Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has claimed that the Israel intelligence agency Mossad had extensively infiltrated the Iranian intelligence services.
He spoke in a Monday interview with CNN in Turkey.
According to Mr Ahmadinejad, Iran’s intelligence services established a dedicated unit to combat the activities of the Mossad in the country. Ironically, he said, Israeli agents infiltrated the unit itself.
Israel has carried out multiple operations in the last few months against Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East. It has successfully killed senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both based in Gaza and Lebanon respectively.
Its strike on Friday on Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, killed the longstanding leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Monday.
According to Mr Ahmadinejad, who led Iran between until 2013, Israel organized complex operations inside Iran and could quickly obtain information.
He said Iran found out in 2021 that the head of the secret unit set up to deal with the problem in Iran was himself a Mossad agent. Twenty 20 Israeli agents worked alongside him, he alleged.
He said these agents were responsible for a significant number of intelligence operations inside Iran, including the theft of documents related to the Iranian nuclear program and the elimination of several Iranian scientists.
“Israel organized complex operations inside Iran. They could quickly obtain information. In Iran, they are still silent about this. The man who was in charge of the unit in Iran against Israel – was an Israeli agent,” Ynet cited Mr Ahmadinejad as saying in the CNN interview.
Mr Ahmadinajad was succeeded by Hassan Rouhani, and his former chief of staff – former intelligence minister Ali Younisi – admitted in an interview in 2022, that “The Mossad has infiltrated many government departments in the last ten years, to such a degree that all the country’s top officials should fear for their lives,” according to Ynet.
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