Iran hangs suspected Israeli spy, leans into anti-Western bluster as it tries to quell deadly protests

Iran on Wednesday executed by hanging a man convicted of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency said. The news came as the Islamic Republic’s leaders struggled to find ways to end ongoing street protests that have raised a threat of U.S. intervention from President Trump.

Ali Ardestani was hanged on Wednesday after being found guilty of providing Israeli intelligence with “images and photographs of specific locations and information about the targeted subjects, and receiving amounts in the form of digital currency at the end of each mission,” IRNA said.

Iranian authorities hold trials behind closed doors and no evidence against Ardestani was made public. Iran executed more than 1,000 people last year, the highest number of executions in the country since 1989, according to Amnesty International.

The last execution occurs as IranHardline Islamic clerical rulers are facing the most significant internal unrest seen in the country in several years. Nationwide protests against the autocratic regime entered their eleventh day on Wednesday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), based in the United States and created by Iranian human rights activists, says almost 40 people have been killed since the protests began.

The unrest began when businesspeople in Tehran expressed frustration over rising inflation and the cost of basic goods in Iran, where the economy has been crippled by US and international sanctions for years, but quickly escalated into the largest protests seen in the country since 2022.

Trump’s warning about protesters persists as Iran tries to quell unrest

On Sunday, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the United States could hit Iran “very hard” if protesters are not protected. “We’re watching it very closely,” Trump said. Two days earlier he had said that if Iran “violently kills protesters,” the United States would “come to their rescue.”

So far, there have been no overt signs that the United States will follow through on these threats, even as the reported death toll in the protests rises, and there is no further comment from the White House on what actions by the Iranian regime might actually trigger a response.

In an effort to quell domestic pressure, Iran’s government announced economic measures over the weekend to help Iranian citizens make ends meet, and state media said on Wednesday that President Mahsoud Pezeshkian had ordered security forces not to attack peaceful protesters.

Iran offers food aid in attempt to calm streets

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said the new relief measures would, among other things, triple national subsidies for regular households to buy basic goods, according to state news agency Mehr.

The main benefit, expected to begin on Wednesday, would effectively triple the amount the government gives Iranians to buy basic foodstuffs, adding the equivalent of about $7 more per month on top of existing food subsidies, based on current exchange rates.

An Iranian told News themezone on Wednesday that the subsidy increase would not be enough.

“If two people in a family want to have eggs, bread and cheese for breakfast, the subsidy is spent on the first day,” said the Tehran resident, who asked not to be identified.

New Iranian army chief issues new threats to the West

As is often the case in times of internal unrest, Tehran has continued to take a hard line, publicly, against its two biggest adversaries, Israel and the United States.

In a statement Wednesday, addressed to students at Iran’s Army Command and General Staff University in Tehran, the new commanding general of Iran’s army, Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami, threatened to “cut off the hand of any aggressor.”

“Islamic Iran views the enemies’ escalation of rhetoric against the Iranian nation as a threat and will not leave its continuation unanswered,” Hatami said, according to The News.