Iran’s Intelligence Ministry allegedly worked through foreign criminal organizations and successive intermediaries to assemble the network.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli intelligence agencies have disrupted what they said was an Iranian effort to establish an assassination cell inside Israel by recruiting operatives through layers of foreign intermediaries intended to mask Tehran’s role.

The Mossad and the Shin Bet said the plot relied on a recruitment model that avoided direct contact between Iranian intelligence officers and the intended operatives.

Instead, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry allegedly worked through foreign criminal organizations and successive intermediaries to assemble the network, a method authorities said was designed to distance Tehran from the operation and reduce the political fallout if it were uncovered.

The investigation, conducted with international intelligence partners, identified Tharwat Ozkour, a France-based operative who used the alias “Philip,” as the central recruiter for the operation.

According to Israeli authorities, Ozkour traveled repeatedly to Iran, where he met with intelligence officials, received operational guidance and accepted payments related to the mission.

Authorities said the international investigation resulted in Ozkour’s deportation from France before the planned network could be inserted into Israel, preventing the operation from moving forward.

Israeli officials identified four members of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry as overseeing the plot: Asadollah Behzad Oskhari, Vahid Matzoumi, Mohammad-Hossein Zoghi and Hamid Qasemi.

According to the investigation, Oskhari served as a key coordinator in the operation. Israeli authorities said he was later killed during recent military engagements.

The Mossad and Shin Bet said the case illustrates what they described as Iran’s increasing reliance on indirect recruitment methods to support operations abroad.

Rather than building cells through direct contact, the agencies said Tehran sought to conceal its involvement by employing multiple layers of intermediaries before reaching the intended operatives.

Israeli officials credited international intelligence cooperation with exposing the network before it could establish an operational presence inside Israel and carry out the planned assassinations of senior Israeli officials.

The post Mossad, Shin Bet foil Iranian assassination plot targeting senior Israeli officials appeared first on World Israel News.

These programs must include curriculum design, teaching methods, and educational materials aimed at preserving and strengthening national identity, drawing on models developed by early Zionist national revivalists.

By Jose Lee Alvarez, Middle East Forum

Decisions by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to recognize a Palestinian state, label Israel’s operation in Gaza as “the biggest genocide of the century,” and enact an embargo on Jerusalem’s arms imports are part of a wider effort by European leftists to shackle the Jewish state.

Now, Manchester mayor and soon-to-be British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is calling for restrictions on British weapons sales to Israel.

Eighty-two percent of Spaniards believe that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, 58 percent demand that arms sales to Israel be halted, and 60 percent oppose Israel’s military actions.

Recent polls in Britain also show that half of the population believes that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and that the government should terminate arms sales to Jerusalem or impose sanctions on the Jewish state.

Anti-Israel posters calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state punctuate leftist demonstrations and cultural events in Spain and Britain.

To counter this leftish groundswell, Israel should begin outreach to conservative factions among regional pro-independence groups in Europe.

In Catalonia, Silvia Orriols, of Aliança Catalana, has hoisted Israel’s flag in the regional parliament and argues that Israel’s victories also advance Catalonia’s interests.

As mayor of Ripoll, Orriols took on the Salafist networks responsible for the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attack that killed 16 people.

Orriols—whom the latest polls project to finish second while she leads the most popular pro-independence party—is the latest in a line of pro-Israel Catalans, including former regional president Jordi Pujol, the founding father of modern Catalan nationalism, to defend the Jewish state’s survival.

Like Catalonia’s right-wing Zionist-influenced movement, separatist elements in Spain’s Basque Country and Galicia, as well as in Scotland and Wales, also may help build Israel’s newest European alliances.

The Jewish state’s external intelligence agency, Mossad, has a special division, Tevel, that handles liaison operations with non-state entities.

This division, which has developed networks worldwide to serve Israel’s interests, has the workforce and technical resources to establish and maintain relationships with right-wing, European, pro-independence movements.

Its work in building underground structures, combined with expertise in countering radical Islamism and transferring know-how, makes Tevel the only entity in Israel fit to serve as the vanguard in building relationships with the pro-freedom entities.

These forces need the kinds of capabilities that Israel’s own Zionist movement and national revival pioneered, which Pujol once heralded and which Orriols now promotes in Catalonia.

Specifically, Mossad’s Tevel must create a new work team, the Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell, whose staff could conduct a well-organized outreach to separatist movements in Europe.

Their first engagement should be with Orriols and Aliança Catalana, followed by other like-minded groups in the Basque Country, Galicia, Scotland, Wales, and perhaps also Flanders, Veneto-Lombardy, Corsica, Transnistria, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.

The Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell would help these movements build the essentials of statecraft: governance, defense, intelligence, financial systems, internal security, foreign policy, and de-radicalization or counter-anti-independence tools, tailored to each group’s needs and political aims.

