12 Israeli collaborators arrested in Iran

DUBAI: Twelve operatives were arrested for being Israeli collaborators and planning acts against Iran’s security according to a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday.

“As the Zionist regime (Israel) and their Western backers, most notably the United States, have not succeeded in their sinister goals against the people of Gaza and Lebanon, they are now seeking to spread the crisis to Iran with a series of actions planned against our country’s security,” the statement said.

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Tensions in the Middle East have shot up since thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah members exploded in an attack widely blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged some of the heaviest cross-border fire in a conflict running in parallel to the almost year-long Gaza war.

The Revolutionary Guards added that members of the network of 12 operatives were arrested in six different Iranian provinces, but did not say when.

In late July, the political leader of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in an assassination blamed on Israel by Iranian authorities. Israel has made no claim of responsibility.

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COMMUNICATION DEVICES BANNED

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) also ordered all members to stop using any type of communication devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon blew up in deadly attacks last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.

The security officials declined to give details on how the IRGC force, comprising 190,000 personnel, are communicating. “For now, we are using end-to-end encryption in messaging systems,” he said.

According to the same official, there is widespread concern among Iran’s ruling establishment. IRGC officials have reached out to Hezbollah for technical assessments, and several examples of exploded devices have been sent to Tehran for examination by Iranian experts.

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