Tarique Rahman sworn in as the 11th prime minister of Bangladesh

Bangladesh National Party leader Tarique Rahman took the oath of office on Tuesday as the 11th prime minister of Bangladesh, marking the nation’s first elected government in 18 months, Anadolu reported.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Rahman and his 49-member Cabinet at the parliament building in Dhaka.

This followed the swearing-in of 297 lawmakers, including the Jamaat-e-Islami-led bloc, following historic elections that achieved a 59.44% voter turnout.

The polls were the first since the 2024 uprising ended 15 years of Awami League rule and led to the outgoing interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

With the Awami League barred from the ballot, the BNP-led alliance secured a two-thirds majority with 212 seats.

Simultaneously, a referendum on constitutional reforms passed with over 60% approval, solidifying the transition from the interim government that had ruled since Sheikh Hasina’s departure in August 2024.

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Eight Arab, Islamic countries unite against Israel’s West Bank land registration plan

Eight Arab and Islamic countries, including Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, issued a unified statement from Doha condemning Israel’s decision to designate vast tracts of the occupied West Bank as “state land,” Al Mayadeen reported Tuesday.

This policy, the first of its kind since 1967, initiates comprehensive land registration for 15% of Area C by 2030.

Spearheaded by far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Yariv Levin, and Israel Katz, the plan converts land into state property unless Palestinians can provide documentation that meets rigorous Israeli evidentiary standards—a process critics say is nearly impossible due to decades of displacement and restricted records.

Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, Area C comprises 61% of the West Bank and remains under full Israeli control.

Palestinian officials and Hamas have denounced these actions as de facto annexation and “settlement-based Judaization.”

This occurs amid a surge in violence by Israel that has seen over 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 2023.

The eight foreign ministers warned that institutionalizing Israeli land control violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

They echoed the July 2024 International Court of Justice ruling, which declared the occupation illegal.

By altering the legal and administrative reality of the 1967 lines, the ministers cautioned that these measures would fragment Palestinian territory and extinguish the possibility of a sovereign state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

They called on the international community to take decisive action to uphold international law and safeguard the Palestinian right to self-determination.

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Warships can be sent to the seabed, Leader warns in response to Trump’s threats

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addresses thousands of people from East Azarbaijan Province on February 17, 2026. (Photo by khamenei.ir)

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution has responded to repeated US military threats against Iran, saying that the weapons that can sink the American carriers are "more dangerous" than the warships.  

“The American president [Donald Trump] repeatedly says that their military is the strongest in the world. The strongest military in the world, however, can sometimes be struck so hard that it cannot even get back on its feet,” Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday while addressing thousands of people from East Azarbaijan Province.

“They keep saying, ‘We have sent an aircraft carrier toward Iran.’ Fine—an aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous piece of equipment. But more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon capable of sending it to the bottom of the sea,” he added.

Trump’s remarks that Washington has been unable to eliminate the Islamic Republic for the past 47 years is “quite an admission,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

“For 47 years, America has failed to destroy the Islamic Republic,” he said, before addressing Trump and adding, “I say this: you will not be able to do so in the future either.”

The warning comes as US President Donald Trump has deployed military forces to the region, threatening to launch attacks on Iran.

US officials said on February 12 that the Pentagon was sending an additional aircraft carrier to the region, adding thousands more troops along with fighter aircraft and guided-missile destroyers.

“In case we don't make a deal, we'll need it,” Trump said on Friday, referring to USS Gerald R. Ford.

The military buildup comes as Iran and the US are holding indirect talks about the nuclear issue, months after the US-Israeli aggression on Iranian soil and attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.

Observers say Trump is using the military threat as leverage in talks to gain concessions from Tehran. However, Iranian officials have highlighted Tehran’s readiness for both diplomacy and war, warning that any attack on Iran would ignite a regional war.

On Sunday, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi warned Trump over his war rhetoric.

“Trump should know that he would be entering a confrontation that gives harsh lessons, the outcome of which would ensure that he no longer bellows threats around the world,” he said.  

‘Foolish to predetermine outcome of talks’

Elsewhere in his address, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the ongoing indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.

“These remarks the US president makes—at times issuing threats, at times saying this must be done or that must not be done—show that they are seeking to dominate the Iranian nation,” he said.

