Iran International reported on August 31 that its sources had provided information about three alleged recruits and an operation being developed by Unit 4000, the Special Operations Division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization. According to the publication, the unit recruited the three individuals through Shiite clerics in Thailand and Indonesia and had begun planning attacks in the Malacca and Bangka straits, as well as at Tanjung Priok Port in Indonesia and the Ningbo-Zhoushan and Shanghai ports in China.
The report said the alleged operations were being overseen by Brigadier General Rahman Moghaddam, commander of Unit 4000. Moghaddam was previously reported killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran on March 3, during the opening days of the war, and Israeli security agencies had identified him among senior Iranian intelligence figures killed in Israeli attacks.
Iran International now says information obtained by the publication indicates that reports of Moghaddam’s death were incorrect. According to its sources, he survived the strike and is overseeing what they describe as a new phase of Unit 4000’s overseas maritime operations. The publication said Moghaddam, a former deputy coordinator at the Defense Ministry’s Protection and Intelligence Organization, took charge of Unit 4000 around three years ago. The unit has been linked to assassination and sabotage operations targeting opponents of the Islamic Republic and Israeli interests abroad.
According to two sources cited by Iran International, Moghaddam is overseeing a programme aimed at expanding Unit 4000’s activities into East Asian waters. The sources said the unit was considering attacks on commercial, military and privately owned vessels travelling through the Malacca Strait, as well as the Bangka Strait. Operatives allegedly recruited by the unit had also developed plans targeting Tanjung Priok, Indonesia’s busiest port, and the major Chinese ports of Ningbo-Zhoushan and Shanghai.
Sri Lanka enters the report through Pandu Yudhawinata, whom Iran International identified as one of the three alleged recruits. The publication described him as an Indonesian operative who had previously been linked in counterterrorism reporting to Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Its sources also linked Yudhawinata to attacks in Sri Lanka. The report therefore establishes a reported Sri Lankan connection to one alleged operative, rather than alleging that Sri Lankan nationals were recruited for the planned maritime operations.
Iran International reported that Yudhawinata had been implicated in a failed 1994 Hezbollah plot to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok. Counterterrorism reporting cited by the publication said he underwent training in Iran and later worked with Hezbollah networks in Southeast Asia. According to the sources, Yudhawinata and two other Indonesian nationals, Ardiyanta Mutoha and Mohammad Hossein, travelled to Tehran for training intended to prepare them for covert operations at ports and waterways across East Asia.
The report said Unit 4000 had been seeking non-Iranian recruits partly to provide Tehran with greater deniability if an operation were exposed. The recruits were reportedly brought to Iran for training before being assigned to operations in East Asia.
Iran International’s sources identified recruitment links in Thailand and Indonesia. In Thailand, Moghaddam allegedly approached Seyyed Momen Saketicha, described as a prominent figure in the country’s Shiite community. In Indonesia, the sources named Zahir Yahya, chairman of Ahlulbait Indonesia, and Abdullah Saqqaf, identified as head of the Amir al-Mu’minin seminary in Bogor, as intermediaries involved in identifying potential recruits. The publication said two Unit 4000 figures, Mohsen Aghazadeh and Vahid Yekeh-Dehqan, were responsible for recruitment and training.
The allegations come amid wider Iranian threats concerning maritime routes. Iran International reported that, since the war began on February 28, Iran has sought to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have disrupted maritime traffic around the Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea.
In June, Mohsen Rezaei, then a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and now secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told CNN that Tehran could expand the conflict if the war and US naval blockade continued. “If the war continues and the naval blockade is not lifted, we will drag the war to the Indian Ocean, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean,” Rezaei said.
The report comes as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Iran’s oil exports while helping move energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the United States had helped move 130 million barrels of oil through the waterway over a two-week period while preventing Iranian exports.
The International Energy Agency estimates that around 80% of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz is destined for Asian markets. Against that backdrop, the plans described by Iran International point to an alleged effort to extend Iran’s maritime operations towards major Asian shipping and energy routes. For Sri Lanka, the report’s significance lies in its allegation that an operative identified as part of the Iranian-linked network had previously been connected to attacks in the country.
