Two American citizens were among the 35 Jews who were arrested by Iran last month for allegedly spying for Israel, KAN revealed in a Monday report, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The 35 Jews who were arrested were part of an Iranian government crackdown that began immediately after the 12-day war with Israel last month, according to a report by the Human Rights Activist News Agency.
The arrests of the Jewish community members were made in Tehran, Shiraz, and the province of Alborz.
In an update over the weekend, the Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament, Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, said that he had met with the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps judiciary, which is handling the cases, and reached a deal to release most of the detainees, The Times of Israel reported.
Five of those arrested are still being held, including one of the two American Jews. The other, an Iranian-American Jew from Los Angeles, was released on bail, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The American Jew who remains in prison had initially left Iran for New York three decades ago, but returned to visit relatives.
Najafabadi said that the espionage charges against all the detainees have been rejected, according to The Times of Israel.
"We hope that as a result of continued cooperation, the remaining problems will soon be resolved," he was quoted by Ynet as saying. The report did not specify which of the five detainees would be released and which would remain behind bars.
Iranian authorities have reportedly been checking the cellphones of those they arrest, looking for records of any calls to Israel.
A source said that most Iranian Jews have family in Israel. Though any connection to Israel is forbidden, in the past, phone calls to family members were quietly tolerated, the source said. But in the aftermath of the war with Israel, the authorities are have been drastically tightening their policies.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.