Former Mossad official says Iran regime collapse just a matter of time

Ex-Mossad official blasts Trump’s decision to halt war with Iran but adds that the Iranian regime’s collapse is inevitable.

By World Israel News Staff

A former senior Mossad official said Israel had begun carrying out a long-planned effort to help bring down Iran’s regime but argued that the campaign was stopped before it could reach its later stages because of the US decision to halt the war.

The former official, identified only as “Aleph,” told Channel 12 in an interview aired Saturday that the plan remains viable and that Iran’s ruling system will eventually collapse.

“We didn’t try all the way — we were stopped along the way,” he said. “This is a multi-stage plan that has been prepared over time and has been paused for the time being. In this war, we went out with a partner, a strategic power that at some point stopped the fighting, but these stages started and developed, including the use of Kurdish partners, with the goal of replacing the regime.”

According to Channel 12, Aleph served in the Mossad for nearly three decades and reached a senior leadership position before retiring last year.

He reportedly left after concluding that he would not be considered to succeed outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea.

His comments come amid renewed Israeli debate over whether the war with Iran should have continued until it produced deeper political change inside the Islamic Republic.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barnea have both recently suggested that the Iranian regime was weakened by the conflict and could still fall.

Speaking Monday at Barnea’s farewell ceremony, Netanyahu said Iran had already paid a heavy price.

“The foundations of this terrorist regime in Iran have cracked. It will never return to what it was, and I tell you — it will fall in the end,” Netanyahu said.

Barnea, who was replaced this week by Roman Gofman, has also argued that Israel should continue seeking the regime’s collapse. According to Iran International, Barnea said at the ceremony that regime change in Iran was “a possible and achievable goal” if pursued with “persistence, a cool head, and commitment to the mission.”

Aleph rejected reported criticism from senior US officials who were said to have dismissed Israel’s prewar regime-change scenarios.

The New York Times reported in April that CIA Director John Ratcliffe described the Israeli concept as “farcical” and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded, “In other words, it’s bullshit.”

“It’s a pity that they don’t have that experience, but [the plan] was certainly not bullshit and not farcical,” Aleph said. “In the Mossad, imagination becomes reality.”

He said such operations require time and continuity.

“A plan like this is a long-term plan that can take a long time, and you have to persevere in all its stages,” he said.

Asked whether the Iranian regime could still collapse, Aleph said he could not predict the timeline but believed the outcome was clear.

“Whether it will fall in six months or in three years, I cannot predict, but there is no doubt that this regime will fall,” he said.

Aleph also described what he said was a major shift in Mossad capabilities inside Iran, particularly during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025.

“It was an operational military unit working according to advanced operational training, with weapons, night vision devices, and the ability to guide missiles, inside Iran,” he said. “This is something we couldn’t have seen six years ago. This is the great revolution that has taken place in the Mossad [under Barnea].”

He said the agency has increasingly relied on recruits from hostile countries, including Iranians willing to work with Israel because of opposition to their own government.

“Many of them hate the regime, hate what is being imposed on them, hate what is happening to their daughters and their wives,” he said. “For some, it’s a sense of revenge for things that happened to their families.”