US-led coalition establishes base in northern Syria

“A record was recorded in the number of detainees involved in espionage-related affairs for the Iranians, when there was an increase of about 400% of the number of detainees from 2023,” a statement said.

“During the year, 13 serious espionage affairs by Israelis were exposed and thwarted for the Iranian intelligence agencies, and serious indictments were filed against 27 Israelis.”

It also detailed attempts to smuggle weapons along with attempts to recruit Israelis to carry out missions and cyber attacks on Israeli targets.

Asher Ben Artzi, the former head of Israel’s Interpol, told Iran International, "Personally, I can say that in the past, to find Israelis who would be willing to betray the country for the sake of money, was very rare, but unfortunately today this is not the case. Iranian intelligence has acted in a smart way and succeeded in locating such Israelis."

He said that in spite of the fact many such people have been assigned smaller tasks to begin with, that is only the beginning. "We must not take lightly the simplicity of the tasks assigned to them by the Iranian operators such as spraying graffiti or taking photographs. The future tasks are always more complex."

Lior Akerman, a former Brigadier General in Shin Bet now based at Reichman University, said Iran has changed the pattern of its operations in recent years, relying on digital means to reach possible candidates.

"Due to the impossibility of meeting Israelis and recruiting them abroad, they deploy a very wide network of searches on social networks using fake profiles," he said.

"They reach out to many thousands, from whom they find a few who are willing to carry out operations for money."

Just this week, a 29-year-old Israeli man was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran.

A joint statement from Israel’s security services and the police, said that Alexander Granovsky, from Petah Tikva, was arrested in December for his alleged involvement in a plot which had involved photographing the entrance to former defense minister Benny Gantz's residential neighborhood.

He is also accused of setting eight cars on fire around Israel and photographing a sensitive facility in the center of the country.

Granovsky had also sprayed "Children of Ruhollah” on various buildings, referring to Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.

The investigation also revealed that the man’s handlers discussed with him the possibility of obtaining a rifle and grenades to shoot at houses.

Like other cases this year, he had also been asked to gather information on the residential addresses of ministers in the Israeli government, and to set fire to a police car, a bus, and a truck, but Granovsky refused to carry out the tasks.

In September, another plot was foiled to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar.

The plot escalated following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, according to Shin Bet.

The Iranian scheme also included plans to target former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other senior Israeli defense figures, although the details have not been confirmed.

The operation sought to exploit an Israeli businessman with extensive ties to both Turkey and Iran, leveraging his financial networks to facilitate the assassination attempts within Israel.

Although such operations have been attempted by Iran for more than a decade, since the Gaza war, efforts have increased. Iran's military allies in both Gaza and the West Bank continue to act against Israel in addition to those outside Israel's borders in Lebanon and the wider Middle East.

“There are moments like now when the old era is dead, the old illusions are dead, and various things are killing it. And I suspect that the regime in Tehran will be gone in the next few years as well. So I think there’s a real opportunity for freedom to spread and for opportunity to spread,” he said, speaking on the Conflicted podcast on Wednesday.

He attributed the Islamic Republic’s weakening to the fallout from the 2020 US drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, a key Iranian military commander, calling it a pivotal moment that disrupted Iran’s influence across the Middle East.

“I’m always struck by how some people can be much more seminal, much more key, pivotal to an organization than you realize at the time. The reality is when Qassem Suleimani was killed in January 2020, he held in his head all the relationships, all the deals for everybody around the region,” he said.

“He was replaced, but he wasn’t really, because nobody could replace the personal 20-year relationships that he held. That’s really the unpicking. So I have to say, I know it’s not popular, but President Trump, effectively, was the trigger that began the fall of the Assad regime.”

Tugendhat highlighted growing dissent within Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), where younger members reportedly view the older leadership as corrupt and ineffective. This generational divide, he said, reflects broader frustrations with the Islamic Republic’s inability to maintain its standing both at home and abroad.

“Young members of the IRGC are saying two things. One, the old guard are corrupt and incompetent. That’s why Hezbollah has been hung out to dry and defeated. That’s why old allies like Assad have fallen ... The second thing they’re saying is that they’re hearing rumors, I don’t know how true they are, but they’re hearing rumors that the ayatollah and the government in Tehran wants to talk to the Americans to try and find a way out of this and perhaps hang on.”

