When Ilan Evyatar awoke on Wednesday morning and first heard the news emanating from Iran on the targeting of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, he was immediately reminded of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear scientist who headed Iran's military nuclear project, was taken out in a dramatic undercover operation not far from Tehran, some four years ago. Israel has never claimed responsibility for that act, but it is patently clear to Evyatar who was behind it. "The Mossad monitored Fakhrizadeh for more than a decade," he explains. "As far back as in 2009, during Meir Dagan's tenure as the head of Israel's elite intelligence organization, Mossad agents were operating on Iranian soil with the aim of reaching him and eliminating him, but the operation was aborted at the last moment. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak told me that there were at least an additional two occasions on which they intended to target Fakhrizadeh, but they decided to call off the attempts due to various considerations."
Q: For example?
"For many years they were engaged in close surveillance of Fakhrizadeh and were aware of his every move. Thus, there was a dilemma within the Mossad as to whether or not to take him out. When there is somebody you know so intimately the surveillance clearly helps with the parallel intelligence collection effort. I believe that in the case of Haniyeh too, the question arose as to whether to carry out a hit on him for the deterrent effect and the ensuing damage to the organization he heads, or to keep him alive in order to extract more and more valuable information."
The decision to eliminate Fakhrizadeh was reached in late November 2020. The nuclear scientist was traveling with his wife to their summer retreat in the holiday resort of Absard, where Tehran's rich like to spend their weekends. They were protected by an entourage of bodyguards from the IRGC's (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) elite Ansar unit. According to foreign publications, a seemingly innocent looking van awaited the secured motorcade on the road, in which the Mossad agents had installed a remote-controlled machine gun in advance. When Fakhrizadeh's vehicle approached the van it was riddled by bullets from a volley of precision fire: he was killed together with his security guards, but his wife came out unscathed. Haniyeh too was hit by precision fire – he was killed together with his bodyguard, and without anybody else being hurt.
"We still don't know exactly how Haniyeh was killed," says Evyatar. "One of the claims is that he was killed by a missile that was launched at the room where he was staying from an adjacent building. If that is indeed the case, then this was not the first time that the Mossad has operated using such an MO in Iran. Are you familiar with the Paul Simon song '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover'? That aptly sums up the Mossad's diverse methods for taking out their enemies.
"In the foreign media, it was reported that over the years the Mossad has used a broad variety of weapons in its operations in Iran. There was one incident in which a drone was used to drop an explosive device on a building belonging to the nuclear program. They have used suicide UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that took off from within Iranian territory itself, and during Dagan's term of office, they even used explosive devices fitted with magnets, which motorbike riders acting on behalf of the Mossad would attach to the vehicles of nuclear scientists who had been singled out for assassination. In 2011, a mysterious explosion occurred at an IRGC base resulting in the death of 17 soldiers, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a senior figure in the Iranian weapons industry whose rank was equivalent to brigadier general. One of the former Mossad employees told me that the organization's main weapons is not bullets, explosive devices or missiles, but the creative spirit."
Q: So, when you heard about the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, it was clear to you that this was the work of the Mossad?
"Are you aware of anyone else in the world capable of pulling off something like that?"
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not agree to be interviewed"
It is important to point out: The conversation with Evyatar was held last Wednesday afternoon, only a few hours after the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran. Most of the details from this incident were still unknown then, among others, as the Iranians ensured that the media were kept well away from the building in which Haniyeh was killed – the guest residence in which the IRGC's most senior guests are hosted.
In any event, Evyatar, a senior journalist, is one of the few people outside the security establishment who have a working knowledge of and close /familiarity with the Mossad's activity on Iranian soil. Four months ago, "Target Tehran: How Israel is using sabotage, cyberwarfare, assassination – and secret diplomacy – to stop a nuclear Iran and create a new Middle East", came out, written by Evyatar together with Yonah Jeremy Bob, the Jerusalem Post's senior military correspondent. The book recounts the origins and development of the war being waged by the Mossad against the Iranian nuclear program now for many years, and contains new details of the Mossad's operational methods, not only in relation to the elimination of nuclear scientists but also with regard to the network of relations that the Mossad has established with diverse elements across the entire Middle East, in order to support the diplomatic battle against Iran's aspirations to become a nuclear power.
"If I were to single out one thing that really surprised me during my work on the book, that would be discovering just to what extent the Mossad is deeply entrenched in Iran"," says Evyatar. "We have always known that the Mossad is an extremely creative and daring organization, but only when you examine its activities in Iran in depth and over the decades can you really begin to fathom the extent to which it has infiltrated the land of the Ayatollahs."