“They say, ‘Let us negotiate over your nuclear energy,’ and the outcome of the negotiation should be that you no longer possess this energy,” he said, adding, “To predetermine the outcome before talks even begin is wrong and foolish.”

“This is precisely the foolish approach being taken by American presidents, certain senators, the current president, and others,” he added.

Iranian people, however, “know their Islamic and Shi’i teachings well,” the Leader said, before quoting Imam Hussein (peace be upon him), “Someone like me would never pledge allegiance to someone like Yazid.”

“In reality, the Iranian nation is saying the same: a people with this culture, this history, these lofty values, will never pledge allegiance to corrupt figures like those currently in power in the United States,” he said.

Iran in a state of mourning

Elsewhere, Ayatollah Khamenei said the nation is grieving after recent foreign-backed riots, which left thousands of people dead, stressing, “We are in mourning for the blood that was shed.”

He divided the victims into three groups. The first, he said, were security and health defenders — police, Basij, Revolutionary Guard members and others — whom he described as “among the highest martyrs.”

The second group included bystanders killed during the turmoil. “They, too, are martyrs,” he said, noting they died amid “the enemy’s sedition.”

The third group, the Leader said, were those who were misled into joining the riots. Calling them “our own children,” he said some had written to him expressing regret. Authorities, he noted, have also recognized those killed among them as martyrs.

Apart from ringleaders backed by foreign enemies, Ayatollah Khamenei said all others deserve prayers and forgiveness.

Foreign-backed armed rioters and terrorists hijacked peaceful, sporadic protests over economic grievances on January 8 and 9.

The violence, encouraged openly by the US and the Israeli regime, resulted in extensive damage to public and private property, with widespread destruction of shops, government institutions, public service facilities, and the killing of hundreds of civilians and security forces.

Iranian authorities have confirmed that American and Israeli spy agencies were directly involved, providing funding, training, and media support to rioters and armed terrorists acting on the streets.

Official Iranian records show 3,117 people were killed in the riots, including 2,427 civilians and security personnel killed by terrorists.  

Unmasked: The scandal of the “saviors” of Muslim women

Zahra Shafei, cultural researcher

The case of systematic crimes on Epstein’s island is not merely a moral scandal or the sexual corruption of several wealthy figures; it has now become a fully documented indictment — a decisive unmasking of the Western human rights discourse. Within this case, a network of Western politicians, capital holders, media personalities, and intellectual elites—figures who for years portrayed themselves as standard-bearers of “human rights” and “women’s rights”—now find their names directly or indirectly linked to one of the darkest cases of sexual abuse, trafficking of underage girls, and sexual slavery. What emerges from the released files, flight logs, and surviving images is not merely a corruption network, but the true face of a system that for decades claimed leadership in defending women’s rights and freedom.

False defenders of women: Servants of the devil on the island

Perhaps the most consequential dimension of this case is the total collapse of the West’s claimed moral authority on the issue of women. For years, politicians, media outlets, and so-called human rights organizations have used their official platforms to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran and other independent nations for their “treatment of women.” Yet these are the very same politicians who cultivated ties within the Epstein network. These are the same media outlets that either boycotted the case or pushed it to the margins. These are the same wealthy elites whose tainted fortunes gave rise to “human rights” foundations. For decades, this very network has overseen the design and promotion of the “oppressed Iranian woman” narrative—a project whose ultimate goal has been to foment unrest and insecurity inside Iran. To achieve this, vast budgets have been funneled to entities linked to intelligence agencies organizations, all operating under the guise of human rights foundations, while the blueprint for “freedom” has been drafted in think tanks serving the military-industrial complex.

They have brought the media under their coordinated command to produce a single, uniform narrative, while swiftly silencing any voice that rises to expose this intricate web of deceit and conspiracy. Lies, secrecy, conspiracy, and deception have constituted the diabolical doctrine of these criminals in executing all their schemes—from Epstein’s island to the streets of Tehran. In the words of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution: “The enemies of the Islamic Republic quickly realized that they couldn’t defeat the Revolution using hard power. [So], they turned to using methods of soft power. Soft warfare includes using propaganda, temptations, and the dishonesty that one sees exists in their slogans. They label their actions as being defense of women, the female community, a particular group of women, or as defending one woman. They create riots in a country under the guise of defending a woman.”