He suggested that rumors of potential talks between Tehran and Washington about a new nuclear deal are further fueling tensions within the IRGC, with hardliners fiercely opposing any engagement with the US, particularly after Soleimani’s killing.

Since Soleimani’s death, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have repeatedly vowed revenge against the US and those involved in the operation. However, the threats have largely failed to materialize into substantive action, underscoring what Tugendhat described as a diminishing capacity to project power regionally.

In Syria, where Soleimani played a crucial role in sustaining Assad’s government, the situation has shifted dramatically. Tugendhat argued that the West has a unique opportunity to help rebuild the country into a stabilizing force in the region.

“Frankly, if we get Syria right in 10 years, Syria could be absolutely not just a pole of stability but a fantastic economic powerhouse in the region, exporting stability and civilization, as it has done for quite literally tens of thousands of years, to the rest of the world again,” he said.

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Tugendhat also criticized the West’s inconsistent policies in the Middle East, which he believes allowed adversaries like Russia to gain influence. He pointed to key moments, such as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and inaction following Assad’s use of chemical weapons in 2013, as examples of missed opportunities to assert strategic leadership.

Three days after Najafabadi’s detention, on December 19, Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was arrested in Iran on unspecified charges of "violating Iranian law." Her arrest is widely regarded as a direct retaliation for Najafabadi’s detention.

This decision by the Attorney General coincides with complex negotiations between the Italian government and intelligence agencies and their Iranian counterparts to secure Sala’s release.

While Nanni's opinion is formally separate from these discussions, it will determine whether house arrest for Najafabadi would be sufficient to prevent his disappearance while awaiting extradition proceedings to the US. A favorable opinion on Najafabadi’s lawyer’s request could be positively received in Tehran.

Iran has officially confirmed Sala’s arrest, with its state news agency IRNA reporting on Monday that the 29-year-old journalist, who works for Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was detained for "violating the laws of the Islamic Republic."

US authorities allege that Najafabadi supplied materials for a deadly Iran-linked drone attack on American troops in Jordan.

“One of the reasons that has led us to consider changing the capital is the imbalance between resources and expenditures in Tehran,” he said in a meeting with representatives from the central region of Semnan.

Tehran, home to over 9 million residents, has long struggled with overpopulation, traffic congestion, air pollution, and resource mismanagement. Pezeshkian argued that moving the capital closer to the Persian Gulf would streamline economic operations.

“Transporting raw materials from the south to the center, processing them, and then returning them south for export drains our competitive capacity. We must shift the country’s economic and political center to the south and closer to the sea,” he said.

Previous Iranian administrations have explored various iterations of the idea. However, financial constraints and political inertia have consistently stalled progress.

It gained traction during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mainly over concerns about Tehran’s vulnerability to earthquakes. President Hassan Rouhani revisited it in the mid-2010s, citing the city’s unsustainable growth and environmental challenges.

Relocating the capital would require massive investment and pose logistical challenges, while potentially harming Tehran’s economy. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Pezeshkian follows his remarks with actions that his predecessors avoided in less challenging times.

The funds are crucial to boost gas production to meet targets set by Iran's long-term development plan, which on paper inform budgets and industrial policies.

"According to the Seventh Development Plan, gas production must reach 1 billion and 380 million cubic meters per day by the end of the plan," Paknejad said. "To achieve this goal, $45 billion of investment is required."

The majority of this funding, he explained, must be directed towards developing gas fields and upgrading related infrastructure.

Successive Irani governments have struggled to meet soaring consumption, especially during colder months when power plants are forced to burn polluting fuels that compound the problem of air quality in urban areas.

Iran possesses vast reserves of natural gas, but rising domestic demand and lack of investment to maintain and expand the infrastructure means the country is often a net-importer of energy.

Paknejad outlined a two-pronged approach to tackle the crisis, emphasizing the urgent need for substantial investment as well as consumption management.

"More important than increasing production is managing demand and optimizing consumption," he said, emphasizing the need for greater efficiency in domestic gas usage.

Over 860 million cubic meters of processed natural gas (sweet gas) are delivered to Iran's national grid daily, the oil minister said, more than three-quarters of which is taken up by households, businesses, and small industries.

The government has called on Iranians to limit their use, but seem reluctant to press harder on the issue, mindful of the widespread discontent in the country.

Iran's oil minister alluded to this reality, while suggesting that resource management and optimization lagged behind production growth.

"Any reform in the energy consumption system should be accompanied by considering the living conditions of the people," Paknejad said.