Iran executes ‘US and Israeli spy’ as a message to Washington

“A Mossad spy was hanged,” Iran’s Fars News said on Monday morning. Iran accused Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd of being “linked to both Mossad and the CIA, collecting information in various areas of security and providing them to foreign intelligence for US dollars.” It also said that he was responsible for passing on information related to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who America assassinated in January.

The execution was given front page headlines in Iran the day after a high-level visit to Iraq by Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. The message appears to be that Iran is trying to show it has cracked down on foreign intelligence networks and made it harder for the US or others to penetrate the Islamic Republic. After a dozen mysterious fires and explosions have rocked Iran since late June, the country has said that any sabotage could “ignite full escalation.” The execution comes in this context as well.

Mousavi-Majd’s execution on Monday was first reported on the judiciary’s Mizan Online website, according to accounts.  Although he was reportedly detained as far back as October 2018, he was linked to the assassination of Soleimani on January 3, 2020, when the Quds Force leader traveled from Syria to Baghdad to coordinate anti-US activity.

Soleimani was killed alongside Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US airstrike. Washington was said to have gotten intelligence from various sources, including the airport. Their convoy was hit with missiles fired by a US drone. Zarif paid respects to Soleimani and Muhandis on Sunday, stopping by the area where their convoy was destroyed. We know that back in February Iran’s judiciary also sentenced to death one person and gave others long prison sentences “for spying for the CIA.”

The February sentences related to Amir Rahimpour, according to Iran’s Gholamhossein Esmaili, a judiciary spokesman. He was accused of passing information about Iran’s nuclear program.

“While being in touch with the spy agency, he earned a lot of money as wages as he tried to deliver some information from Iran’s nuclear program to the American agency,” state-run IRNA news agency quoted Esmaili as saying.

Iran seems to be increasing the work of the hangmen. Iran says it caught up to 17 “CIA spies” in 2019. On July 14 Iran also said it executed a Defense Ministry official who “sold information to the CIA.” That man was named as Reza Asgari by Esmaili, the spokesman. He allegedly sold information about Iran’s missile program. Weeks later a mysterious explosion destroyed a site of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile program near Khojir, not far from Parchin. Then an explosion destroyed part of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

What did Mousavi Majd do? He collected information from security members and passed it to foreign intelligence, Iran says. There are not many more details in English, but Fars News says that his father was a businessman who frequently went to Syria in the 1970s. Thus, the alleged spy learned to translate to Arabic and English. He may have remained in Syria after the 2011 civil war began. “His command of the Arabic language and familiarity with the geography of Syria brought him closer to the Iranian advisory forces in Idlib and Latakia.” Although not a member of the IRGC he was able to access sensitive areas under the guise of translation work.

According to the Fars News report he was uncovered through security surveillance due to calls being made to a “CIA officer in West Asia.” West Asia is the Iranian media term for the Middle East, so it could be anywhere in the region Iran alleges he made calls to. He received US dollars, Iran says, in exchange for the spying. He passed on details about IRGC advisors in Syria, weapons, telecommunications and also the itinerary of various commanders and where they travelled, including details about Soleimani. “As his work became known to Iranian intelligence and access levels declined he turned to Mossad intelligence service and provided them with information and even tried at times to connect to Saudi intelligence services,” Fars News says. He was detained by Iran, Iranian media says, as far back as October 2018 and sentenced already in August 2019.

Details of his case appeared on June 9. He was accused primarily of knowing the movements of Soleimani which helped the US track the IRGC commander. His name was released for the first time in June, months after the US strike on Soleimani. Iran has also been careful not to say that Majd’s work directly led to Soleimani’s death because that would appear to admit that Soleimani’s inner circle was penetrated, which Iran doesn’t want to discuss. Iran’s accusation of spying is always unclear. Sometimes academics and writers and even environmental activists can be swept up in these cases. In the February case two of those linked to “spying” were part of a charity.

It is worthwhile noting that in each case Iran claims these men were paid in dollars. Iran generally seems to prefer to accuse the spies of being in it for the money as opposed to ideological opponents of the regime. This makes it seem like they just wanted to profit off of undermining “national interests,” as opposed to the IRGC members who are portrayed as modest men of the revolution who never profit from their work. This may be largely a narrative seeking to make it seem like every Iranian would never oppose the regime on moral grounds, but only for money.

When Majd’s name first appeared there were photos of a plainclothes man near Soleimani that were alleged to be same as the images published by Iran’s regime of the “spy.” But it was impossible to confirm if they were the same and Iran’s media doesn’t allege that he was in Soleimani’s direct inner circle or security detail or that he travelled with Soleimani.

The timing of the execution, after the wave of mysterious incidents in Iran and after Zarif’s Iraq visit, may be designed to send a message to Iran’s adversaries. The idea is to show that Iran’s intelligence services are cracking down on various networks and that Iran is willing to execute those it accuses. It’s unclear though if it is executing people based on evidence or for other crimes or for alleged spying years ago that was only revealed now in order to show that the regime has got someone to blame.