Iran International Correspondent In Israel 'Targeted' By Iranian Intelligence

Some scuffles were reported during the demonstrations on Thursday that took place outside the parliament in Tehran and at the provincial offices of the education ministry in other cities across the country.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, which had organized the protests, reported that several people were arrested during the Thursday protests, including two in the southern city of Bushehr and one in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

This is the fourth nationwide protest by teachers in the past two months, as they vow to continue protests until their demands are met.

Iranians with different professions are holding regular protest rallies or strikes to demand better work conditions and salaries.

Less than a week ago, hundreds of staff members from Iran’s judiciary department took to the streets in several cities.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent this year, on top of high inflation in the previous three years. Government figures released in recent days showed that prices for 83 percent of basic food staples have reached a critical level. People living on salaries have cut back on consumption of nutritious food, such as meat, fruits and dairy products.

On Wednesday, the US Cyber Command published technical details of multiple open-source hacking tools and malicious codes reportedly used by the Iranian hackers to help organizations in the US and elsewhere can defend themselves from future intrusion attempts.

It is the first time that Washington has explicitly connected Iran's intelligence ministry to such cyber spying operations.

MuddyWater is an Iranian threat group and a “subordinate element” within Iran’s intelligence ministry “that conducts domestic surveillance to identify regime opponents. It also surveils anti-regime activists abroad through its network of agents placed in Iran’s embassies," read a notice by the Cyber National Mission Force Public Affairs.

As examples of the group’s cyberattack and information operations, CNN said MuddyWater carried out a months-long effort to breach government networks in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq that began in 2019 and continued until February 2020.

In December, Iranian state-sponsored hackers also tried to exploit a flaw in the commonly used Java-based logging tool Apache Log4j.

In late October, another Iranian hacking group called Black Shadow attacked an Israeli data and internet company, stealing a large amount of client information and demanding ransom.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks after the Islamic Republic lost the right to vote at the UN over unpaid dues.

Khatibzadeh said Wednesday night that necessary consultations are ongoing to resolve the issue but did not elaborate on the process or the secure channel.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said this week that 11 countries are behind in their payments but the right to vote is suspended for eight of them, including Iran, Sudan and Venezuela.

According to the UN charter, a member loses the right to vote when its debts equal or exceed the amount of dues it should have paid over the last two years.

Last year, Iran was suspended because it could not pay even the minimum amount because of US sanctions, but after months of negotiations Tehran was granted an exemption and was allowed to access money blocked by the US Treasury.

Tehran managed to pay $16 million of its $65 million arrears to recover the vote in June 2021, in time for the election of new members of the Security Council but this time the minimum amount Iran must pay is over $18 million.

Behruz Mohebbi-Najmabadi, a member of parliament’s budget committee, said on Wednesday that the high number of people suffering from absolute poverty is due to the Iran’s zero economic growth in the last decade.

He noted that the Gini coefficient that is used to measure wealth or income inequality is so high in the country as some people have become extremely rich. “There are a few million bank cards in Iran whose financial transactions is over $355,000”, he said.

Commenting on the government’s decision to stop providing cheap dollars for food imports, Najmabadi said that in such a case it would become necessary to provide food coupons to poor households so they can meet their minimum needs.

On Sunday, the parliament approved the broad outline of the budget eliminating the cheap dollars for food imports without any fallback plan to help millions in poverty.

Mehdi Asgari, another lawmaker warned, “Ten million families have fallen below the poverty line” and stopping the subsidy will bring about a shock for many who would not be able to afford even “bread and cheese” while Moeineddin Saeedi, another MP, said ordinary people will never be able to eat meet.

Earlier on Wednesday Israel said that it had broken up an Iranian spy ring that recruited Israeli women via social media. Four women and a man were arrested. Israeli media said they are all Jewish immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Iran. It is not clear exactly when the arrests were made, but indications are the suspects have already been interrogated.

The women agreed to photograph sensitive sites, including the United States consulate and embassy, gather intelligence and in at least two cases, to encourage their sons to join Israeli military intelligence.

A relative of one of the suspects traveled from Iran to Israel bringing cash to be handed out to the recruits. An Iranian operative going by the name of Rambod Namdar handled the spies. He maintained profiles on social media sites and pretended to be Jewish.

"The state of Israel is in an ongoing campaign with Iran. It is clear: We see never-ending efforts and attempts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to recruit Israeli citizens," Bennett said.

“With their grave actions, those involved put themselves, their families and innocent Israeli citizens at risk, as their information was transferred to Iranian intelligence, in addition to the information that was handed over about Israeli sites and American sites in Israel, which would be used for terrorist purposes,” a senior Shin Bet official said.

What could be more worrying for the Israeli authorities is that some of the suspects seem to have known or suspected that Namdar was an Iranian operative, but agreed to cooperate for small sums of money, ranging from $900 to $5,000. Israeli officials and media did not mention any possible motives for mainly middle-aged people to have gotten involved in spying for Iran.

Israel views Iran as its greatest threat, and the two nations have been waging a shadow war for years.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to take military action against Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran denies it is seeking such weapons and has vowed a harsh response to any aggression.

"Have no doubt – the long arm of the security establishment will reach anyone who tries to harm Israel's security," said Bennett.

Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said the targets of the alleged spy network have been arrested and face “severe charges.”

With reporting by AP and Times of Israel