The psychological warfare and the battle of the minds between the Israeli Mossad and the Iranian intelligence continues and it seems that so far the Mossad has the upper hand.
After the Mossad managed to thwart, with the help of Turkish and Cypriot intelligence, a series of attacks planned by Iranian intelligence against Israeli diplomats, businessmen and tourists in Cyprus and Turkey, sensitive information was revealed about the identities of the Iranian officials who were involved in the failure.
On June 23 of this year, the supreme leader of Iran ordered the dismissal of Hossein Tayeb, who headed the intelligence organization of the Revolutionary Guards after 13 years in office, his failures to carry out assassinations of Israelis in Cyprus and Turkey led to the capture of Iranian agents operating abroad and also created difficulties in diplomatic relations between Iran to Turkey.
According to Western intelligence sources, Iran follows with great interest the broadcasts on the opposition channel “Iran International” which is broadcasting from London in the Persian language, which has recently become an important source of information in the Middle East about what is happening in Iran and the secret operations of the Israeli Mossad on Iranian soil.
According to those sources, the Iranian opposition channel “Iran International” is occasionally used to convey messages from the Israeli Mossad to the authorities of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards.
An Iranian commentator living in London says that the exclusive information can only reach the channel from senior Israeli security officials or from the Iranian opposition group “Mujahideen Khalk”, a group of which is claimed to be linked to the Israeli Mossad, in any case it is reliable information which the Iranians have so far failed to refute.
A Western intelligence source explains that psychological warfare is an important part of the secret war between Iran and Israel and that the publications on the opposition channel “Iran International” help damage the morale of the Revolutionary Guards and its leaders.
Last week, the Iran International channel revealed
the identity of the two senior Iranians in the Revolutionary Guards who were involved in the failures of Iranian intelligence in Cyprus and Turkey.
The channel said that its source is a former senior official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
General Jawad Rafari
General Jawad Rafari served since 2011 as a senior commander in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria, he operated from the headquarters of the Iranian forces in Damascus and was also responsible for the activities of Hezbollah forces and Afghan mercenaries.
His nickname in Syria was the” butcher of Aleppo”.
Last November he was deported from Syria back to Iran, upon his return to Iran he was appointed to the position of deputy chief of intelligence for special operations of the Revolutionary Guards and led several failed operations against Israel in Turkey.
Last June Turkish intelligence, with the assistance of the Israeli Mossad, thwarted his plans to assassinate Israelis in Istanbul.
Rouch Allah Bazkandi
Another senior official in Iranian intelligence who has been involved in the recent failures in Turkey is Rouch Allah Bazkandi, deputy head of Unit 1500 in Iranian intelligence, which is responsible for counter-espionage.
He recruited amateur agents to assassinate Israelis in Istanbul but miserably failed in his mission.
According to Western intelligence sources, Turkish intelligence, which has close cooperation with the Israeli Mossad, informed the Mossad of important details from the investigation of the 8 Iranian agents it arrested in Istanbul.
The Israeli Mossad is probably already well aware of the activities of the various units of the Iranian intelligence of the Revolutionary Guards, senior political figures in Jerusalem estimate that if the new nuclear agreement between Iran and the major powers is indeed signed soon, the secret activities of the Mossad in Iran will increase even more and will have real results on the ground so that the Iranian government will not be able to hide it from its people.
Yoni Ben Menachem
Senior Middle East Analyst
