Life in Iran after the strikes: executions, arrests and paranoia

Security forces emerge from hiding to set up checkpoints, hunt for moles and tell residents to watch their neighbours for spies.

A recent Israeli strike on a building in Tehran. Picture: AFP

As soon as US and Israeli bombs stopped raining down on Iran, the country’s theocratic leaders and the security forces emerged from their bunkers and began waging a new campaign — this time against their own people, targeting alleged spies, dissidents and opposition figures.

Checkpoints have sprung up across Tehran as the authorities seek to reassert control and hunt people they suspect helped Israel’s attacks on air defences, nuclear sites, and top officers and atomic scientists in a 12-day air war that exposed the state’s inability to defend itself.

As the smell of high explosives hung in the air of the capital, police and intelligence officers arrested hundreds of people, and are detaining more each day. Armed paramilitary police are patrolling the streets. People are being stopped and having their cars, phones and computers searched. The government announced the hasty execution of at least six men.

“The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the war,” said Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel prize-winning Iranian human-rights activist who is one of the country’s highest profile opposition figures. She said the regime would do what it takes to consolidate power and is cracking down.

More than 1000 people have been detained over the past two weeks for allegedly aiding Israel, according to Amnesty International.

Images of Iranian military commanders and scientists killed during Israeli strikes are displayed as trucks carrying their coffins drive past during their funeral procession. Picture: AFP

On Saturday, senior officials attended state funerals for those killed in the war, including top military leaders and nuclear scientists, according to state media, in what appeared to be a show of strength. Those seen in public included President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Esmail Qaani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force who had earlier been reported killed.

Thousands of mourners gathered in Tehran waving flags and banners in support of the Islamic Republic, with smaller groups convening in other cities. Mass transit was operating free of charge in the capital, where underground stations filled up with people on their way to the procession. Some chanted “death to Israel,” according to a video shared by state broadcaster IRIB.

The Shia Islamist regime has also stepped up efforts to enforce strict rules governing what it considers to be appropriate behaviour and dress.

“The morality police are back,” said a 44-year-old woman who said she had fled Tehran during the war. “The police even stopped us and questioned us, because the socks of the woman with me were too see-through.” Israeli and US air strikes marked the first time Iran had come under sustained foreign attack on its own soil since an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s. The capital, Tehran, emerged as a primary war zone, and the Revolutionary Guard found itself in the crosshairs.

Throughout the strikes, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sheltered in a bunker outside Tehran, unreachable by anyone but his closest allies, according to an Arab official briefed on the matter and an adviser to the Revolutionary Guard. His isolation complicated talks in Geneva with European nations seeking to mediate an end to the war, Arab officials said.

Esmail Qaani, who heads an elite paramilitary force, appeared at a pro-regime rally in Tehran hours after the ceasefire began. Picture: AFP

On Thursday, he spoke to the nation for the first time since June 19, seeking to play down the damage from the attack and rally the nation around the Iranian flag.

“The Islamic Republic was victorious, and in return dealt a harsh blow to America’s face,” he said in a hoarse voice.

The attacks showed how deeply Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had infiltrated Iran. They slipped explosive drones and other munitions into Iran, where they were used by teams of agents to take out air defences and kill high profile targets.

“The Israelis organised penetrations, transfers of bombs and explosives, and recruited people from within,” Mohammad Amin-Nejad, Iran’s ambassador to France, told French broadcaster France 24 last week. It happened “right before our eyes. There were vulnerabilities.” The atmosphere in Tehran remains tense as people start heading back to work and trying to resume normal life, residents reached by phone said.

Iran’s state-controlled media report new arrests and weapons seizures every day. Authorities said Tuesday they had filed 24 cases against alleged Israeli spies in Hamedan, a western Iranian city whose air base was heavily damaged on the first day of the strikes. The suspects “were sending information, photos, and videos to the enemy,” a media report said.

A man flashes a victory sign as he carries an Iranian flag in Tehran. Picture: AP /Vahid Salemi

Access to the internet was restored Wednesday after being cut off for more than a week. But an official warning not to use messaging services such as WhatsApp was still in effect. The regime says it fears Israeli spies could hack into conversations and gain information.

On Wednesday, Iran’s intelligence ministry told residents to report any suspicious calls. Earlier, it passed out a set of tips about how to spot a spy.

The guidance warned citizens to watch their neighbours for comings and goings at odd hours; heavy use of masks, hats and sunglasses; and signs like metallic banging inside their homes. Spies, the tips said, might live in houses with “curtains that remain closed even during daylight hours.” The domestic crackdown is adding to the widespread feeling of anxiety caused by the war. Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded Tehran, taking aim at missile and nuclear facilities, as well as symbols of the regime and its repression, including the infamous Evin Prison, where political prisoners are held.

Tehran’s affluent northern neighbourhoods, home to many of the targeted nuclear scientists and senior commanders, were some of the worst-hit in the air campaign, rattling the city’s elite. Tehran experienced some of the most intense bombardments of the war just hours before the ceasefire came into effect.

Residents spent many of their nights awake, sometimes watching the war unfold from their balconies and rooftops, as missiles flashed across the sky followed by explosions and fires.

Iran’s health ministry said more than 600 people were killed and more than 4,800 injured during the war, according to state-run media, which didn’t say how many were from the armed forces.

While Iran remained defiant, it took precautions by transporting some of its most precious assets abroad. After Israel began targeting some energy infrastructure, Iran began transferring large amounts of stored crude to Asia, said Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude-oil analysis at data commodities company Kpler.

As of June 22, the quantity of stored crude at Kharg Island — Iran’s main point of oil exports — had dropped, while volumes of Iranian oil stored near Singapore and China had risen, he said. The roughly five million barrels likely transferred abroad were worth about $375 million at oil prices prevailing at the time.

Iranians burn the US and Israeli flags during a funeral ceremony for Iranian IRGC generals and scientists who were killed in recent airstrikes. Picture: AFP

Last week, Iran flew at least four civilian aircraft to the Omani capital of Muscat for safekeeping. One of the planes included Iran’s presidential Airbus A340, which landed in Muscat on June 18, according to flight trackers.

Arab officials were surprised to learn the planes were empty of passengers. Instead, they said, they carried cash and assets, which Iranians weren’t allowed to offload because of sanctions. The planes themselves were also valuable as emergency exits for top officials.

The precautions show the level of pressure on Iran’s rulers during the war. They now have to find a way forward with no control of their own airspace and no help from their militias.

A crippling burden of sanctions will make rebuilding even harder. “This was one of the most serious security breaches in the regime’s history, but it wasn’t a turning point. The leadership held, the streets stayed quiet, and the system proved again that it’s built not for popularity, but for survival,” said Narges Bajoghli, associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Wall Street Journal