Mossad acknowledges spying on Iran
The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency acknowledged that the regime is spying on the Islamic Republic, once again voicing Tel Aviv’s support for violence in Iran.
“We have eyes and ears and more, even in Iran,” Yossi Cohen told an Israeli Finance Ministry conference in Beit-ul Moqaddas (Jerusalem).
The acknowledgement came a week after Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri blamed Mossad and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for orchestrating the unrest, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
He said that “a bunch of scavengers” wanted to take advantage of “the disgusting corpse of the riot,” but were identified by Iranian intelligence and security agents.
Cohen said elsewhere in his comments that although the latest protests in Iran were over economic woes, he would be happy if “a social revolution” occurred in the country.
“Iranian citizens went out to demonstrate because of the economic situation,” the Mossad chief said. “That’s what brought them out on the streets. There’s no need for great expectations, even though I would be very happy to see a social revolution in Iran,” he said, adding wishfully that, “Maybe it will happen in the future.”
In late December, protests were held in a number of Iranian cities against price hikes and the overall economic condition of the country. Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought to turn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the original protesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so that their legitimate activities would not play into the hands of violent rioters.
Law enforcement forces intervened to contain the vandals and armed elements, who launched attacks on public property, mosques, and police stations. The US and Israel cheered the rioters, sparking anger among Iranians, who took to the streets in large numbers over the course of several days to express their faith in the Islamic establishment and repudiate the unrest.
Speaking on Tuesday, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said a “triangle” of enemies — including Israel — had been plotting for the past few months to foment chaos and violence in Iran.
Mossad has been involved in the assassination of several Iranian nuclear scientists in the past.
Iran has sentenced to death the individuals it found guilty of cooperating with the Israeli spy agency and providing information to it.