Ilan Evyatar is 58 years old and lives in Mevasseret Zion, a satellite town of Jerusalem, he was born in Israel and grew up in England. He has served in the past as Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Report and the news editor at the Jerusalem Post and currently works for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). Target Tehran is his first book. "I got to know Yonah Jeremy Bob during our work together at the Jerusalem Post," he recounts. "Following the exposure of the operation to snatch the Iranian nuclear archive, we realized that we have the opportunity to write a book about the Mossad's activity in Iran. Unusually, this led to the publication of a considerable amount of information and this provided us with a solid foundation to relate the story. After such an event everybody wants to take credit for their own efforts so it is much easier to speak to people."
Evyatar and Bob succeeded in persuading a number of senior sources to agree to be interviewed for their book. "We interviewed former senior Mossad officials such as Tamir Pardo and David Meidan, former prime ministers such as Naftali Bennett and Ehud Olmert, along with a whole lineup of former IDF Military Intelligence Directorate senior officers," Evyatar states. "We also interviewed members of the US administration and intelligence community, including senior CIA officers."
Reading between the lines, you also get the impression that the authors spoke with Yossi Cohen, the former Mossad chief who headed the operation to snatch the nuclear archive. "Yossi Cohen certainly knows how to advance himself," says Evyatar. "He was very supportive of the effort to expose the archive theft that was conducted during his tenure, explaining that it was crucial to expose Iran's real face to the world. Cohen was extremely fond of the media, and we have seen this recently too in his numerous appearances in the TV studios. During his term of office there was much more exposure to operations than in previous periods, in which assassinations were attributed to 'divine intervention'."
Q: What about Netanyahu – did he give an interview for the book?
"Netanyahu did not agree to be interviewed."
Q: Did he give a reason for this?
"No, but I think that the reason might have been that he was working on his own book at the same time."
Q: I assume that the people you interviewed for the book did not talk much about the Mossad's failures.
"Of course. When you receive information from people who belong to a certain organization, each one sets out to toot their own horn. Battles for credit will probably also ensue following the elimination of Haniyeh."
Outsourcing espionage
Although Target Tehran focuses on Cohen's term of office as Director of the Mossad, it does follow Israel's efforts to derail the Iranian nuclear program from back in the 1990's, via the stormy period of Mossad chiefs Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo, reaching the beginning of the current Mossad chief's tenure, Dedi Barnea.
Barnea, at least according to the book, was the real mastermind behind the Mossad's special operations on Iranian soil in recent years, even prior to his appointment as head of the organization. "Barnea was a key figure in this effort. He has the reputation of being extremely bold and aggressive in his actions," says Evyatar. "During Bennett's term of office as prime minister, when Dedi was still a relatively new Mossad chief, a considerably large number of operations in Iran came to light, after Bennett urged the Mossad to adopt a more aggressive approach and he pursued a policy of striking at the head of the octopus rather than trying to lop off its arms."
Q: Just how 'at-home' does the Mossad feel on Iranian territory?
"I think that it feels pretty much at home and the large number of operations that have been carried out there appear to bear witness to this. One of Iran's intelligence ministers has said himself that the level of the Mossad's penetration into Iran is so deep that every Iranian leader should be concerned for his life. One of the factors that has enabled this level of penetration is the degree of discord between the various intelligence agencies in Iran itself. In recent years, the IRGC has gradually been taking over all the Iranian agencies and has succeeded in pushing out Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, often referred to by its acronym, the MOIS, which was responsible, among others, for counterespionage. The MOIS was actually quite effective and successful for some time in dismantling a number of foreign cells run by foreign intelligence agencies, including CIA spy rings, but when they were forced out by the IRGC, whose level of professionalism is apparently not as developed, Iran became more prone to infiltration by intelligence organizations. Having said that, the Mossad is an extremely seasoned organization, highly adept at what it does. If an espionage organization manages to attain such achievements, then there can be no doubt as to its caliber."
Q: Do you think that they opted to kill Haniyeh in Tehran not only for political reasons, but also because of the operational feasibility?
"Haniyeh tends to spend time mainly in Qatar and Turkey. I think that the main consideration to target him in Iran of all places was a political one, but it also conveys a serious message to Iran as to just how Israel is able to reach any individual there."
Q: As far as you are aware, are there Mossad agents in Iran?
