operations were underway.
“While the Zionist enemy and the U.S. are trying to invade Iran, they are simultaneously deploying mercenaries and spies to carry out riots as the next stage,” the IRGC said during the fighting.
But human rights groups say the regime is using the charge of espionage as a weapon against critics, protesters, dissidents, and ordinary citizens caught in the machinery of the Islamic Republic’s security state.
Rights groups have also accused Iranian authorities of using pressure, intimidation, and torture to extract false confessions, a long-standing practice in politically sensitive cases before Iran’s Revolutionary Courts.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights reported that, as of June 8, at least 40 prisoners — including 19 protesters — had been executed by the regime on politically motivated charges since the beginning of the year.
The crackdown underscores the Islamic Republic’s deepening fear of its own people. While Tehran publicly presents the arrests as a national security campaign against Israeli espionage, rights advocates say the regime is using the war atmosphere to tighten control, silence dissent, and send a chilling warning to anyone who challenges its rule.
For Iran’s ruling clerics, the enemy is not only beyond the border. Increasingly, it is the citizen who speaks, protests, worships freely, or refuses to bow before the state.
