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Arrests raise new concerns on Iran

Even as Iranian leaders were seeking Americans’ trust over nuclear weapons, they may have been plotting violence in this country.

Two Iranians, Ahmadreza Doostdar and Majid Ghorbani, have been arrested by the FBI. Both are U.S. residents.

The two are accused of spying on Jewish groups and on an organization of Iranian dissidents in this country. Court documents in their cases reportedly hint at a plot to assassinate American Jews and/or members of the MEK dissident group.

Ghorbani, an Iranian native, lives in California. Doostdar was born in that state, but has spent much of his life in Iran and Canada.

Evidence against the two includes surveillance in which they discussed how to smuggle information out of this country.

Their own surveillance of Jewish groups and the MEK may have been aimed at creating “a neutralization plan, which may include apprehension, recruitment, cyber exploitation or capture/kill operations,” according to the Justice Department.

Both men have been active in their efforts through part of this year. It is known that Ghorbani moved to California and became a U.S. legal permanent resident in 2015.

One obvious question is how many other operatives Tehran has in our country.

Another is why the administration of former President Barack Obama trusted the Iranians to keep their word on nuclear weapons — and dropped our homeland security guard enough for that regime to infiltrate our country with spies.

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