Chief of Iranian intel unit turned out to be Mossad agent, ex-Iran president reveals

A former Iranian president has claimed that the chief of an Iranian intelligence unit aimed at countering Israeli agents had himself turned out to be a Mossad spy. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made this shocking revelation in an interview with CNN Turk on Monday (Sep 30). He added that 20 other agents in Iranian intelligence turned out to be Israeli secret operatives. All of them were tasked with monitoring Israeli intelligence activities in Iran.

Ahmadinejad claimed that the double agents may have provided crucial information on the Iranian nuclear programme to their Israeli masters.

The former president added that the agents also helped Israel steal documents related to the nuclear programme in 2018. The documents were allegedly taken from Tehran to Israel and were later revealed to the world by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.

Ahmadinejad further said that those double agents could never be punished by Iran as they were able to escape to Israel before their actual identities were revealed in 2021.

Reports of Israeli “infiltration” into Iranian spy network are not uncommon. In 2022, a senior adviser to former president Hassan Rouhani admitted that Iranian officials in Tehran always fear for their lives due to the “infiltration.”

The revelation by Ahmadinejad comes after it was revealed last week that an Iranian mole may have informed the Israeli military about Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's location, hours before the fatal airstrike on Sep 28.

The spy informed Israeli officials that Nasrallah would be at Hezbollah's underground headquarters to attend a meeting with top members of the militant outfit, reported French newspaper Le Parisien. It added that Nasrallah arrived at the location in the exact vehicle as Abbas Nilforoushan, the deputy commander of Iran's Quds Force in Lebanon.

Last month, British outlets claimed Mossad had hired Iranian security agents to plant the bomb in three rooms of the guesthouse where Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was staying.

“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit. Upon further investigation, they discovered additional explosive devices in two other rooms,” an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official was quoted as saying by the publication.

(With inputs from agencies)