Mizan

Mizan, the Iranian judiciary-affiliated news agency, published a claim on 9 April 2026 attributing a strike on the Lavan Island oil refinery to UAE Mirage jets. The attribution, if accurate, would have represented a significant escalation by a Gulf state that had maintained a lower profile than Saudi Arabia during the Iran confrontation. No independent corroboration of UAE involvement emerged, and the UAE did not comment. Western analysts treated the Mizan report as either a misidentification or a deliberate attempt to widen the diplomatic pressure on Gulf states.

Mizan was established to serve as the public communications organ of Iran's judiciary, covering court proceedings, legal developments, and judicial statements. Unlike Tasnim or ISNA, which have direct IRGC ties, Mizan's institutional alignment is with the judiciary and the clerical establishment. This makes it an unusual source for military attribution claims, raising questions about whether the Lavan report reflected judicial intelligence channels or was published without adequate verification.

The Mizan report illustrated the broader information environment of the Ceasefire period: multiple Iranian outlets publishing conflicting or unverified military claims simultaneously, making it difficult for outside observers to construct a reliable picture of what was actually happening on the ground. Its claim about UAE Mirage jets fed into a cycle of attribution confusion that complicated both the diplomatic response and market pricing of Gulf risk.