This scandal marks a turning point in exposing these hypocrisies and stripping Western elites of their moral authority — the very same elites who, throughout history, have wrapped war, destruction, insecurity, and exploitation in the ornate packaging of “women’s freedom.”

In this context, the role of the leaders of the Zionist regime and Israeli lobbies cannot be overlooked. Years before the Epstein scandal brought this corruption to light, the Zionist regime’s hand had already been exposed as “the enter of a global organ-trafficking network.” Now, the names of powerful figures holding Israeli citizenship appear throughout this case with such frequency that no room for doubt remains: across every page of these documents, the traces of efforts to safeguard the interests of the Zionist regime are evident. All of this unfolds while Imam Khamenei had warned about these matters years earlier: “Women trafficking is among the trades that are growing fastest in the world. There are a few countries which are worst in this regard and the Zionist regime is among them. Under the guise of labor, marriage and other such things, they collect women and girls from poor countries in Latin America, certain Asian countries and certain poor European countries and they deliver them to certain centers, centers whose names and activities would shock people. All of these things are the result of the misconception about women.” 

The project of “saving Muslim women”: A defensive mechanism of an incurable illness

A psychoanalytic reading of this issue reveals a deeper truth. In clinical psychology, “projection” is defined as a defense mechanism in which an individual, in order to escape the anxiety caused by their own flaw, attributes that flaw to another and then proceeds to combat it in the other. The West’s obsessive campaign to “liberate the Muslim woman” appears, in this light, as nothing less than an attempt to save itself—to repair its own fractured identity.

This obsessive fixation functions as a defense mechanism designed to conceal a more troubling truth: that the Western system is incapable, within its own borders, of protecting women. By amplifying the image of the “oppressed Muslim women,” public attention is diverted from the “victimized American woman” on Epstein Island. In reality, they are not seeking the freedom of Muslim women; rather, they are seeking relief for their own troubled conscience — a conscience haunted by the crimes committed against their own women.

What do these contradictions and conspiracies reveal?

In this light, it becomes unmistakably clear that the so-called “defense of women’s rights” functions as an imperial instrument in the war of narratives against societies that have never consented to become part of this corrupt network. How can those who failed to protect the women and children of their own country from an organized criminal enterprise of sexual exploitation suddenly present themselves as the champions of Muslim women? How can those who failed to protect the women and children of their own country from an organized criminal enterprise of sexual exploitation suddenly emerge as champions of Muslim women?

This contradiction exposes the very essence of an entire intellectual system. By discarding religion-based morality and replacing it with the primacy of profit and pleasure, the Western system has not only proven incapable of safeguarding women but has, by necessity, devolved into the world’s largest cartel of sexual exploitation. When “freedom” is reduced to an instrument for the unrestrained gratification of wealthy elites, the vulnerable girls on the margins of that very system are reduced to commodities.

How can such a system presume to offer prescriptions for the Muslim women of Iran—women who live under the protection of Sacred Law and divine ordinances? Moral authority rightfully belongs to those who shield the vulnerable, not to those who, on their private islands, sacrifice the most defenseless in pursuit of their own pleasure.

Baal and the New World Order: An Ancient Idol Behind a Modern Mask.

By Salim Mohamed Badat

“Do you call upon Baal and abandon the Best of creators?”

(Qur’an 37:125)

This question was not asked only of an ancient people. It is asked of every civilization that mistakes power for truth and dominance for destiny. The Quran preserves history not to entertain, but to warn. Baal is named because Baal is perennial.

In the time of the Prophet Elijah (peace be upon him), Baal was the object of devotion among a people who had exchanged moral law for elite authority. Linguistically, the word Baal means lord, master, owner. 

It was not merely an idol of stone; it was a system of obedience that demanded loyalty to power while severing people from Allah, the true Lord of creation. The Quran exposes this inversion with surgical clarity: how can a society call upon a false lord while abandoning the One who created them and their forefathers?

Baal, in the Quranic worldview, is not described as Iblis himself. Rather, Baal represents taghut, false authorities elevated above divine law. Lucifer is the source of rebellion; Baal is rebellion institutionalized. 

Satan does not always appear as chaos. Often he appears as order without justice, prosperity without accountability, freedom without restraint. This is why Baal worship was always tied to corruption. When desire becomes law and power becomes sacred, the vulnerable are consumed and injustice becomes normal.

That ancient pattern never vanished. It learned to speak a new language.

