The police in Thailand are on high alert, due to the possibility of Iranian spies on their territory, after one of them was arrested in neighboring Indonesia.

A police source reported that the Ministry of Interior issued a secret order to monitor and track Iranian spies, according to the "Bangkok Post" newspaper.

The source also said that the security agencies are closely monitoring the movements of Iranians and some Thai citizens recruited by Iran.

These Thai moves come after Indonesian authorities received a report on May 24, 2021, about a man named Qasim Saberi Gilshalan, who arrived in the country carrying a Bulgarian passport later found to be forged.

The Indonesian authorities arrested the man at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on May 27 of last year, before he left for Qatar.

The police found that he had entered the country more than 10 times using forged documents and he was sentenced by a court to two years in prison.

They also found that the man had 11 mobile phones, a tablet, several SIM cards, and money in his possession.

A well-informed source said that an examination of his mobile phones found the names of some Thais, adding that Indonesian authorities believe that Gilshalan is a spy from Iran.

After further interrogation, Gilshalan told the police that he was tasked with several missions by a former Iranian diplomat in Malaysia to work as a spy there and in Indonesia.

The latest attempt included exerting pressure on the Indonesian authorities to release the oil tanker MT Horse, which flies the Iranian flag and was detained in the country's waters in January of last year.

Gilshalan and the former diplomat had visited Thailand several times, and they met with prominent Thai Shia Muslims who have close relations with Iran.

It is worth mentioning that two Iranian prisoners, Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh and Saeed Moradi, were returned in November 2020 to their country to serve their sentences under a bilateral agreement with Tehran, while the third, Mohammad Khazaei, received a royal pardon in August of that year.