Israeli man accused of spying for Iran out of love

An Israeli citizen, a repatriate from Iran, is accused of spying for the Iranian regime. However, this case differs from other espionage incidents uncovered by the Shin Bet during the war.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, this time the motive was not greed — but love.

The suspect is an Israeli man in his 40s who immigrated from Iran 25 years ago, leaving part of his family behind.

Ten years ago, he fell in love with an Iranian woman, but they could not meet in either Israel or Iran. To avoid hostile countries, they began meeting in third countries — from Türkiye and the UAE to Thailand.

Iranian intelligence discovered the relationship and decided to exploit it.

During the war, the accused met with Iranian agents in Türkiye. He then continued contact with an external agent of Iranian intelligence, to whom he provided information intended to harm Israel's security.

Iranian intelligence services reportedly pressured the Iranian woman to meet with the accused. Eventually, the Israeli man passed on information about an Iranian sailor allegedly cooperating with Israel.

In addition, he reportedly provided the Iranians with:

• the flight path of Israeli drones headed toward Iran,

• locations where Iranian ballistic missiles struck inside Israel,

• information on when, how, and where Israel was planning to attack Iran.

During questioning by the Shin Bet, the suspect denied causing any harm to the state’s security. He claims that all the “classified information” he passed on to the Iranians was found using artificial intelligence.

By Vugar Khalilov