Iran is “directly engaging criminal networks abroad to carry out attacks against Jewish targets and make Jews in Europe unsafe,” according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The July report evaluated Iran’s continued violations of freedom of religion or belief both domestically and abroad. It paid particular attention to the government’s recent targeting of religious minorities – including Baha’is, Jews, Christians, Sunnis, and various non-Muslim minority groups – in the wake of a June 2025 military escalation.
According to the report, Iran continues to promote and instigate antisemitism abroad, both via criminal networks and online and through social media.
One example it cited was the attempted assassination of a rabbi in Azerbaijan in January by a Georgian drug trafficker hired by Iran. While the plot was foiled, it was later reported that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force had paid the man $200,000 to carry out the attack and also recruited a local Azerbaijani to surveil the rabbi’s movements.
In July, Danish authorities arrested a man recruited by Iranian intelligence authorities to gather information on possible attacks on Jewish targets, such as synagogues and Jewish leaders in Germany. Both stories were reported by The Jerusalem Post at the time.
According to USCIRF, Iranian authorities have actively recruited gangs throughout Europe “to carry out attacks on Israeli embassies and Jewish sites, including houses of worship, memorial centers, restaurants, and community centers.”
Sweden is Iran’s favored country for gang recruitment, the report said.
Iran’s targeting of Jewish sites and individuals has escalated since the June regional military escalation.
The online sphere has also become a key site for Iranian-spread antisemitism, USCIRF said. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting uses Spanish-language media to promote antisemitic myths and ideas, “including Jewish power over Hollywood and Holocaust revisionism,” it said.
Through both IRIB’s Press TV and its Spanish-language counterpart, HispanTV, “Iranian authorities are also pushing the ‘Plan Andinia’ conspiracy,” it added.
The Plan Andinia myth centers on the belief that Jews are hoarding power, money, and influence and plotting a “secret plan” to establish a second Zionist state in the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile, the report said.
While early Zionist proposals to create a state in Argentina were abandoned long ago, some right-wing conspiracy groups still believe that Zionists wish to carry it out. Some supporters of the theory believe that the many Israelis who travel to South America after their army service are actually scoping out space for the new state.
Antisemitism inside Iran
Inside Iran proper, there has also been an increase in antisemitic rhetoric, USCIRF said. It cited a propaganda music video published by an Iranian news agency in July with lyrics that “explicitly threaten Jews.”
“This inflammatory rhetoric has made Jews in Iran feel increasingly insecure and threatened,” the report said.
Such rhetoric has impacted the 8,500-strong Jewish population in the country, it said, adding that “the current situation of Iranian Jews remains precarious.”
While “Iran’s government officially recognizes Judaism,” it “publicly demonizes Jews as enemies of Islam, denies and distorts the history of the Holocaust, surveils Jewish houses of worship, establishes Jews-only polling stations to intimidate community members, coerces community representatives to vocalize support for the government, and holds Jews collectively responsible for Israeli military actions,” the report said.
By promoting antisemitic ideas and tolerating attacks at Jewish holy sites in Iran, “authorities have nurtured a hostile environment in which Iranian Jews feel increasingly threatened,” USCIRF said.
Such antisemitic ideas grew in prevalence and usage during the regional escalation in June 2025, with government leaders, state media, and clerics repeatedly using tropes to promote “inflammatory and intolerant rhetoric about Jews,” such as the ideas that Jews are sub-human, it said.
For instance, in January, officials convened Iran’s third annual Holocaust cartoon, caricature, and poster competition, which promotes Holocaust distortion and denial, it added.
In March, on International Quds Day, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday prayer imam for the city of Mashhad, claimed the Holocaust was a “lie” invented by the UK, the report said.
Iran's Christians
The report discusses Iran’s treatment of its Christian minority, which the regime often accuses of being “Zionist” and punishes accordingly. Christians make up less than 1% of Iran’s population.
“The regime targets [Christians] for their religious activity and promoting so-called ‘Zionist Christianity’ in an effort to broadly link Christians to Israel,” USCIRF said.
For instance, Evin Prison authorities denied medical treatment for Iranian Christian convert Laleh Saati in April. Saati was sentenced in 2024 for “acting against national security through connections with Zionist Christian organizations.”
She and other Christian converts have been convicted under Article 500 of the Penal Code for “propaganda activity of deviant Christian Zionist beliefs opposed to the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the report said.
“The government of Iran remains an egregious violator of freedom of religion or belief,” the report concluded. “Iran’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious policies and actions reaffirm the designation as a country of particular concern by the US Department of State.”