Iran’s weakness exposed by its ex president: Its counter-intelligence chief was an Israeli Mossad spy

File photo of Iran’s former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei. According to Iran’s Constitution, the Supreme Leader is responsible for supervision of “the general policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” which means that he sets the tone and direction of Iran’s domestic and foreign policies. The Supreme Leader also is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and controls the Islamic Republic’s intelligence and security operations; he alone can declare war or peace. He is also the supreme commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Sept 26, 2016

The head of an Iranian counter-intelligence unit tasked with identifying and weeding out undercover Israeli agents was himself a Mossad operative, a former Iranian president has revealed.

Speaking to CNN , former Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, revealed that the head of the counter-intelligence unit specially assigned to target Mossad agents was himself exposed as a double agent back in 2021, with a further 20 agents in that team also having operated for Israeli intelligence.

According to Ahmadinejad, those double agents were behind a series of intelligence leaks and failures on the part of Iran over the years, providing Israel with sensitive information on matters, such as the Iranian nuclear program.

One such operation was the theft of documents on the nuclear program that were taken from Iran to Israel back in 2018, and which were revealed by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to then-US president Donald Trump pulling out of the Iranian nuclear agreement that year.

The alleged Mossad moles were reportedly able to flee Iran following their operations, and are now living in Israel.

The revelation comes at a time when Iranian authorities – as well as their proxies across the region – are reeling from a series of crises that have exposed significant gaps in the country’s security and intelligence apparatus, with reports increasingly showing the depths of Israel’s penetration.

In an interview with Lebanon’s newspaper , An Nahar, Thomas Friedman an American political commentator who is a weekly columnist for The New York Times told AnNahar that Iran is infiltrated with Israeli spies. He also said Israel will not be able to completely eliminate Hezbollah

File photo of Hossein Taeb in 2018. The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ intelligence organization was fired from his post in June 2022. Photo: Hamed Malekpour/Tasim News/AFP via Getty Images

Hossein Taeb , the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ intelligence organization was fired from his post in June 2022.

Taeb was one of the most senior and powerful intelligence officials in Iran.

• His dismissal came amid a series of suspicious assassinations of Iranian military officers and scientists, as well as operations to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities and drone and missile bases.
• Iran had officially accused the Israeli Mossad of being behind some of these attacks and threatened to take revenge. Israel didn’t claim responsibility, but didn’t deny involvement also.
• Taeb was replaced by the order of Gen. Hussein Salami, the IRGC commander in chief. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, who headed the IRGC counterintelligence unit, was appointed as the new head of the IRGC intelligence service.

An Nahar, MEMO