This body could offer creative packages that emerging sovereign states could replicate as models.

The Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell could create a Sovereignty Academy to organize fellowships for the emerging leaders and mid-level managers of these movements.

Mossad’s Tevel could also sponsor constitutional design workshops to assist these movements in drafting their own Basic Laws, comparable to Israel’s, with an emphasis on their parliamentary sovereignty and protections for national singularity.

At the same time, the Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell could develop training programs to help build the movements’ own military structures: professionalized, volunteer army units, combined with technology to amplify their combat power, such as cyber defenses, drone-based reconnaissance and attack, and layered air defense, initially tailored to small populations using Jerusalem’s experience with hybrid wars.

The Mossad could apply its expertise in spycraft to structure and train these movements’ intelligence capabilities, with a focus on human intelligence and cyber, as well as on countering jihadism.

Currency and monetary sovereignty packages could advise on sovereign digital currencies or on strategic purchases of Bitcoin, protected by Israeli cyber expertise and following the example of El Salvador, but insulated from the manipulations of the central banks of Madrid or London.

Indeed, the Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell could work with these pro-sovereignty movements to secure technology-transfer agreements that provide advanced desalination and water-management systems tailored to Mediterranean conditions, along with offshore extraction technologies adapted from Israel’s Leviathan gas field, thereby strengthening Scotland’s oil and gas industry and bolstering its energy security.

The Mossad could share its experience in internal security and de-radicalization with these potential partners to help them address extremist elements among their own ranks, such as the Salafist remnants in Barcelona and Ripoll or the mafia networks operating in Cardiff and Edinburgh.

The Emerging Sovereign Partners Cell would help prepare these sovereignty entities’ diplomatic services, envoys, and United Nations missions through training in foreign-policy strategy, with an emphasis on gradualism and multi-vector diplomacy, as Israel practiced in its early years and countries such as China later adopted.

These programs must include curriculum design, teaching methods, and educational materials aimed at preserving and strengthening national identity, drawing on models developed by early Zionist national revivalists.

Europe’s pro-independence right would benefit from Israel’s model and Jerusalem could gain new allies in Europe that would protect its interests, combat antisemitism, and oppose radical Islamism from Madrid to London.

Legacy states like Spain and the United Kingdom might grow more antagonistic to Israel but, realistically, their anti-Zionist pivot is likely irreversible and so such a policy would simply calibrate to a new reality.

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Southeast Asia emerges as a particular area of interest as Iran exploits its extensive networks there to facilitate transfers of technology, personnel, and commerce.

By Jose Lee Alvarez, Middle East Forum

In June 2026, Roman Gofman assumed the role of Mossad chief with a clear mandate from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that Iran no longer can threaten Israel.

Under previous leadership, the agency took on a much more offensive role. The Tzomet division divided into smaller groups responsible for recruiting new agents and planning and executing operations.

In several key areas, Mossad’s technology surpassed that of some Western intelligence agencies. Teams specializing in infiltration and psychological warfare joined.

The results were significant. During Operation Rising Lion in June 2025, Mossad operatives working inside Iran funneled attack drones through commercial traffic and delivered them to sites near Iranian surface-to-air missile batteries.

The operation enabled more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft to strike over 100 targets with more than 330 munitions.

During the April 2026 commendations, Mossad Director David Barnea noted that ten operations had penetrated Iranian and Lebanese defenses, fundamentally improving Israel’s strategic position in wartime consultations with the Israel Defense Forces.

Gofman must employ the same intelligence and military resources to continue exerting pressure until the Iranian government ceases to be an existential threat.

Barnea himself cautioned that the Iranian government retains its intent to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, despite suffering military setbacks.

Therefore, strategic patience is required to maintain human intelligence presence in Iran and other regional centers while supplementing it with the technological expertise Israel has brought to bear to monitor and disrupt nuclear, missile, and proxy group reconstitution efforts.

Israel, however, must begin to prioritize other regions whose supply chains enable attacks on Israeli territory.

Southeast Asia emerges as a particular area of interest as Iran exploits its extensive networks there to facilitate transfers of technology, personnel, and commerce.

Recent tracking data on illicit oil show more than 500 ship-to-ship transfers off the coast of Malaysia since early 2025.

Iranian oil shipments through these channels continue to sustain the Islamic Republic’s economy and include front companies registered in Singapore and Malaysia that have received hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit revenues.

In 2025, Iran’s shadow fleet averaged nearly 1.6 million barrels of oil per day, largely destined for China, generating $48 billion.

Chinese manufacturers have been instrumental in supplying critical components to Shahed drones, including engines, microchips, batteries, fiber optics, and navigation systems.