Today, Baal does not stand in open temples. He operates through systems that exalt immunity over accountability and domination over dignity. 

What many now describe as a “New World Order” is not new in spirit. It is Baalism without statues: a transnational structure of power that claims moral superiority while functioning above the law, cloaked in the rhetoric of democracy, rights, and progress.

Recent global exposures have punctured this facade. The Epstein case did not merely reveal one individual; it illuminated a networked culture of secrecy, protection, and impunity among elites. 

Allegations that include kidnapping, sexual exploitation of minors, and ritualized abuse, however disturbing, have emerged repeatedly in connection with those who moved freely across borders under political, financial, and intelligence cover. 

Documents, testimonies, and investigations have implicated figures across politics, finance, royalty, and culture. Whether every claim survives the courts is not the only question. The deeper question is why such crimes consistently orbit the same centers of power, and why those who lecture the world on women’s rights In Muslim countries and moral values are so often shielded when accused of violating them.

The Quran anticipated this hypocrisy. Allah describes people who speak the language of reform while spreading corruption, who claim virtue while inverting morality. 

This is Baal’s signature: evil normalized by institutions that call themselves righteous. The charge is not superstition; it is structural.

In this landscape, Muslims are compelled to reassess alliances and silences. Imam Ali (AS) taught that justice is the axis of legitimacy and that a society can survive disbelief but not injustice. He governed by the principle that power is a trust, not a privilege, and that silence in the face of oppression is itself a betrayal.

This moral inheritance comes into sharp focus when considering Iran’s posture in the modern world. History, in this tradition, is not neutral progression; it is moral recurrence. Karbala is not confined to a date or a place. It is the perpetual confrontation between truth and power, between obedience to Allah and obedience to false lords. 

When Imam Husayn (AS) stood against Yazid, he was not opposing a man alone, but a system that demanded submission while violating divine law. 

Yazid embodied Baal’s essence: inherited power, moral corruption, elite immunity, and religion reduced to ornament.

From this worldview, resistance is not a political preference; it is a theological duty. 

In an age defined by sanctions, proxy wars, media coercion, and moral blackmail, Iran positions itself, rightly or wrongly in the eyes of others, as a state born from refusal to submit to imperial control. Its political language is not derived from Western liberalism, nor from accommodation to global dominance, but from a Karbala centered ethic: injustice must be confronted even when the cost is isolation, pressure, and demonization.

This does not render Iran flawless or beyond criticism. It does, however, explain why it stands where many retreat. To submit to a global order that shields abusers, excuses mass death, and weaponizes morality would be, in this moral grammar, to repeat the betrayal of Karbala. 

Baal’s modern agents do not require idols. They function through alliances, institutions, financial systems, intelligence networks, and media empires. They demand obedience while denying accountability, speak of human rights while excusing annihilation, and accuse others of barbarism while protecting the powerful within their own ranks.

Imam Ali warned that the most dangerous injustice is the one normalized under respectable names. In such a world, neutrality is not wisdom; it is complicity. Justice, he taught, must be upheld even if it stands alone.

The Quran offers no promise that those who resist falsehood will be loved. It promises that they will be tested. And it promises that truth, even when isolated, is never defeated.

“Do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you.”

(Quran 11:113)

The ancient question, therefore, confronts us anew. Do we call upon Baal, whatever form he now takes, and abandon the Best of creators? Do we bow to power because it is powerful, or stand for truth because it is true?

Baal did not die. He adapted. And the Quran continues to expose him, for those willing to see.

Salim Mohamed Badat

Author exploring the intersection of faith, politics and justice 

US has come to realize there is no ‘military solution’ to Iran’s nuclear issue: Ex-diplomat

By Mohammad Ali Haqshenas

Washington has been forced to recognize that pressure and military threats cannot resolve the nuclear issue with Iran, leaving diplomacy — focused strictly on the nuclear file — as the only viable path forward, says a former Iranian diplomat.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Ahmad Dastmalchian, former Iranian ambassador to Jordan and Lebanon, said Iran’s nuclear program has "no military solution," and it has already  been "proven to the Americans.”

The new phase of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington began last Friday in Muscat, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described it as a “good start,” stressing that the talks are focused solely on the nuclear file and must proceed “free from tension and threats.”

For Tehran, the framework is clear. An agreement is achievable if the US gives up its excessive demands and sticks to the nuclear issues that have been the bone of contention.

