In May, reports surfaced of the Mossad capturing and interrogating a a senior Revolutionary Guards official. Following the incident, a video was disseminated of the official admitting to planning terror attacks against Israeli targets abroad.
While the story was never confirmed by official sources, Iran International, a reputable anti-regime media outlet based in the UK, recently published a report about another senior IRGC official being kidnapped and interrogated by the Mossad within the Islamic Republic.
Another video came out purportedly showing the official admitting to smuggling weapons to the country's subsidiaries abroad. In the video, aired by the opposition news site, the official, named Yadollah Khedmati, is seen telling presumed interrogators that he was tasked with transferring weapons such as drones and missiles to neighboring countries as well as terror groups including Hezbollah.
This Tuesday, an Iranian politician claimed that many Iranians feel Israel is operating freely in Tehran.
“It feels as if Israel has established a large-scale organization in Tehran and freely runs its operations,” said a reformist politician quoted in the Financial Times.
“Israel is clearly targeting Iran’s ‘highly secure’ image to tarnish its greatness in people’s eyes,” the politician added.
The Prime Minister’s office declined a request from the Financial Times for comment.
Iran has blamed Israel for a host of assassinations of Iranian officials in recent years. Iranian officials told The New York Times last month that Iran believes Israel killed two Iranian scientists who died within days of each other by poisoning their food.
That report followed the mysterious deaths of two Iranian aerospace scientists just hours apart.
Iran has in the past claimed that Israel hires assassins to kill nuclear scientists throughout the Middle East.
Between 2010 and 2012, four nuclear scientists were assassinated inside Iran and a fifth survived a bomb attack. The government in Iran has blamed the attacks on US, British and Israeli intelligence services.
The US and Britain denied involvement, while Israel has not commented.
In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for an attack in which senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was eliminated.
These reports seem to demonstrate Israel's capacity to operate freely within Iranian territory at a time when the nuclear agreement with the US and other world powers appears within reach despite Israel's continued opposition to the deal.
Video: i24NEWS