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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Israel ‘Concerned’ with Russia’s Violation of Estonian Airspace as Tallin Requests NATO Article 4 Consultation
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks next to High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica as they hold a press conference on the day of an EU-Israel Association Council with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Saturday that Jerusalem was “concerned” with the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian jets.
This comes after three Russian military jets violated NATO member Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes on Friday in what its government branded an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion. It is the latest in a series of recent military actions by Russia that have rattled the alliance.
Earlier this month Poland shot down Russian drones in its airspace with the backing of aircraft from its NATO allies.
Tallin meanwhile decided to request NATO Article 4 consultations over the violation, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on Friday. Article 4 stipulates that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the view of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them comes under threat.
US President Donald Trump made it clear he was not pleased with the situation.
“I don’t love it. I don’t like when that happens. Could be big trouble,” Trump told reporters.
NATO polices the airspace of Estonia and other Baltic nations in its “Baltic Sentry” mission.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Can Overcome Any Return of Sanctions
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed on Saturday that Iran would overcome any reimposition of sanctions on it through a so-called “snapback” process, after the U.N. Security Council voted not to permanently lift sanctions on Tehran.
“Through the ‘snapback’ they block the road, but it is the brains and the thoughts that open or build the road,” Pezeshkian said in remarks carried by state television.
“They cannot stop us. They can strike our Natanz or Fordow (nuclear installations attacked by the US and Israel in June), But they are unaware that it is humans who built and will rebuild Natanz,” Pezeshkian said.
The Security Council move came on Friday after Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process last month to reimpose sanctions, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies having any such intention.
“We will never surrender in the face of excessive demands because we have the power to change the situation,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by state media.
The “snapback” process would reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran unless an agreement is reached on a delay between Tehran and key European powers within about a week.
The snapback would reimpose an arms embargo, a ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing, a ban on activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, a global asset freeze and travel bans on Iranian individuals and entities.
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US Seeks Congressional Approval to Sell $6 Billion in Arms to Israel
The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington, U.S., December 6, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/Files
i24 News – The US administration of President Donald Trump is seeking congressional approval for a weapons deal with Israel to the tune of some $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
While the proposed deal was first sent to congressional leaders before Israel’s controversial strike in Doha—targeting the leadership of Hamas, the jihadist Palestinian group with which Israel is at war—it is understood the incident had no effect on the administration’s willingness to push the sale through the legislature.
The proposed sales include a $3.8 billion deal for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters and a $1.9 billion deal for 3,250 infantry assault vehicles, the report said, citing official documents.
The arms would be paid for by US-provided foreign military financing, according to the documents.
Presently, the administration is seeking the approval of the four top Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it is understood.
The leaders of the two panels usually must sign off on major foreign weapons deals before the administration sends wider notification to Congress and the public.