Taiwan can be a problem due to its role in the microchip manufacturing industry, but the Mossad could potentially combine its intelligence on Iran’s procurement channels with Taiwan’s knowledge of the global semiconductor supply chain to identify and neutralize critical nodes.

Gofman should consider creating a Shadow Fleet Sentinel program by allocating Israeli long-range unmanned vessels, equipped with artificial intelligence-enhanced signal receivers, to patrol critical maritime chokepoints in Southeast Asia and Malaysia’s coastal waters.

This initiative would seek to complement the Rising Lion operation by adapting its surveillance and preemptive military-action model to address weak points in the existing naval defense coverage of open waters.

By combining data from commercial satellites, private and state surveillance sources, and human intelligence operatives embedded within the shipping industry, Shadow Fleet Sentinels could track and report on vessels carrying oil revenues or technology shipments to Iran.

Meanwhile, human intelligence operatives at coastal entry points could provide further insight and facilitate direct disruption, denying Iran both financial and industrial resources to fund its attacks on the Jewish state.

The reality is that this will maximize the defensive effect of the 2025 and 2026 campaigns by disrupting the proximate financial and technological enablers of the assaults.

The combined on-time pressure would generate greater strategic benefits than the static surveillance measures currently used to monitor and score limited naval traffic through regional straits.

A second initiative would be the creation of a Proliferation Mapping and Denial Cell that would operate in coordination with counterparts in Taiwan to interdict Iranian access to critical electronics and manufacturing inputs.

Unlike traditional Mossad front companies, the new cell would employ generative artificial intelligence to create thousands of unique business identities and trade lanes to obscure and deny Iran’s access to strategic suppliers in Southeast Asia’s commercial free-trade zones.

These operations would be conducted at scale and would shift between potential targets to avoid scrutiny, with minimal long-term exposure for operatives.

By combining Mossad’s supply-chain interdiction expertise, demonstrated in the successful years-long campaign to prevent Iran from obtaining sensitive technologies after the 2018 document smuggling mission in Tehran, and the Taiwanese capabilities to observe and analyze the movement of semiconductors across supply chains, Gofman’s cell could create a sustained and broad-based campaign of denying Iran’s proxies and economy critical inputs.

Barnea’s example of concentrating intelligence and military resources to undermine Iran’s core military capabilities and its external enablers produced considerable strategic gains.

Now Gofman should follow his predecessor’s lead by applying similar pressure to other critical regional arteries that support Iran’s war-fighting potential.

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Reports described the agent as someone who was “very close to commanders in Hezbollah” and had access to a wide range of sensitive information because of those relationships.

By Bianca Jones, JFeed

Lebanese authorities have arrested a man closely connected to Hezbollah on suspicion of spying for Israel, with a judicial official telling AFP that the intelligence he provided helped lead to the assassination of four senior security commanders in the terror group.

The suspect was detained last week at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport moments before he was set to board a flight to Iraq, according to the judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The arrest represents one of the most damaging breaches Hezbollah has suffered from within its own ranks in recent years.

According to the official, the detainee is a resident of southern Lebanon who is married to an Iraqi woman and had made frequent trips to Iraq, ostensibly to see her family.

Investigators believe those trips actually served as a cover.

From Iraq, the official said, the man would travel on to Turkey, where he met with officers linked to Mossad and handed over information about targets he had been tracking in Beirut.

The official described him as someone who was “very close to commanders in Hezbollah” and had access to a wide range of sensitive information because of those relationships.

That access reportedly allowed him to gather details ranging from the personal movements of Hezbollah leaders to logistical data and strategic targets across the organization.

Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the intelligence he passed along is believed to have helped Israel identify targets in strikes that killed four senior Hezbollah security officials during 2024, including Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that August, and Ibrahim Aqil, killed the following month.

The Lebanese military judiciary has now taken over the case after an initial investigation by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch.

The arrest fits a broader pattern. Lebanese security services have detained dozens of people in recent years on suspicion of working for Israeli intelligence, with many recruited online amid the economic collapse that has gripped the country since 2019.

A judicial source told AFP in October that more than thirty people had been arrested on suspicion of feeding Israel precise information on Hezbollah facilities and troop movements during the group’s earlier rounds of conflict with Israel in 2023 and 2024.

The case adds to a string of Israeli intelligence successes against Hezbollah in recent months and offers fresh evidence of Mossad’s deep penetration into the organization, even as Lebanese officials now try to determine whether the suspect had additional accomplices inside Hezbollah and how he managed to operate undetected for as long as he did.

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Israeli intelligence reportedly cultivated former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for years as a potential puppet leader, even attempting to extract him from a wartime safe house.

The post WATCH: The Mossad’s secret plan to install a puppet leader in Iran appeared first on World Israel News.

