An Iranian operative working for Israel’s intelligence service revealed new details about clandestine actions carried out inside Iran during Israel’s 2025 campaign against Tehran’s nuclear program, describing how he joined the agency and participated in preemptive attacks ahead of Israeli airstrikes, Times of Israel reports.
The agent, whose identity was withheld for security reasons, gave the interview to Israel’s Channel 12 investigative program “Uvda,” where he recounted his personal motivations, his recruitment into the Mossad, and the events surrounding June 13, 2025, when Israel launched strikes it said were aimed at neutralizing an immediate existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
In the early hours of June 13, as Israeli fighter jets began heading toward targets in Iran, a coordinated series of rocket and drone attacks launched from within Iran knocked out critical air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, and struck senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.
Those internal attacks cleared the way for the Israeli air campaign and delayed Iran’s ability to mount an immediate missile and drone response, though retaliatory strikes followed in subsequent days.
The operative, identified on the program only by the alias “Arash,” appeared in heavy disguise to prevent recognition. The program did not disclose where the interview was filmed, noting only that it was recorded before anti-regime protests erupted inside Iran in late December.
According to the report, Arash is about 40 years old. He said his opposition to the Iranian regime began in childhood, when school lessons were dominated by indoctrination against Israel and the United States. He recalled that when he was 11, his 17-year-old sister was arrested and beaten for failing to wear a hijab. Although his father paid to secure her release, the incident led the family to flee Iran for an unnamed Western country.
Arash said the experience left him determined to act against the regime and to assist friends who remained in Iran. At age 30, he said he searched for the Mossad online and found the agency’s website, sending a message without knowing what would come of it. Within days, he was contacted by an agent, and in 2015 he formally began working with the Mossad, receiving training abroad. While details were not disclosed, the report indicated that Arash visited Israel and has some command of Hebrew.
In the lead-up to the June 2025 operation, Arash was dispatched back into Iran, where he headed one of the teams responsible for internal strikes. He said his unit was instructed to transport a missile and launcher by car to a designated location.
He described driving through Tehran and stopping at a red light when a police vehicle pulled up next to them.
“If I make a mistake, everything is gone,” he recalled, describing the fear of exposure, before the police car drove off without incident.
Once in position, the team assembled the weapon and waited for further instructions. Arash said he remained in direct contact with Mossad handlers in Israel, though he declined to explain how. He said the team did not know the identity of the target, having been given only coordinates.
For two hours, the team waited in darkness for the final order.
“I was scared, scared about everything,” he said.
At around 3 a.m., the command was given and Arash launched the missile. He said the weapon was equipped with a camera, allowing him to see the target moments before impact.
That target, he later learned, was a ballistic missile prepared for launch toward Israel.
He told his handlers, “I did the job,” and said they immediately replied, “Yes, you did.”
The team withdrew at once to a safe apartment. Arash said that the following day he observed people in Tehran expressing happiness that the regime had suffered a setback. The operatives were eventually extracted from Iran, and Arash said he was taken to Israel, where he shared a celebratory toast with his handlers.
The brief conflict that followed lasted 12 days, during which Israel carried out extensive strikes on Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile facilities. Iran responded with missile attacks on Israeli military targets and population centers.
One major site, however, remained beyond Israel’s reach: the Fordo uranium enrichment facility, buried deep beneath a mountain and protected from conventional Israeli airstrikes.
That challenge, officials said, had led the Mossad years earlier to devise an elaborate plan to smuggle a large quantity of explosives into Fordo and destroy it from within.
Several former intelligence and defense officials discussed the plan with “Uvda,” including former Mossad directors Yossi Cohen and Tamir Pardo, who led the agency from 2016 to 2021 and from 2011 to 2016, respectively.
They said Israel first uncovered the full scope of activities at Fordo in 2010, after which the Mossad began designing what Cohen described as an operation that, if executed, “would have been the greatest operation in the history of the country.”
According to the officials, the plan encountered serious reservations because of the massive resources required, its extreme complexity, the need for precisely synchronized actions, the large number of operatives involved, and the challenge of extracting them from Iran afterward. The Mossad favored relying on its own trained operatives rather than locally recruited agents, further complicating the mission, which Cohen indicated would have required dozens of participants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was said to have strongly supported the plan and pushed for preparations to continue.
However, when Cohen became Mossad chief in 2016, the Obama administration had signed a nuclear agreement with Iran. Cohen said that by that point he had lost confidence that the operation could be carried out successfully, and the plan was shelved in favor of having the Israel Defense Forces prepare a direct strike.
In 2018, after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Israel once again had room to plan for an attack. Officials said that after current Mossad director David Barnea took office, work on the internal sabotage plan was revived.
That effort was delayed again after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war. Officials said the IDF assets required for the Mossad operation were diverted to fighting in Gaza, leading Barnea to postpone the plan once more.
When Israel ultimately launched its strikes in 2025, officials said there was still no viable Israeli-only solution for Fordo. The expectation was that the United States, which possesses the necessary capabilities to strike deeply buried targets, would join the operation. Although Washington initially hesitated over concerns about Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces in the region, the U.S. ordered strikes on several Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordo, on June 22. A ceasefire brokered by the United States later brought the conflict to an end.
In response to the television report, Netanyahu’s office, which oversees the Mossad, said that “in contrast to what has been claimed, the prime minister led the preparation of a variety of plans for striking all elements of the program.” Regarding Fordo, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “attack plans were developed, some of which were not possible because of October 7,” while highlighting the close cooperation between Israel and the United States during the war.
{Matzav.com}
