Next Generation Penetrator: US to scoop up Iran mega-bomb successor

The assets belonged to Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, also known as Mohammad Abedini, 39, of Tehran.

“The government seized USDT (Tether) from an un-hosted cryptocurrency wallet alleged to be controlled by Abedini,” the Justice Department announced in a statement on Thursday.

USDT (Tether) is a stablecoin, meaning its value is tied to the US dollar. The cryptocurrency has been issued by Tether Limited since 2014.

Abedini is the founder and managing director of San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co. (SDRA), a company that manufactures navigation system modules, including the Sepehr Navigation System (SNS), used in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military drone program, the Justice Department alleged.

The IRGC has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United States since 2019.

The SNS is used in guided rockets and missile-integrated navigation systems. In January 2024, three US service members were killed in an attack Washington blamed on the IRGC. A drone recovered from the attack was identified as a Shahed drone equipped with the SNS guidance system.

The strike targeted Tower 22, a US military base in northern Jordan, injuring more than 40 others.

“US law authorizes the forfeiture of all assets of individuals or entities engaged in planning or perpetrating a federal crime of terrorism against the United States, its citizens or residents, or their property, and all assets, foreign or domestic, affording any person a source of influence over any such entity,” the Justice Department said.

The United States charged Abedini in 2024 with conspiring to export sophisticated electronic components from the US to Iran and providing material support to a designated FTO.

He was arrested in Italy in December 2024 at the request of the United States, which sought his extradition. Abedini was released in January 2025 after Italy appeared to swap him for an Italian journalist detained in Tehran.

Italian authorities determined that violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are not punishable under Italian law, in line with the Italy–US extradition treaty.

Iran's diplomacy with the West is locked in a high-stakes limbo, with European-triggered sanctions looming by month's-end if Tehran does not resume nuclear talks with the United States silenced since surprise US and Israel attacks in June.

US President Donald Trump's envoys had been engaged in tense negotiations with Tehran for two months on how to guarantee it would not acquire a nuclear weapon, but the West accuses Iran of evasion and insincerity while Iran denies seeking a bomb.

On June 13, Israel launched a surprise war just as a new round of talks was reportedly due, starting a 12-day war capped off by US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.

"(Trump) was starting off with diplomacy. He was trying, he was saying it. We could always critique the tactics of the diplomacy, but he at least put that message out... and there was no reciprocation," Rubin told the Eye for Iran podcast.

Rubin now works as a commentator and author of The Briefing Book on Substack.

"At that moment in time there was actually deep danger that Iran was going to accelerate and build a nuclear device, so I supported the strikes," he added. "I supported the American response. I believe that it set back the program. I believe it was devastating."

Program over people

Trump had said the attacks were an unmitigated success which "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.

The President, who had repeatedly expressed his preference for a peaceful outcome to the impasse but said the intervention had forestalled a nuclear war, has since been ambivalent on the need for further diplomacy.

"I also believe there needs to be a diplomatic agreement to lock in those gains," Rubin added. "If they really want to get international faith restored, they need to come clean. They need to allow full inspections. They need to say they want to go back into a nuclear deal with, with the world."

Tensions have flared as a European troika of Britain, France and Germany threw down the gauntlet of a high-stakes sanctions measure under the 2015 nuclear deal which Rubin, as a diplomat in the Barack Obama administration, helped midwife.

The mechanism under the agreement from which Trump in his first term withdrew the United States allows any party to reimpose UN sanctions after a thirty-day period of calling out Iran for alleged non-compliance.

Tehran has bristled at the move and said a deal with the UN nuclear watchdog clinched this week to resume inspections ended by the June conflict will be scuppered by the Europeans' so-called "snapback" sanctions move.

Iran's tack, Rubin said, had yet to convince the West of its nuclear intentions in a way that let down their own people.

"They are in violation of multiple international standards. They have essentially prioritized the nuclear program over their people," he said.

"We have a dynamic where the Europeans, even though they were concerned about the military action taken in June, they have no confidence in what the Iranian government is saying."''

Watch the full Eye for Iran episode on YouTube, or listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon or Castbox.

"Five years ago today, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran executed Navid Afkari after years of torture and a sham trial," the State Department said in a post on its Persian X account.