Israel secretly brought over thousands of Kurdish militia members and trained them for operation aimed at toppling the Iranian regime.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s Mossad developed an ambitious plan to bring down Iran’s government by sending thousands of Kurdish fighters into the country, triggering a nationwide uprising and ultimately installing former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as its new leader, according to multiple reports.

The operation was given the code name “Puss in Boots,” Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Monday.

Ahmadinejad, once one of Israel’s most outspoken enemies, was reportedly referred to by Israeli officials involved in the plan as “the friend.”

The proposed campaign called for the Israeli Air Force to strike Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bases and other government positions along Iran’s border with Iraq.

Kurdish forces would then cross into northwestern Iran and advance through the country’s Kurdish-majority cities.

Mossad planners reportedly expected thousands of young Iranian Kurds to join the invading forces, transforming the operation into a mass movement capable of advancing toward Tehran.

The Kurdish offensive was intended to coincide with demonstrations involving millions of Iranians, overwhelming the government’s security forces and causing the Islamic Republic to collapse.

An earlier Channel 12 investigation described the intended chain reaction as a “domino effect — first the Kurds and then other sectors.”

Channel 13 reported that thousands of Kurdish fighters were brought to Israel for training and operational exercises. They were allegedly warned that Israeli support would end if they deliberately harmed civilians.

The Mossad also reportedly provided Kurdish groups with money, vehicles and weapons, including firearms, antitank launchers, grenades and mortars. Some of the weapons had been captured by Israel during its wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, according to separate reports by Channel 12 and Ynet.

The political component of the plan involved restoring Ahmadinejad to power after the fall of Iran’s clerical leadership.

Ahmadinejad served as president from 2005 to 2013 and became internationally known for denying the Holocaust, threatening Israel and expanding Iran’s nuclear program.

After leaving office, however, he increasingly clashed with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was repeatedly barred from running in subsequent elections.

The New York Times reported that Israeli intelligence began cultivating Ahmadinejad in 2022 as he distanced himself from the government and sought a political comeback.

According to the report, Ahmadinejad concluded that foreign intervention might be his only path back to power.

A close associate reportedly said he envisioned recognizing Israel and joining the Abraham Accords if he returned to office.

Israel allegedly used an academic conference in Budapest as cover for contacts with Ahmadinejad.

A senior Hungarian official reportedly asked Ludovika University of Public Service to invite him to a climate conference in 2024, allowing him to meet Israeli intelligence officers.

Then-Mossad chief David Barnea personally met Ahmadinejad during one of his trips to Hungary, according to reports in the Times and Haaretz. Ahmadinejad returned to Budapest in June 2025 and again met Israeli operatives after twice evading the Iranian security personnel assigned to accompany him.

Israel also paid some of Ahmadinejad’s housing and travel expenses, the Times reported.

The former president became sufficiently important to the plan that Israeli officials referred to him internally as “the friend,” according to Channel 13.

The operation was developed after Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June 2025.

At the conclusion of that conflict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: “For generations, we have finished with Iran.”

Behind the scenes, however, Barnea reportedly promoted a broader regime-change strategy and told political leaders that removing Iran’s government was an achievable objective.

The plan was initially expected to take place later, but large anti-government demonstrations in Iran in January 2026 prompted Israeli officials to consider moving it forward.

Israel reportedly sought additional preparation time because the Kurdish forces were not yet ready.

During a February White House meeting, President Donald Trump reportedly asked Netanyahu, “When do you want it? When will you be ready?”

Barnea estimated that bringing down the government could require approximately one year, while IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir reportedly warned that it could take as long as three years.

Trump ultimately approved the broader US-Israeli attack on Iran, which began on February 28.

Israeli and American forces carried out extensive strikes against IRGC positions, military bases, missile systems, police facilities and Basij militia sites in northwestern Iran. According to the reports, at least some of those attacks were intended to clear a route for Kurdish forces entering from Iraq.

The Kurdish ground offensive never began, however.

Channel 13 reported that the White House ordered Israel to stop the fighters from entering Iran three days after the war started.

“Three days after the beginning of the campaign, we received a ‘Don’t,’” an Israeli official said.

Israeli officials reportedly attributed Trump’s reversal partly to pressure from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who strongly opposed an armed Kurdish movement gaining territory or influence near Turkey’s borders.

US Vice President JD Vance and several Gulf governments also reportedly raised objections, fearing that the collapse of Iran could divide the country into competing ethnic and territorial entities and create wider instability.

Kurdish commanders were also reportedly reluctant to proceed without guarantees that the United States and Israel would remain involved until the Iranian government fell.

They feared that Western countries would halt the war before the operation was completed, leaving Kurdish fighters exposed to retaliation by a recovering Iranian government.

