By Al-Fassel | 2025-06-26

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is arresting purported Iranian "spies" en masse in a paranoid frenzy that exposes the Iranian regime's fundamental incompetence and disregard for its own citizens.

Iran's intelligence ministry has issued guidelines asking citizens to report neighbors who wear "masks, hats and sunglasses, even at night" and those who receive "frequent package deliveries by courier," CNN reported.

The increasingly nervous directives include watching for "unusual sounds from inside the house, such as screaming, the sound of metal equipment, continuous banging" and "houses with curtains drawn even during the day," it said.

The regime also has detained scores nationwide for allegedly disrupting the "psychological security of society" by posting online content in support of Israel, including 60 individuals in Isfahan alone, according to CNN.

On June 16, the regime executed a man who had been arrested two years ago on spying charges. On June 22, it executed Majid Mosayebi, whom it accused of being an agent for Israel's Mossad spy service, AFP reported.

And on June 23, Iran's judiciary said it hanged Mohammad-Amin Mahdavi Shayesteh, found guilty of "intelligence cooperation" with Israel and alleged ties with Mossad, as well as collaborating with the Iran International media outlet.

Regime lashes out

The regime has a pattern of lashing out at civilians following security breaches, as seen after the 2009 election protests and the 2019 fuel price unrest, when thousands were detained under vague national security laws.

Tehran frequently weaponizes espionage allegations as a pretext to silence political dissidents and crush opposition voices, making the legitimacy of the current arrests highly questionable, according to human rights organizations.

Normal life has been paralyzed as the IRGC-aligned Basij paramilitary force conducts night patrols, while Iranian and international media outlets report that journalists have been prevented from taking photos, amid press censorship.

The regime's hysteria stems from the revelation that Mossad operatives had established drone bases inside Iran and smuggled in explosives before Israel's unprecedented preemptive attacks on nuclear and military targets.

The infiltration has exposed glaring vulnerabilities in the regime's counterintelligence capabilities, raising questions about how such an operation could evade detection across multiple provinces and sensitive military zones.

Yet rather than acknowledge its failures, the Islamic Republic has chosen to terrorize ordinary Iranians who now face arrest for basic activities like wearing weather protection or receiving deliveries, they said.

This mirrors tactics used by other authoritarian regimes that respond to external threats with domestic purges, an approach analysts say signals weakness rather than strength.