Iran hangs suspected Israeli spy, relies on anti-West bluster to try to quell deadly protests

Iran on Wednesday executed by hanging a man convicted of spying for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, the official IRNA news agency announced. The news came as the Islamic Republic’s leaders looked for ways to end relentless street protests that have sparked the 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 photos of specific locations and information on targeted topics, and receiving sums in the form of digital currency at the end of each mission”, IRNA reported.

Iranian authorities hold trials behind closed doors and no evidence against Ardestani has been 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 comes while IranThe country’s radical Islamic religious leaders are facing the most significant domestic unrest the country has seen in several years. Nationwide protests against autocratic rule entered their 11th day on Wednesday.

The American news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency (FOOD), created by Iranian human rights activists, says nearly 40 people were killed since the protests began.

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

Trump’s warning to protesters persists as Iran attempts to quell unrest

President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that the United States could hit Iran “very hard” if protesters are not protected. “We are watching this very closely,” Mr. Trump said. He had declared two days earlier that if Iran “violently killed protesters,” the United States “would come to their rescue.”

So far, there have been no clear signs that the United States is following through on these threats, even as the reported death toll from protests rises, and no further comments from the White House on the Iranian regime’s actions that might actually trigger a response.

In an effort to ease internal pressure, the Iranian 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 to try to calm the streets

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said the new aid measures would, among other things, triple national subsidies allowing ordinary households to buy basic necessities, according to the state-controlled Mehr news agency.

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

An Iranian told CBS News on Wednesday that the increased subsidies would not be enough.

“If two people from a family want to eat eggs, bread and cheese for breakfast, the subsidy is spent on the first day,” said the Tehran resident, who requested anonymity.

Iran’s new army chief issues new threats to the West

As it often does during times of domestic unrest, Tehran has continued to take a hard line, publicly, against its two greatest adversaries, Israel and the United States.

In a statement Wednesday, addressing students at the Iranian Army Command and Staff University in Tehran, the new commander-in-chief of the Iranian army, General Amir Hatami, threatened to “cut off the hand of any aggressor.”

“Islamic Iran views the intensification of its enemies’ rhetoric against the Iranian nation as a threat and will not let its continuation go unanswered,” Hatami said, according to the Associated Press.