The UK's Arabic-language Independent newspaper revealed on Sunday new information on the Iranian general who, according to foreign reports, was kidnapped by the Mossad intelligence agency in Damascus in an effort to obtain information on the fate of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.
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According to the report, the general, known as "Sabrey," served in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, and had operated in Lebanon alongside late Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani. He was kidnapped while jogging between his apartment building and the Iranian Embassy in Damascus when a van pulled up beside him and Mossad agents emerged and kidnapped him. According to the report, the Mossad agents succeeded in smuggling Sabrey into Tel Aviv, where he was interrogated.
Iranian sources claimed the information provided by Sabrey turned out to be inconsequential, and as a result, the general was released upon being transferred to South Africa.
The article included an article with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in which he ruled out the possibility Israel had carried out the kidnapping.
On Saturday, Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath on Saturday published a video from the Lebanese village of Nabi Sheet, where according to the report showed the apartment where Israeli navigator Ron Arad was held captive from 1986 to 1988 when he finally disappeared without a trace.
As early as 2004, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Arad had been held in a house in the village, and even reported that Hezbollah operatives had located his body. According to that report, Arad was murdered by his captors in 1988.
Other Arab media outlets, meanwhile, reported that the latest Israeli operation to find Arad, which was revealed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennet during a recent speech in the Knesset, involved Mossad agents taking DNA samples from a body, only for the results to return negative.
"Last month, Mossad agents embarked on a complex, wide-scale operation" to gather new information about the fate and location of Ron Arad, Bennett said of the operation.
Meanwhile, Tami Arad, the wife of the missing IAF navigator, addressed the mission to find him.
"We, Ron's family, have stressed over the years that any action pertaining to Ron should not put the lives of [agents] at risk. We've also requested that if it is discovered that Ron is no longer alive – that no price be paid to bring him home. Not because it isn't important to us to bring him home, but because we believe this message will keep future captives alive. But we had asked and still ask that [the country] continue searching for Ron as long as possible, on the condition that lives aren't endangered," said Tami Arad.
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