In the aftermath of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, Iranians are facing a sweeping government crackdown, Fox News reports. Security forces have flooded the streets, with widespread arrests and reports of executions targeting those accused of aiding the Israeli strike.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported on Monday that approximately 705 people had been arrested on "political or security-related charges." This was confirmed by the Islamic Republic-run Fars News Agency, which said that 700 were detained for working with Israel.
In addition to mass arrests, the Iranian government has carried out executions of individuals accused of working with Mossad. According to NBC News, three men were charged with smuggling “assassination equipment” into the country, hidden inside a shipment of alcohol. All three were executed on Wednesday. The equipment was allegedly used in the killing of an Iranian public figure, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The crackdown has dashed the hopes of both Israeli citizens and Iranian dissident groups of an Iranian-led uprising against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor Saeed Ghasseminejad, for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), argued that the charges placed on those arrested and executed were simply the Ayatollah's way of ensuring dissent does not get too powerful. A lack of action by the Iranian government could embolden a revolution, and the last thing the Supreme Leader wants is to lose power. In a statement, Ghasseminejad said:
The regime convicts and imposes the death penalty based on trumped-up charges to spread terror among the Iranians. Meanwhile, Israel’s Operation Rising Lion has helped the public realize that the Iranian regime is a paper tiger that is weaker than ever,
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