File: In a possible sign of the troubles, Ex Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu disappeared from view for some two weeks in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where over 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion February 2022
Russia’s security council secretary, Sergei Shoigu, arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks with the Iranian leadership including President Masoud Pezeshkian, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The visit is taking place at a time of acute tension in the Middle East amid fears of a wider regional war after Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Palestinian armed group Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran last week.
Iran has blamed Israel and said it will “punish” it; Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.
Shoigu, who was Russia’s defense minister before being moved to the security council in May, will also meet Iran’s national security chief and the head of the general staff, Interfax said.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with the ISIS extremist group.
Reuters reported in February that Iran had provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. The United States said in June that Russia appeared to be deepening its defense cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it was using to strike Ukraine, something Moscow denies.
Russia said last Friday that it joined Iran in condemning the assassination of the Hamas leader and pointing out “the extremely dangerous consequences of such actions”.
IRGC threatens Israel
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened Israel on Monday after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Gen. Hossein Salami, speaking to journalists at an event, warned that Israel was “digging its own grave” with its actions in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and that it is suspected of carrying out Haniyeh’s killing.
“When they receive a blow, they will notice they are making mistakes. They are making mistakes all the time,” Salami said in his speech at the Day of the Journalists event. “They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their response.”
Salami also touched on a long-held suspicions about an Israeli assassination program targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists amid concerns over the country’s atomic program. Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, but maintains its program is peaceful. US intelligence services don’t believe Iran is actively pursuing the bomb, but a nuclear-armed Tehran remains a top fear for Israel.
“Israel is the cradle of terrorism and it has been created for killing and murder,” he said. “They think they can kill the nuclear scientists of another country and impede that country’s path toward peaceful nuclear technology. They think that by killing the leader of a resistance group … in another country will give them more time to live.”
He added: “They are just digging their own grave.”
How IRGC collaborated with Mossad in killing Haniyeh
Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad enlisted Iranian security agents to plant explosives in a building in Tehran where armed Palestinian group Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was staying, The Telegraph reported.
This assassination was confirmed by officials within the IRGC, who now believe Mossad employed agents from the Ansar-al-Mahdi protection unit, the IRGC group responsible for safeguarding high-ranking officials inside and outside the country.
Ansar-al-Mahdi was established on 24 February 1982 before Operation Fath ol-Mobin in the Iran–Iraq War and was named after the twelfth Shiite Imam, Al-Mahdi)
“This is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach,” an IRGC official told The Telegraph. A special working group has been established to devise strategies to mitigate the perception of this breach, the official added.
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