When U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned on July 9 that “Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts,” the spymaster’s rare public statement included a caveat asserting that Americans protesting the Gaza conflict are doing so “in good faith.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered no such qualifier in his address to Congress two weeks later, dismissing the Gaza protestors as “Iran’s useful idiots.” Yet in asserting that Iran was financing some anti-Israel activism in America, Netanyahu likely spoke out of personal knowledge of how Tehran has sought to inflame social tensions within Israel itself.
The truth is, the Islamic Republic has multiple nodes of influence that it uses to interfere in Western democratic policy debates. Iran’s Foreign Ministry cultivates relationships with media outlets and think tanks in the United States and Europe, to influence policymaking in directions that serve its interests. It mostly does this through promises of engagement and offering access to individuals and entities it assesses as well-placed to echo its narratives.
Tehran has also been actively engaged in, at the minimum, encouraging American and European protest activity after the October 7 massacre—both physically and online. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization dominate this space. Months before Haines’ statement, this could be seen in reports from the United Kingdom that counterterrorism police had identified individuals linked to Iran’s regime present on the fringes of anti-Israel rallies there. In advance of demonstrations, a memo allegedly written by an IRGC intelligence official, urged “significant support measures for April 15 and other rallies with the aim to achieve [Israel’s] political isolation.“
Like Russia, Iran has a long track record of attempting to create societal fissures in its adversaries. Many of these efforts are clumsy—and easily thwarted by the security services—but can be lethal. In July, three Israeli citizens were arrested on suspicion of operating on behalf of Iranian intelligence in exchange for money. The paid missions ranged from storing cash in different locales to directives to commit arson and murder. In one particularly disturbing incident, an Iranian handler urged an Israeli to deliver packages, one containing the severed head of an animal, to private homes inside Israel. The Iranian handlers camouflaged their identities to make it appear they were Israelis themselves; payment was made in cryptocurrency.
In the U.S., the Iranian leadership long has courted groups which share a similar anti-Israel ideological mindset. One such group is Neturei Karta, a fringe ultraorthodox Jewish sect, whose leaders have been regularly hosted by Tehran. This author has spotted members of Neturei Karta at multiple anti-Israel demonstrations in the United States, especially in New York. One member of Neturei Karta was interviewed by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on a City University of New York (CUNY) campus at a student encampment in April. The United States has sanctioned IRIB and has revealed its links to Iranian intelligence. There is likewise a history of Iranian intelligence using Neturei Karta members for espionage—for example in Israel.
Iran has also built an extensive online disinformation apparatus that is used to both amplify content promoting its anti-American and anti-Israel worldview and aggravate political and social tensions in democratic societies. MOIS and the IRGC are the key implementers of these online influence campaigns. They have employed sockpuppet accounts which are fake online personas. For example, the IRGC cyber group Cotton Sandstorm (which is operated by under Emennet Pasargad, a company sanctioned for attempting to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election), ran an X account branded as “Jewish Peace Advocate,” according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence. MOIS also runs a series of cyberwarfare teams in support of Hamas.
During the campus encampments, a pro-IRGC Telegram channel called “Resistance News Network” regularly shared posts from channels linked to U.S. college campus demonstrations. In turn, some of those accounts promoted content from the Resistance News Network. American social media influencers have at times raised eyebrows by pumping out messaging glorifying the Islamic Republic.
Washington has demonstrated that it is aware of Iranian influence gambits. But the messaging from the U.S. intelligence community has only focused on informing and warning the American public of such malign activity. Absent from the discussion is what the Biden administration and its allies are doing to deter the Iranian regime from such behavior. These influence campaigns not only serve to create dissension in America; they also risk inciting intimidation and lethal antisemitic attacks. If these countries are truly committed to defending democracy, the Islamic Republic needs to pay a price.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, for his part, clearly sees an opportunity to exploit protests in the West, dubbing them in July “a unique phenomenon in contemporary history.” As the campus protests peaked in May, Khamenei welcomed American students into the Axis of Resistance, saying in an open letter that they have formed a new branch alongside Hezbollah and other terrorist groups whose flags have appeared in major cities.
The standards of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—all Iran-backed and U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations—were placed, for instance, outside a New York City commemoration for the victims of the Nova Music Festival massacre. It is not known that Iran had any hand in the flags’ appearance, though one of the requests the handler in Tehran made to the recruit in Israel was to place anti-Israel posters in Tel Aviv. This, like everything Iran is doing to exploit the Gaza protests, deserves further scrutiny from policymakers and the public.
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