Attempts by Israeli political officials and the Mossad to reverse Washington’s decision were unsuccessful.

Trump subsequently distanced himself from the effort to arm Kurdish forces.

“To be honest with you, the Kurds let us down,” Trump told Fox News in June. “I disagreed with the decision. I was saying, ‘No, I don’t believe they’ll deliver.’”

“I think they kept the weapons for themselves,” he added. “I think it’s a disgrace, but I’ll remember that, Kurds.”

The post Mossad trained Kurds for Iran invasion to trigger national uprising – report appeared first on World Israel News.

Iran reportedly placed former President Ahmadinejad under house arrest after uncovering Israeli bid to recruit him.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel spent years cultivating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential intelligence asset and future leader of Iran, according to a report alleging that the unlikely relationship included secret payments, meetings with Israeli operatives and a personal encounter with then-Mossad director David Barnea.

Ahmadinejad is believed to be under house arrest by the intelligence branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after authorities discovered significant portions of his alleged contacts with Israel, four senior Iranian officials told The New York Times.

Neither the Iranian government nor the IRGC has publicly confirmed his detention.

The Mossad and Ahmadinejad’s representatives also declined to comment on the allegations, leaving many details of the purported operation unverified.

The reported Israeli effort was extraordinary because Ahmadinejad became internationally known during his 2005-2013 presidency for Holocaust denial, incendiary rhetoric against Israel and support for Iran’s nuclear program.

He later fell out with then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused senior officials of corruption and repeatedly attempted to return to the presidency. Iran’s Guardian Council blocked his candidacy in 2017, 2021 and 2024.

According to the report, Israeli officials came to view Ahmadinejad as a figure who retained popular support and connections within Iran’s political and security establishment while harboring deep resentment toward the ruling system.

The operation allegedly went beyond exploring Ahmadinejad’s political usefulness. Israel reportedly made several secret payments to Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a longtime Ahmadinejad spokesman and associate, and Israeli intelligence personnel met him on multiple occasions.

One of the most unusual episodes reportedly occurred in Budapest in 2024.

A senior Hungarian government official asked Gergely Deli, rector of Budapest’s Ludovika University of Public Service, to invite Ahmadinejad to an event ostensibly dealing with climate change and environmental threats, according to the account.

Deli said he was informed that the invitation would provide cover for talks between the former Iranian president and Israeli intelligence representatives.

Explaining his decision to cooperate, Deli said that when “you have two enemies” seeking contact, “it’s best to do what you can to make them talk.”

Ahmadinejad’s visit to Budapest was publicly documented at the time, although the university released little information about it. Photographs showed him with Deli, while reports described him as a special guest at a closed environmental event that had not been advertised on the university’s website.

The new report claims that Barnea traveled personally to Budapest to meet Ahmadinejad. No independent evidence of the alleged encounter has been made public.

Israeli planners reportedly envisaged a far more ambitious role for Ahmadinejad than that of an intelligence source.

Under a broader plan for the collapse of the Islamic Republic, he was considered as a possible transitional leader who could take power after Khamenei and other senior officials were removed.

American officials were briefed on the proposal, and US intelligence officials later became involved in discussions concerning a post-regime government, according to earlier reporting.

The plan reportedly reflected expectations in Washington and Jerusalem that airstrikes, economic pressure, damage to government infrastructure and an anticipated uprising by Iranian opposition groups could cause the system to collapse rapidly.

Those expectations did not materialize. Kurdish forces did not launch the expected large-scale intervention, state institutions remained intact and no organized opposition movement emerged capable of taking control.

The alleged Ahmadinejad operation reached its most dramatic stage on February 28, the opening day of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Israeli aircraft struck Ahmadinejad’s residential compound in eastern Tehran, hitting a structure used by his guards and destroying or damaging his armored vehicle.

Initial reports suggested that Israel had attempted to kill the former president.

The subsequent account contends that the actual purpose was the opposite: to eliminate the security personnel restricting Ahmadinejad’s movements and extract him from the compound.

Shortly after the strike, a black Peugeot reportedly arrived and carried Ahmadinejad away. Iranian and American officials familiar with the operation said Mossad personnel transported him to a clandestine safe house inside Iran.

The former president reportedly grew unhappy with the hurried extraction and increasingly skeptical of Israel’s plan to return him to national leadership. At some point, he left the safe house under circumstances that remain unclear.

Earlier accounts said Ahmadinejad had been wounded during the strike and abandoned the proposed political operation after narrowly escaping death.

He subsequently disappeared from public view, prompting false reports that he had been killed.

Ahmadinejad unexpectedly reappeared during the July funeral processions for Khamenei, who was killed in the February attack. Photographs published by an official channel associated with Ahmadinejad confirmed his attendance at the Tehran ceremony.