“Iran does not have nuclear weapons production in its defense doctrine,” Dastmalchian said. “The Islamic Republic is ready to provide the necessary guarantees that must be given accordingly.”

He referred to statements by US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, emphasizing that Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons. “Perhaps this is a common point,” he noted.

Yet the former diplomat and foreign affairs analyst stated that complications arise not from the nuclear file itself, but from Washington’s “unreasonable demands.”

“Enrichment is an undeniable right that the Islamic Republic of Iran has insisted on from the beginning, because it is a science and knowledge,” Dastmalchian said.

Nuclear expertise, he added, extends beyond energy into multiple civilian sectors. From Tehran’s perspective, recognizing that right is a prerequisite for any durable agreement.

Iran’s main demand in Muscat remains the effective and verifiable lifting of economic sanctions. Officials in Tehran have repeatedly stated that any agreement without tangible economic benefit would be meaningless in practice.

The former diplomat said the Americans, in this latest round, have adjusted their approach.

“It seems that the Americans in this new round, based on existing realities, have accepted that negotiations should take place within the framework of the nuclear issue,” he said.

Dastmalchian believes “more serious” talks could follow if that shift holds.

“It seems that after examining the American proposals, the two sides will begin more real and serious negotiations to reach a common point on enrichment and non-proliferation,” he said.

“The fact that the Americans were willing to negotiate is an achievement for Iran."

That assessment comes against a turbulent backdrop. Prior to the mid-June US-Israeli aggression on Iran and its nuclear facilities, five rounds of talks had already taken place over a potential replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal. The Muscat track now unfolds amid lingering mistrust.

He noted that some in Iran have described the earlier “Muscat negotiations” as a “deception operation,” referring to reports that the talks were a cover for military aggression against Iran.  

Meanwhile, Dastmalchian noted that current diplomatic engagement — including Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani’s recent visits to Oman and Qatar and the exchange of messages — has created “a new arrangement” in the talks.

“Larijani’s visit to Oman and Qatar shows that Iran is serious in the nuclear negotiations,” he stated.

At the same time, the former diplomat underscored Tehran’s dual-track posture.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, with goodwill and prudence, has full coordination between the field and diplomacy,” he says. “Our military brothers are fully prepared for any mischief by the United States.”

He was blunt about the US military buildup near Iran during the negotiations, seeing them less as preparation for war than as leverage.

“The American military arrangement in the region can be part of the diplomatic process and bargaining,” he said.

Still, Dastmalchian stressed that Washington’s broader approach reflects flawed behavioral patterns, particularly under Trump.

“America, based on wrong behavioral patterns that the Trump administration has drawn in its mind based on bullying and coercion, thinks that by using force, violence, and interference in the internal affairs of other countries, it can advance its aggressive policies according to a single model,” he said.

He pointed to Venezuela as an example, noting that Washington first imposed a naval blockade and then “openly kidnapped that country’s president and his wife in violation of all international laws.”

At first, US policymakers believed they could replicate a similar “combined psychological and military war” against Iran and hence deployed naval assets near Iranian waters, Dastmalchian noted, noting that their calculation had misfired.

Following a strong response from the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and senior political and military officials, Washington appeared to reconsider, he said, adding that regional actors also pushed back.

“Countries in the region such as Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman were strongly opposed to instability and insecurity in the Persian Gulf,” said Dastmalchian, who has served as Iran’s envoy to Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Tehran, he added, has warned that “any bullet fired by the United States will, unlike before, trigger a full-scale and regional war.” Such a war, he noted, would carry high reputational, political, and military costs for Washington.

He also reminded one of the probable consequences of a regional war. “If a war occurs in the region, the Strait of Hormuz will be closed.”

That prospect, Dastmalchian said, explains why regional states favor diplomacy. “The countries of the region, for their own interests, are trying to prevent war.”

He further noted that Iran showed “restraint” during the 12-day June war, which was triggered by the unprovoked and illegal Israeli-American aggression against the Islamic Republic.

At a strategic level, he views US policy toward Iran as partially embedded within a broader effort to contain China. In that sense, pressure on Tehran is not solely about the nuclear file, but about larger geopolitical calculations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington, he noted, failed to shift US decision-making vis-à-vis Iran.

