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24-07-2022
TEHRAN: Iran’s intelligence ministry has announced the arrest of a network of agents linked to Israel’s Mossad who entered Iran to carry out attacks against “sensitive” sites, state media reported.
The suspects entered Iran from northern Iraq, but were arrested before they were able to carry out sabotage and “terrorist operations”, IRNA said on Saturday, citing a statement from the ministry.
The announcement by Iran’s intelligence ministry came amid heightening tensions with regional rival Israel over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“This network’s members were in contact with [Israel’s] Mossad spy agency through a neighboring country and entered Iran from (Iraq’s) Kurdistan region with advanced equipment and strong explosives,” IRNA cited the ministry as saying.
The statement did not say how many suspects were arrested or give their nationalities, nor did it identify the targets of the purported plots.
“The members of the network … intended on carrying unprecedented terrorist activities in some sensitive locations and pre-determined targets,” it said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office, which oversees Mossad, declined to comment.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a years-long shadow war, with the Iran accusing its rival of carrying out sabotage attacks against its nuclear sites and assassinations of key figures, including scientists but tensions have ratcheted up following a string of high-profile incidents that Tehran has blamed on Israel.
Iran has blamed Israel for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Colonel Sayyad Khodaei at his Tehran home on May 22.
Two other senior Revolutionary Guard members have also died, one in a reported accident and the other in a shooting earlier this year.
In April, Iran said it arrested three people linked to Mossad and a month earlier claimed it had foiled an attack on a nuclear plant also planned by suspects linked to Israel.
Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms. Tehran has said its nuclear program is peaceful and has denied seeking nuclear weapons.
Tensions are rising in the Middle East as Iran pushes forward with its nuclear ambitions, despite warnings from its neighbors and the United States.
US President Joe Biden said this month that he prefers to continue negotiating with Iran about its nuclear program. But under pressure from Israel, he added that the US would be willing to use force as a last resort, and “we’re not going to wait forever” for Tehran to come to the table.
Biden wants Iran to return to the terms of a landmark 2015 deal in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. In 2018, the Trump administration scuttled that accord by pulling the US out of The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and re-imposing crushing economic penalties.
Since then, Iran has been growing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, a violation of the JCPOA. Officials maintain its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But in June, the United Nations said Iran has secured enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon. And in a sign that Tehran is no longer committed to the accord, officials recently took down more than two dozen cameras used by the UN to monitor Iran’s nuclear activity.
Many diplomats fear time is running out to make a deal with Iran. But breaking the current impasse between Tehran and Washington will require compromise on all sides. With talks at a standstill, and Iran forging ahead with its atomic ambitions, a new agreement seems unlikely. In this episode of The Stream we ask, is the Iran nuclear deal dead? Join the conversation. (Int’l News Desk)