Reports described him as heavily guarded and unusually concealed by a face covering and thick clothing. He has not been seen publicly since.

Four senior Iranian officials now say the IRGC’s intelligence organization has placed him under house arrest after uncovering evidence of his contacts with Israel. His precise location and legal status remain unknown.

Abdolreza Davari, a former Ahmadinejad adviser who later became a critic, said he did not believe financial rewards would have provided sufficient motivation for cooperation.

“He has money; he has a wide economic network,” Davari said. “He would do it for power. He wants to be at the helm of power.”

Another person familiar with Ahmadinejad’s thinking said he had privately discussed returning to power with foreign support. He reportedly suggested that, if restored to leadership, he could normalize relations with Israel through an arrangement modeled on the Abraham Accords.

Such a reversal would represent a dramatic break from his presidential record.

Ahmadinejad repeatedly challenged Israel’s legitimacy while in office and drew international condemnation for denying the Holocaust.

His relationship with Khamenei later collapsed as Ahmadinejad challenged the supreme leader’s authority over Cabinet appointments and defended aides accused by hardliners of corruption and political disloyalty.

The post Iranian ex-president under house arrest after Israel attempted to recruit him – report appeared first on World Israel News.

In 1966, Mossad agents convinced an Iraqi Air Force pilot to defect to Israel and fly one of the most advanced fighter jets, the MiG-21, directly into Israel.

The post WATCH: A look back at one of Mossad’s most daring operations appeared first on World Israel News.

In September 2024, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria, marking one of the group’s biggest security failures in decades. Go inside the Mossad operation and how see the unprecedented attack was carried out.

The post WATCH: Inside the Mossad’s stunning pager operation against Hezbollah appeared first on World Israel News.

The site housed tens of thousands of files related to Project Amad, Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program.

By Gila Issacson, JFeed

The Mossad constructed a full-scale replica of an Iranian nuclear archive facility somewhere in Africa and rehearsed one of the most audacious intelligence operations in Israeli history there before carrying it out in the heart of Tehran, former Mossad director Yossi Cohen has revealed for the first time.

Cohen’s disclosure, made in a series of recent interviews tied to his public profile ahead of Israel’s October elections, lifts the last major curtain on an operation that altered the trajectory of global nuclear diplomacy and set in motion the chain of events that led to two wars between Israel and Iran.

The Africa detail had remained classified for eight years.

Cohen explained that building a mock-up of the specific Iranian facility inside Israel would have attracted unwanted attention, so Mossad operatives trained abroad on a model built to mirror the Tehran warehouse compound in precise detail, including the building’s surroundings and the heavy steel safes agents would need to breach with specialized cutting tools capable of reaching extreme heat.

On the night of January 31, 2018, fewer than two dozen Mossad agents entered the warehouse in the Kahrizak district of southern Tehran, overrode the alarm system and cut through six of thirty-two safes containing the most incriminating material.

They worked for six hours and twenty-nine minutes, removing approximately 50,000 paper documents and 55,000 additional pages of files stored on 183 CD-ROMs before Iranian security officials arrived at dawn.

A nationwide manhunt involving tens of thousands of Iranian personnel failed to locate the agents.

Cohen said he insisted on extracting original documents rather than copies. “That way, neither the Iranians nor the international community could claim that we had fabricated them,” he said.

“I recognize Ali Shamkhani’s handwriting, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s handwriting—both of whom have since disappeared. The originals are still preserved at Mossad headquarters.”

The archive contained tens of thousands of files related to Project Amad, Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program, documenting warhead designs, production plans, and years of work the Islamic Republic had denied ever undertaking.

Netanyahu publicly displayed portions of the material weeks later in a dramatic televised presentation, accusing Iran of systematically lying to the world.

The political impact was swift. Within days, the Trump administration cited the Israeli intelligence as evidence that Iran had entered the 2015 nuclear deal in bad faith.

Trump withdrew from the JCPOA shortly after and reimposed sweeping sanctions, a decision most analysts now trace as a direct line to the two subsequent Iran wars and ultimately to the new U.S.-Iran agreement signed on June 17.

Cohen has not been shy about his skepticism of that latest deal. “The Iranian regime will never give up on the atomic bomb, regardless of whatever agreement is signed,” he said.

“It is a matter of culture, doctrine, and national objective. For Israel, Iran will remain the number one enemy.”

The former spy chief, who led the Mossad from 2016 to 2021, has been increasingly outspoken in recent months as he positions himself as a potential political figure ahead of the October vote.

The post Mossad built secret replica of Tehran nuclear site in Africa before 2018 raid appeared first on World Israel News.