The State Department said Navid Afkari’s case "reflects a broader pattern of systematic impunity for torture, forced confessions, and executions carried out without due process in Iran’s judiciary."

Afkari was arrested in 2018 and later sentenced to death for killing government employee Hassan Torkaman during antigovernment protests in Shiraz.

Before being executed in 2020, Afkari sent several audio messages from prison in which he said he had confessed to the murder only under physical and psychological duress.

"Through sham judicial procedures, this regime seeks to create the illusion of justice while denying fairness, fair trial, and accountability," the State Department said in its post on X.

"The United States condemns these actions and reaffirms its unwavering support for the Iranian people in their pursuit of justice, freedom, and human dignity."

At the height of Iran’s 2022 protests against the Islamic Republic, Donald Trump praised the demonstrations by the Iranian people.

“The people of Iran are bravely protesting against their corrupted and brutal regime, courageously facing down violence, persecution, jail, torture, and even death... we are with you and we will always be with you.”

Speaking to Iran International, the lawmakers hit out at the escalation to the war in Ukraine after Poland said 19 Russian drones reportedly violated its airspace on Tuesday but were thwarted by Polish and NATO jets and air defenses.

Russia has stepped up blitzes on Ukraine in recent weeks involving hundreds of drones each and including Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones. It was not immediately clear if they were among the drones intercepted over Poland.

“Iran has, over the last several years, been a critical and active partner in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Democrat Senator Chris Coons said.

“By providing drone technology and even producing drones inside Russia for use against Ukraine, Tehran has enabled Putin’s war machine.”

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Moscow denied any intent to violate Polish airspace, saying it did not seek to strike any targets in Poland and questioning whether the drones came from Russia at all.

The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said facts are still emerging but said Russia had erred in piercing NATO air space.

“Russia is playing with fire here. Putin has made a lot of mistakes, and this could be the worst one he’s made yet," Republican Senator James Risch told Iran International. "We’ll see how this unfolds.”

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'Open conflict' near

Poland, a former member of the Eastern Bloc under Moscow's tutelage for much of the twentieth century has become a staunch Western ally and base for NATO troops as the alliance's relationship with Iran, Russia and China has soured.

The drone incursion rattled its leadership, which warned of a dire escalation.

"This is the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II, but there is no reason to believe we're on the brink of war," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament.

Iran provides drone technology to Russia for its war against Ukraine, prompting a series of punitive sanctions from the United States and European Union.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia, confirmed the drones had entered Polish airspace, calling it an accident after the drones' navigation systems were jammed.

Western leaders have frequently warned against what they see as deepening security cooperation among their Eurasian adversaries Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.

After the incidents, Warsaw invoked Article 4 of NATO's charter which enables closer coordination with all NATO member states. A UN Security Council meeting to discuss the developments is scheduled for Friday.

Poland closed all border crossings with Belarus ahead of the joint Russia-Belarus Zapad 2025 military exercises, citing alleged security risks and Russian aggression.

The announcement follows months of security incidents in Syria which were blamed on Israel by Syrian officials but remained shrouded in mystery as Israel neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Israel opposes Syria's new rulers, which hail in part from Sunni Muslim jihadist groups, despite their victory in a long civil war over the Iran-backed Assad dynasty.

"The IDF detained and transferred for interrogation operatives from several terrorist cells operated by Unit 840 - the Quds Force’s special operations unit," the Israeli Defense Force said in a statement.

"The terrorist cells were directed by the unit with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks against the State of Israel," it added.

The United States and Arab states back the new authorities in Damascus as a bulwark against Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Sectarian clashes have blighted Syria's new era, and Israeli airstrikes on government buildings earlier this year signaled the Jewish state's growing opposition.

In the statement on Friday, Israel's military added that raids in March and April this year had detained two alleged Iran-backed operatives in Syria with Arabic names, and that Israeli attacks had assassinated two others in Lebanon last month.

"During the interrogations of the detained terrorists, it was revealed that some of them did not even know on whose behalf they were operating, and that many were recruited to Unit 840 without disclosure of the unit’s true motives and through financial bribes," it said.