Tel Aviv: The intensified shadow war against Iran waged by the Israeli Intelligence Organisations has recently saved the life of an American general. In recent months there were signs that the shadow war has begun.
Last week in an unprecedented move, Israel put the focus on the enhanced war. Iran’s plans to hit American officials and high ranking officers have already brought the US “To be more acquainted “with the Israeli covert operations.
But in recent weeks when the new nuclear deal between the US and Iran seems fading away, this war has intensified with Israeli sources saying that “this is only the beginning”. According to a report in the Iran International website, an operative of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force held in a European country has admitted to plotting assassinations in Turkey, Germany and France, diplomatic sources say. The sources who spoke to Iran International on condition of anonymity said the accused who is currently in detention in a European country has admitted to receiving $ 150,000 for organizing the assassinations with one million promised to be paid to him after the completion of the operations.
The alleged operative has confessed, the sources said, that he was ordered to organize the assassination of an Israeli national who worked at the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, an American general in Germany, and a French journalist. The identities of the alleged targets and the reason for them being targeted have not been revealed.
Israel’s daily Haaretz reported following the disclosure by Iran International that Mossad played a role in preventing the assassination of its consulate worker in Turkey. Hours after it became known that the Mossad had recently thwarted an attempted assassination by a Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards at one of the employees of the Israeli consulate in the Turkish city, Israeli officials revealed a recording of the man arrested on suspicion of this act, admitting he was sent to carry out the assassination. The information he provided during the interrogation was of great value, following which the entire cell was arrested and the attacks were thwarted.
The suspect, a Quds Force member named Mansour Rassouli, who is an Iranian citizen, had been arrested in recent months inside Iran by the Mossad. He was interrogated there and following the valuable information he provided – was released in his country. Diplomatic sources said he also planned to assassinate a senior American general in Germany and a journalist in France, and in a recording that has now been revealed he also admitted: “I was told about three people. “These are for the Islamic Republic. They insisted that it would be carried out for sure. As for the Frenchman, even now they want his assassination carried out, right now.”
Israeli defence sources said that releasing the recording that has been made in Iran, was meant to show the Iranians that their actions are monitored on Iranian soil. A senior Israeli military analyst who talked to Raksha Anirveda on condition of anonymity said that the release of the Iranian suspect photo and recording are a very rare event. “The aim was to prove again that the Quds force of the IRGC , targets not only Israelis and operates around the world . If someone needed a proof that this organization must be included in the list of terror organizations he received it last week in a very unusual way,” the analyst added.
Brig. General (Ret.) Amos Gilead said that even if a new deal is signed with Iran , it is relevant only to their nuclear program. “Their terror mechanism and their long range ballistic missiles program will not be monitored even if the Vienna talks result in an agreement.” Gilead added that the intelligence cooperation between Israel and the US is on a very high level. “The Iran’s IRGC Quds Force is an organization with one mission – to perform terror attacks on Israeli and American targets.”
Gilead served in many high-ranking positions in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), among them as Head of the Military Intelligence Research Division and Responsible for the Overall National Intelligence Assessment.
And as if to demonstrate the enhancement of the shadow war – the Israeli General Security Service said on May 2 that Iran had been using a fake Facebook profile under the name Sara Puppi to gather intelligence and harm Israelis. Iran’s fake account operator presented himself as an Israeli businesswoman with connections and business in Israel. The Israeli security organization reports that Iran and its proxies are increasingly using the internet to recruit Israelis in order to gather intelligence and conduct terror attacks.