Many within the defense establishment also favored maintaining stringent economic pressure on Iran rather than releasing frozen assets.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Senior IDF and Mossad officials voiced strong opposition to the emerging US-Iran agreement, arguing that it fails to capitalize on a rare opportunity to significantly weaken Iran and its regional influence.

According to The Jerusalem Post, opposition to the framework is widespread among Israel’s top military and intelligence leadership.

Security officials were particularly frustrated that the proposed arrangement does not address Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal or its network of terrorist proxies across the Middle East, issues they view as central components of the threat posed by Tehran.

Many within the defense establishment also favored maintaining stringent economic pressure on Iran rather than releasing frozen assets.

Some officials argued that continued sanctions could further destabilize the regime and potentially lead to its collapse.

A number of Mossad officials, along with a smaller group of IDF officers, reportedly assessed that the Iranian government could fall within a year if financial pressure is sustained.

They pointed to the more than $300 billion in damage and economic losses Iran has suffered from military strikes, as well as ongoing losses linked to the US counter-blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Military leaders also expressed concern that provisions related to Lebanon in the US-Iran framework could limit Israel’s future ability to act against Hezbollah.

Despite the criticism from within the security establishment and separate attacks on the deal by opposition leader Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted that Israel would retain operational freedom.

He said the agreement would not prevent Israeli action and reiterated that the IDF would remain in security zones in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary.

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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.”

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The Israeli embassy in the US and the White House denied the New York Times report.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency has reportedly elevated the counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to its highest category, citing concerns that Israeli intelligence may be seeking access to sensitive US decision-making related to the Middle East, The New York Times reported.

According to the report, which cited two current US officials and one former official, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued an internal message in recent weeks raising Israel’s threat level to “critical.”

The report said US officials are concerned that Israeli intelligence services may be collecting confidential information regarding high-level American deliberations connected to regional conflicts.

Although Israel remains a close US ally, officials cited by The New York Times said there is concern within the Pentagon that Israeli intelligence could obtain access to sensitive information not intended for sharing.

According to one official cited in the report, the internal document assessed Israel’s capability to conduct both human intelligence operations and technical intelligence collection at a “critical level.”

The report also said the document referenced a number of specific incidents that contributed to the heightened concerns, though no further details were provided.

Israel strongly rejected the allegations.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said claims that Israel spies on the United States are “completely false.”

“Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,” the spokesperson said. “Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”

The Pentagon declined to comment on the report.

A White House official also disputed the account, saying: “This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees US intelligence agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency, did not respond to a request for comment, according to the report.

The report emerged as Israeli officials reportedly assess that Iran is bluffing in the current standoff and as President Donald Trump pursues a long-term ceasefire arrangement. It also comes amid comments by Lebanon’s president accusing Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in broader regional negotiations.

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The emotional reunion took place during Gofman’s official inauguration as head of the Mossad.

By Steve Linde, JNS

Nearly 32 months after they helped save his life during the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, two United Hatzalah volunteer medics reunited with newly appointed Mossad director Roman Gofman at his inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.

According to United Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency medical service organization that provides free rapid-response care across Israel, Moshe Weizman and Elishiv Mizrachi met Gofman for the first time since the dramatic rescue that unfolded in southern Israel during the Hamas assault on Israeli communities.

The new Mossad chief shook hands with them, thanked them and posed for a photograph with them.

On the morning of Oct. 7, as Hamas terrorists launched their attack, Weizman and Mizrachi headed south to assist the wounded.

At approximately 8:30 a.m. near the Bror Hayil Junction, a civilian vehicle flagged down the ambulance driven by Weizman.

Inside was then-Brig. Gen. Roman Gofman, commander of the Tze’elim military base, who had sustained severe gunshot wounds while fighting Hamas terrorists.

Weizman transferred Gofman to the ambulance and began an emergency evacuation while speaking with the wounded officer throughout the journey in an effort to keep him conscious.

Shortly afterward, Mizrachi joined the rescue effort and the two medics evacuated Gofman to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, continuing lifesaving treatment en route.

The emotional reunion took place during Gofman’s official inauguration as head of the Mossad. The Prime Minister’s Office and Gofman invited the two medics to attend the ceremony at Mossad headquarters.

“During those moments in the ambulance, I had no idea that the man we were treating would one day lead one of the most sensitive and important organizations in the State of Israel,” said Weizman following the ceremony.

“We saw a wounded fighter on the side of the road, a courageous commander who spoke with us throughout the evacuation.

“We had one mission: keep him conscious and save his life. Who could have imagined that one day he would become the director of the Mossad? Standing here at Mossad headquarters and watching him assume this position is a full circle moment beyond words.”

Mizrachi recalled hearing Weizman’s call for assistance over the radio after he had already transported wounded civilians to Barzilai Hospital in his private vehicle.

