Iran puts expat Farsi media on ‘military target list’

Iranian officials accused BBC Persian, Iran International, and Radio Farda of working with foreign intelligence agencies.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Iranian military official has threatened to target Farsi-language media outlets operating outside Iran, accusing them of serving as part of an American and Israeli plot to undermine the Islamic Republic.

The warning was issued by Iranian armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi, who accused several prominent Persian-language news organizations of working with foreign intelligence agencies — without providing evidence to support his claims.

“These hostile media outlets are the soldiers of Zionism and America and are included in our military target bank,” Shekarchi said in a statement published by state-controlled Iranian media.

He specifically named BBC Persian, Iran International and Radio Farda as outlets that are “directly connected to Mossad, CIA and enemy intelligence organizations.”

“The Iranian Armed Forces do not view these news outlets as media,” he added.

Iran has previously attempted to orchestrate attacks against dissidents and media organizations abroad.

Last Friday, a British teenager pleaded guilty to throwing a firebomb at the London offices of Iran International. The attack, which is believed to have been carried out at the direction of an Iranian handler, caused an explosion in a parking lot but did not injure anyone.

Iran International temporarily closed its London offices in 2023 and relocated its headquarters to New York, citing “state-backed threats from Iran.” The outlet later returned its offices to London.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born women’s rights activist based in New York, was the target of a foiled assassination plot in 2022. According to U.S. authorities, the Iranian regime sought to recruit local gang members in New York to kill her at her Brooklyn home.

Russian nationals Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov were subsequently convicted in Manhattan federal court after being accused of accepting $500,000 to carry out the assassination.

Alinejad has since moved between safe houses, fearing that Tehran could make another attempt to kill her.

“That’s not a normal life, and I still don’t feel safe, even in America, miles away from my birth country, from Revolutionary Guard members,” she told the Guardian in 2025.