Iranian authorities are pivoting from a ceasefire with Israel to intensify an internal security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region.
Within days of Israel's airstrikes beginning on June 13, Iranian security forces started a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints.
Some in Israel and exiled opposition groups had hoped the military campaign, which targeted Revolutionary Guards and internal security forces as well as nuclear sites, would spark a mass uprising and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported.
While Reuters has spoken to numerous Iranians angry at the government for policies they believed had led to the Israeli attack, there has been no sign yet of any significant protests against the authorities.
However, one senior Iranian security official and two other senior officials briefed on internal security issues said the authorities were focused on the threat of possible internal unrest, particularly in Kurdish areas.
Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units were put on alert and internal security was now the primary focus, said the senior security official.
The official said authorities were worried about Israeli agents, ethnic separatists and the People's Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled opposition group that has previously staged attacks inside Iran.
"We are being extremely cautious right now because there's a real concern the regime might use this situation as a pretext," said a rights activist in Tehran who was jailed during mass protests in 2022.
The activist said he knew dozens of people who had been summoned by authorities and either arrested or warned against any expressions of dissent.
Iranian rights group HRNA said on Monday it had recorded arrests of 705 people on political or security charges since the start of the war.
Many of those arrested have been accused of spying for Israel, HRNA said. Iranian state media reported three were executed on Tuesday in Urmia, near the Turkish border, and the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said they were all Kurdish.
Iran's Foreign and Interior Ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
bd-pratidin/GR
