As cases of Israelis being hired by Iranian operatives continue to soar, Israel Police says it has arrested a 65-year-old accused of carrying out surveillance and photography missions for Iran at infrastructure and security sites in Israel.
Named as Eduard Yusupov, the statement from Israeli Police said: “Based on the findings of the investigation, it can be said that Yusupov was operated by Iranian intelligence elements.”
He is said to have agreed to carry out the missions starting last October, for a fee of tens of thousands of dollars paid in crypto currency after being approached by a person who identified himself as an Azerbaijani citizen living in Dubai.
“[Yusupov] had carried out numerous missions for him, including surveillance and photography missions related to infrastructure and security sites in Israel, including IDF bases, the Haifa Port, the Haifa refineries, and the Nuclear Research Center,” the statement added.
It shows a recurring pattern in the actions of Iranian intelligence, using agents of Azeri origin who recruit via social media networks, targeting in this case and others, Israeli citizens of Caucasian origin.
Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon, said it shows the breadth of languages Iranian operatives are working with to target weaker elements of Israeli society who often come from lower economic brackets or less integrated groups.
He wrote on X: “Both in Israel and when traveling abroad, don't think that Iranian intelligence only speaks Persian. They may sit next to you in a hotel or casino and chat in your language as well.”
Last month, 73-year-old Israeli, Moti Maman, received a 12-year sentence for spying for Iran and plotting to assassinate Israeli leaders including the country’s PM and defense chief, in what the prosecution called a “deterrence” punishment as the number of Iran-backed plots foiled shot up by 400% alongside Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and conflict with Iran’s allies in the region.
“During the year, 13 serious espionage affairs by Israelis were exposed and thwarted for the Iranian intelligence agencies, and serious indictments were filed against 27 Israelis,” a statement said.
“Iran has a big problem to bring supplies and physical support to Gaza now because it’s closed so nobody can get anything inside, like ammunition,” said Shlomo Mofaz, the head of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Research Center in Israel
Speaking to Iran International, he said: “Maybe some things are being smuggled with the aid, or food, or from Egypt by UAVs, but mainly they have a problem. The main focus of Iran is the West Bank, where there are a few ways they are supporting Hamas and other groups, mainly from Jordan where there is a long border and no fence in many places.”
Since Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 mostly civilians and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, the Israeli military has locked down the strip’s borders amid the longest Gaza war since the Islamist group took control of Gaza in 2007.
After several weeks of ceasefire, last week, Israel resumed military operations in Gaza in a bid to put pressure on Hamas to release the dozens of remaining hostages in the strip.
In 2022, now assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al Jazeera that his group had received $70 million in military help from Iran. "We have rockets that are locally manufactured but the long-range rockets came from abroad, from Iran, Syria and others through Egypt," he said.
The US State Department estimated in 2020 that Tehran’s support for Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, reached $100 million a year.
“The smuggling to the West Bank starts in Syria to Jordan but since the change in regime, it’s a bit harder there too as Israel has more control over what’s going on in southern Syria, but there are still some groups continuing,” added Mofaz, a leading intelligence expert in Israel.
However, financial aid is continuing through the likes of Bitcoin so Iran-backed armed groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank can buy arms on the black market.
He explained that much of the activity involves collaboration with Arab criminal groups inside Israel, who help smuggle ammunition into the West Bank. While some weapons are also assembled using commercially available materials, he noted this is less significant.
He added that Iran continues to smuggle dollars, but doing so has become more difficult. With no IRGC presence currently in Syria, the supporting infrastructure has been greatly reduced since the fall of the regime.
Just last month, Israel's defense minister announced that its war on Iran-backed groups in the occupied West Bank could go on as long as another year as Tehran refocuses its efforts in the wake of the Gaza war.
Speaking about the operation named 'Iron Wall, Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "We will not return to the reality that existed in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terrorist hotbeds in order to dismantle the battalions and terrorist infrastructures of extremist Islam that were built, armed, financed and trained by the Iranian axis of evil."
Mofaz said that from the Israeli side, security and military agencies have been working hard in the West Bank. “The intelligence is very good, much better than it was in Gaza before the war,” he said.
Overall, Mofaz says Iran’s allies, known as the ‘axis of resistance’, in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza have been significantly weakened, aided by the fall of the Assad government in Syria which has taken away a major military stronghold for Iran abroad.
“Iran has less air defense to defend from US and Israeli airstrikes after Israel’s last attack,” Mofaz said. "The change in the regime in Syria is another issue. The routes on the ground to Lebanon have been closed. By air, that’s also difficult from Damascus now.
The IRGC's influence has been significantly curtailed since Assad's ousting from Syria. Israel has repeatedly targeted the Syria-Lebanon border, particularly the tunnel network, and the Lebanese army now controls the country's borders following the US-France brokered November ceasefire.
As Iran explores Iraq and Turkey as alternative routes, these options are drawing increased attention, particularly after Israel exposed the Turkey route and warned against its development.
Regional experts broadly agree on the weakening of the so-called axis. However, Arman Mahmoudian, a GNSI research fellow and USF lecturer, argued in a January Stimson Institute article that a weakened Iran could increase the nuclear threat.
”There is growing concern that a weakened and increasingly vulnerable Iran, governed by a survivalist regime, may see no alternative but to weaponize its decades-long nuclear program,” he warned.
“While the Axis of Resistance is now significantly weakened, its diminished state still presents considerable dangers for the United States’ position in the Middle East and the broader stability of the region. A fragile Iranian regime, desperate to survive, may become an even greater source of instability.”