"In the book, we write that there is ongoing cooperation between Israel and all sorts of Iranian opposition organizations that seek to stand up to the ayatollah regime. One of those organizations, for example, is the MEK (the Iranian opposition organization Mujahideen-e Khalq, whose exiled leadership resides in Albania – I.I). A source in the CIA spoke to us about just how that organization is essentially an operational arm of the Mossad. Two sources in the Obama administration told us that the MEK worked in conjunction with the Mossad on two operations involving the targeting of nuclear scientists. Yossi Cohen himself admitted that the mission to retrieve the nuclear archive involved 'non blue and white' agents."
Q: There are also Israeli agents operating inside Iran?
"I don't know just how much I am permitted to tell, but as far as I understand it, there are Israelis who enter Iran via various routes and who operate there."
Targeting Iran's nuclear facilities
At the end of the book, Evyatar and Bob describe what form an Israeli offensive against the Iranian nuclear facilities would take. This is the only speculative part of the book, but it is based on material collected by the two authors during their investigative work. When asked if the current escalation with Iran might create an opening for a comprehensive strike on the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities, Evyatar is more hesitant and cautious. "Attacking the nuclear facilities is an extremely momentous decision, as if we were to do so we would no longer be on the verge of all-out war with Iran, but deep in the middle of all-out war," he explains. "There is a feeling that we are not entirely ready for such a war.
"We should also recall that Netanyahu has been speaking about the battle against Iran's nuclear program since the 1990's and has apparently green-lighted a number of operations in Iran as prime minister over the years, but after all is said and done, he has yet to approve a full-scale military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. On the other hand, he did everything in his power to revoke the nuclear agreement (officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) that the superpowers reached with Iran. One of the objectives of the effort to expose the nuclear archive, for example, was to create the appropriate atmosphere to facilitate the US exit from the nuclear agreement, as indeed was the case. However, in the years that have evolved since then, Iran has overcome the economic sanctions and the various sabotage operations and is proceeding with its program. They have succeeded in enriching a considerable volume of uranium to a level of 60%, which is a mere step away from the level required to produce fissile material for a nuclear device. Iran is gaining constant progress with its nuclear program."
Q: To what extent has Netanyahu really taken action to fight against Iran's nuclear capabilities?
"Netanyahu is perhaps the most central figure in the struggle against Tehran, but many people whom we interviewed told us that Netanyahu is also extremely calculating and cautious in his actions. I believe that the assassination of Haniyeh was a relatively unusual step for him too."
Q: Is the elimination of such a figure, however senior he may be, a particularly effective measure?
"It clearly undermines the enemy from a tactical point of view and for a short time, but I am not sure that it is strategically effective. At the end of the day, to date we have managed to target dozens of senior Hamas figures but this has not really helped us."
The arms of the octopus
As we have already established, Evyatar's book hardly touches on the Mossad's failures. Indeed, it is important to point out that the Mossad has not been able to prevent Iran from deploying a vast arsenal of advanced weapon systems around Israel, as we have discovered over the last ten months.
"Iran is heavily entrenched in Israel's immediate neighborhood," says Evyatar. "Despite our efforts to conduct an intensive series of 'gray zone operations' in recent years, in what has been termed the 'Campaign Between the Wars' (CBW, or MABAM in its Hebrew acronym), and they have helped us to prevent a considerable volume of weapons from arriving in theater, Hezbollah still has a vast arsenal of rockets, precision missiles and UAVs that are extremely difficult to intercept. We have also been witness to the considerable force employed by the Houthis in Yemen, as well as the amount of weapons that the Iranians have succeeded in bringing into the Gaza Strip. The Iranians are also engaged in a concerted effort to smuggle weapons into Jordan, and from there into Judea and Samaria. So yes, the Iranians have been highly successful in implementing their strategy too. I really don't think that a small hit, such as the elimination of Haniyeh, will effect any change in this situation."
Q: Based on your knowledge and familiarity with Iran, how does the leadership there currently feel, following the assassination of Haniyeh?
"My take on the situation is that the Iranians do not currently seek to enter into all-out war – they wish to drag us into a long and drawn-out war of attrition, and at the same time they are also looking to complete their nuclear program, which will provide them with a defensive umbrella. I am sure that they are in shock, but once they crossed the Rubicon and responded to the elimination of Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus (by launching hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel in what came to be known as the "Night of the Missiles" in April this year – I.I), it will now be extremely difficult for them not to respond again. It appears that both sides – Iran and Israel – are constantly seeking to operate without reaching the tipping point, where it is possible to hit the other side with a painful blow, but not one that will lead to full-scale war. The obvious problem in such situations is that you never know when the escalation will snowball into something worse."
