Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Iran said it executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, accusing him of engaging in acts of sabotage.
The death sentence was carried out early on Wednesday against Mohsen Langarneshin, an Iranian national. Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, said he worked “as a senior spy providing logistical support to multiple Mossad operations in Iran”. No details were given on his background.
The execution comes at a crucial moment in Iran, with the Islamic republic in the midst of talks over its nuclear programme with US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The US is seeking to impose restrictions to ensure that Tehran cannot access a nuclear weapon in return for lifting severe sanctions that have throttled the Islamic republic’s economy.
Both the US and Israel have threatened military strikes on Iran if the talks break down. There is growing concern in Tehran that Iranian nationals who might have “infiltrated” the country’s security, military and intelligence institutions could aid Israel in this.
Mizan said Langarneshin had been “in close co-operation with senior Mossad officers and had met with them in Georgia and Nepal”.
It accused him 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. It added he provided “operational and technical support for an attack on an industrial centre affiliated with the defence ministry in Isfahan”.
Iran has previously accused Israel of acts of sabotage against its nuclear facilities and the assassination of nuclear scientists.
The Islamic republic, which regularly imposes the death penalty, has in recent years executed several people it accuses of working on behalf of Mossad.
Rights groups have warned that those sentenced to death do not benefit from due process, with Human Rights Watch last year saying death sentences were imposed “indiscriminately” and made “legal protections meaningless”.
Israel has repeatedly said that Iran must dismantle its nuclear programme altogether, and opposes any deal that could help the republic keep elements of it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that a deal must dismantle “all of [Iran’s nuclear] infrastructure”.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, accused Netanyahu of “brazenly . . . dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran”.
Araghchi has also accused Israel of seeking to “derail diplomacy” through “attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response”, he wrote on X last week.
A massive explosion and fire ripped through a port in southern Iran on Saturday just as Tehran and Washington were holding a third round of nuclear talks in Oman.
Iran is yet to release an official report on the cause of the blast that killed at least 70 people and injured over 1,200 others in Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas.
Early speculation on social media hinted at the possibility of Israeli involvement, but neither Iranian nor Israeli officials have suggested that the blast was caused by an attack.
Iran’s interior minister Eskandar Momeni has blamed “lack of safety precautions and negligence”, while Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson for the parliament’s national security and foreign relations committee, said there has been no evidence of “sabotage or foreign involvement” in the explosion.
