Iran executes Mossad’s alleged spy as concern grows on Israeli sabotage

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Iran said he executed a man convicted of spying on the Mossad de Israel Intelligence Agency, accusing him of participating in sabotage acts.

The death sentence was held on Wednesday against Mohsen Langarneshin, an Iranian national. The Mizan news agency, affiliated with the Iran Judiciary, said he worked “as a superior spy by providing logistical support to various Mossad operations in Iran.” Details were not given about their background.

The execution comes at a crucial moment in Iran, with the Islamic Republic in the midst of conversations on his nuclear program with the administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The United States seeks to impose restrictions to ensure that Tehran cannot access a nuclear weapon in exchange for elevating severe sanctions that have accelerated the economy of the Islamic Republic.

Both the United States and Israel have threatened military strikes in Iran if the conversations are breaking down. In Tehran there is a growing concern that Iranian nationals who could have “infiltrated” security, military and intelligence institutions in the country could help Israel.

Mizan said Langarneshin had been “in close cooperation with Mossad’s senior officers and had met with them in Georgia and Nepal.”

He was accused of being “present at the scene” when Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was assassinated in Tehran in May 2022. He added that he provided “operating and technical support for an attack on an industrial center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense in Isfahan”.

Iran has previously accused Israel of sabotage acts against its nuclear facilities and the murder of nuclear scientists.

The Islamic Republic, which regularly imposes the death penalty, has executed in recent years several people who accuse of working on behalf of Mossad.

Rights groups have warned that those convicted of death do not benefit from the process due, with Human Rights Watch last year, said that death sentences were “indiscriminately” and that they made “meaningless legal protections”.

Israel has repeatedly said that Iran must dismantle his nuclear program at all and oppose any agreement that can help the Republic to maintain it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that an agreement must dismantle “the Iran’s nuclear infrastructure”.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, accused Netanyahu of “blatantly … dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran.”

Araghchi has also accused Israel of seeking “derail diplomacy” through “sabotage attempts and murder operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” he wrote X last week.

A massive explosion and a fire passed through a port south of Iran on Saturday, when Tehran and Washington held a third round of nuclear conversations in Oman.

Iran still has to release an official report on the cause of the explosion that killed at least 70 people and injured more than 1,200 more people in the port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas.

The earliest speculation on social media suggested the possibility of affecting Israeli, but neither the Iranian or Israeli officials have suggested that the explosion be caused by an attack.

The Minister of the Interior of Iran, Eskandar Munni, has blamed “the lack of precautions of safety and negligence”, while Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the National Security Committee and Foreign Affairs of Parliament, said that there was no evidence of “sabotage or foreign involvement” in the explosion.