According to him, Netanyahu sought to exert serious influence over the White House and President Trump, but both Trump and his core team opposed “any new warmongering in the region.”

Netanyahu, he added, left without achievements and without even addressing the press at the White House.  Taken together, he sees a moment of recalibration.

Washington has, in his assessment, been forced to accept that coercion alone cannot bend Tehran’s nuclear policy. At the same time, Iran signals readiness to provide assurances — provided its rights are recognized and sanctions relief is real.

The veteran diplomat reiterated that there is no military solution. Whether that recognition translates into a durable agreement, he suggested, will depend less on Tehran’s posture than on Washington’s willingness to confine the talks to the nuclear issue and abandon extraneous demands.

For now, Dastmalchian said, the path forward is clear. “The ball is in America’s court.”

Shin Bet says it arrests Israeli on suspicion of spying for Iran

TEHRAN - The Israeli regime’s internal security and intelligence agency, better known by the acronyms Shabak or Shin Bet, has claimed it has apprehended an Israeli person on charges of spying for Iran.

Al Jazeera quoted Shin Bet as saying it has arrested an Israeli on suspicion of having ties to security elements in Iran and gathering intelligence on a high-ranking official.

The detainee had received money in return for conducting missions, namely collecting information that would harm Israeli security, Shit Bet added.

Recently, the Israeli police had arrested an independent journalist on suspicion of spying for Iran. Reportedly, unknown individuals had contacted the Israeli journalist and called on the individual to film rallies and streets in Quds.
Meanwhile, the Israeli police announced they had demanded an 8-day extension of the journalist’s detention, but that the suspect had been sent back home after raising objections at the court in the Quds area.

In November 2025, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Seyyed Esmaeil Khatib said Israel is undergoing an “epidemic of infiltration,” as multiple Israeli media outlets reported unprecedented levels of espionage cases linked to Iranian intelligence, including penetration of one of Israel’s largest air force bases.

He said the Zionist regime has publicly acknowledged deep security breaches, including the arrest of an Air Force officer accused of transferring nuclear-related documents and classified military material to Iran.

On June 13, 2025, the Israeli regime launched an unprovoked attack on Iranian territory, triggering a 12-day war that claimed the lives of well over 1,000 Iranians, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians. The United States also got involved in the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites. The stated justification for the aggression was to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a claim for which neither Israel nor the U.S. provided any evidence.

Following the arrest of the spy, Israel’s Channel 15 reported that Iran has infiltrated some of the Israeli army’s most sensitive and strategic military installations, including the Hatzerim Airbase, one of the largest air force bases in the country.

Channel 14’s military desk described the extent of Iranian infiltration as “truly unbelievable and astonishing.”

Halil Biton Rozin, the military and security correspondent for Channel 14, said the pace at which Israelis are being arrested for spying for Iran is unprecedented.

“The number of Israelis arrested for spying for Iran is unbelievable and astonishing. It shows how dire the situation is,” he said on air. “We are dealing with a serious phenomenon, and harsh punishments must be imposed for espionage; perhaps then this phenomenon will stop.”

Israeli outlet Ynet also reported that 22-year-old Rafael Reuveni of Be’er Sheva was indicted for communicating with an Iranian handler via Telegram and providing sensitive military information in exchange for money.

He reportedly shared personnel estimates, emergency procedures, and details about his military base, and pledged to alert his Iranian contact if the base moved to wartime readiness.

The case is being investigated by Shin Bet and the police.

Earlier, i24News reported that 27-year-old Shimon Azarzar from Kiryat Yam was charged with prolonged contact with Iranian intelligence agents, transmitting photos and coordinates of sensitive Israeli sites. He is accused of exploiting his girlfriend, an IDF reservist, to obtain information about Air Force installations.

In another case from November, 23-year-old Yosef Ein Eli of Tiberias was arrested for receiving thousands of shekels to collect intelligence for Iran on hotels, IDF soldiers, and senior officials. He was detained in a joint Shin Bet–Lahav 433 investigation.

Khatib said Iran had acquired a “treasure trove” of intelligence from inside Israel, including millions of pages of documents covering nuclear weapons projects—past and present—joint programs with the U.S. and European states, and the internal structure of Israeli nuclear institutions.

He noted that both personnel inside Israeli institutions and ordinary civilians cooperated with Iranian intelligence out of financial motives or resentment toward the Israeli prime minister.

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