“That morning, after transporting wounded civilians to Barzilai Hospital in my private vehicle, I heard Moshe’s call over the radio and did not hesitate for a second,” he said.

“I joined him on the road so we could fight together to save General Gofman’s life and ensure he stayed with us throughout the journey.

“To stand at Mossad headquarters and see that same wounded fighter from the ambulance entrusted with safeguarding Israel’s security is incredibly moving. It is a powerful reminder of the strength of mutual responsibility and the lifesaving spirit that defines Israeli society.”

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Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said last week that the stability and future of the Iranian regime were “shrouded in uncertainty” following the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaigns against it.

By JNS

The foundations of the Iranian regime have been shaken and its downfall is inevitable, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday night.

“The price Iran has already paid is very heavy; the foundations of this regime of terror in Iran have been shaken. It will never return to what it was, and I tell you—it will ultimately fall,” Netanyahu declared, speaking at a farewell ceremony for outgoing Mossad Director David Barnea.

“Let anyone plotting evil against Israel know that their schemes will fail. The price they will pay will be extremely heavy,” the premier warned.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said last week that the stability and future of the Iranian regime were “shrouded in uncertainty” following the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaigns against it.

“The evil structure of the ayatollah regime has been significantly cracked,” he declared, speaking at a ceremony to welcome a new Boeing KC-46 “Gideon” refueling aircraft to the Israeli Air Force.

According to the Israeli military chief, “its leaders are hunted; most of its military capabilities have been destroyed; its nuclear program has been set back by years; its economy is collapsing; and its citizens have yet to grasp the scale of the disaster to which their extremist leaders have led them.”

The remarks came amid ongoing negotiations to end the three-month-old conflict that began Feb. 28 with joint American and Israeli military strikes against the Iranian regime. A temporary ceasefire has been in place since April 8.

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Outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea urges Israel to make the toppling of Iranian regime a top priority, arguing that regime change is still achievable. 

By World Israel News Staff

Outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea said Israel should keep regime change in Iran at the top of its strategic agenda, arguing in a farewell address that the Islamic Republic is weaker and more vulnerable after the recent war.

Speaking Monday night at Mossad headquarters as he ended a five-year term, Barnea said Israel had not yet completed its campaign against Tehran.

“I promised that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon,” Barnea said. “Today, when the Iranian regime is weakened, challenged and more vulnerable, this is the time to complete the task and to exact a price from the regime that has engraved our destruction on its banner. We are in the midst of a historic and important campaign.”

Barnea went further, saying he still believes the Iranian regime can be brought down.

“I believed, and I still believe, that changing the reality in Iran by replacing the regime is a possible and achievable goal,” he said. “This is a possible mission, and it is clear that it will require determination, patience and adherence to the goal. This is our duty to future generations. This mission must remain at the top of our priorities.”

The remarks were delivered at a state ceremony attended by President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior defense officials, lawmakers, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, incoming Mossad chief Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman and former hostages and relatives of hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

Barnea’s comments followed reports in recent weeks that he had promoted a plan aimed at undermining or replacing Iran’s regime, and that such ideas formed part of Israeli discussions before the decision to go to war with Iran earlier this year.

In his speech, Barnea described the Mossad under his command as an organization capable of shaping strategic reality, not merely collecting intelligence.

“From my first day as Mossad chief, I sought to influence the security reality through the amazing advantages of our organization: sophistication, the ability to operate out of sight and deception as a central motif,” he said.

“Today’s Mossad is capable of operating deep, surprising, and carrying out surgical and sophisticated operations, but also broad, significant and reality-changing operations — even during war.”

Netanyahu used the ceremony to praise Barnea’s role in several major operations, including the sabotage of Hezbollah pagers in Lebanon, the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and strikes on Hezbollah’s senior leadership. He said those blows, along with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, were milestones in the breaking of the Iranian axis.

Netanyahu called the Mossad a “super-brand” and said, “There is no better intelligence organization than the Mossad.”

Herzog said Barnea’s tenure had strengthened Israel’s ability to operate against Iran and deepen intelligence partnerships abroad.

“During your tenure as Mossad chief, you wrote a golden chapter in the history of Israel’s security,” Herzog said. “A chapter of deepening operational capabilities in Iran and against it, a chapter of building intelligence partnerships that cross borders.”

Barnea also highlighted the Mossad’s role in efforts to return Israeli hostages, saying no operational success compared with seeing abductees come home.

“In my years as Mossad chief, there was one commitment that came straight from the heart — a supreme moral, ethical and Jewish commitment: bringing the hostages home,” he said. “As someone who approved and commanded thousands of operations, and experienced many moments of success, satisfaction and pride over the years, I can honestly say that no feeling of excitement compares to the supreme feeling of our hostages returning home and our fallen being brought to burial in Israel.”

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