Israel’s Mossad Chief Vows to Continue Covert Attacks Inside Iran

Barnea says the attacks will continue even if the Iran nuclear deal is restored

David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, said Monday that Israeli covert attacks inside Iran will continue regardless of whether or not the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, is restored.

“Even if a nuclear deal is signed it will not give Iran immunity from the Mossad operations,” Barnea said, according to The Cradle. “We won’t take part in this charade and we don’t close our eyes to the proven truth.”

Israel has a long history of carrying out covert attacks inside Iran. Most recently, Israel is suspected of being behind a string of mysterious deaths that happened inside Iran this past Spring.

Israel never officially acknowledges its assassinations or attacks inside Iran, but its involvement in these operations is usually revealed in leaks to the media. US officials recently told CNN that Israel was responsible for killing Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a colonel in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who was gunned down in Tehran at the end of May.

Responding to Barnea’s threat, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “We do not expect a terrorist regime [to do] anything other than terrorist actions.”

Barnea’s comments came after he visited Washington last week, where he met with a series of high-level US officials to work against a potential revival of the nuclear deal, which is seeming more and more unlikely.

Barnea and other Israeli officials say force must be used against Iran to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. But Tehran often responds to Israel’s covert attacks by increasing the activity of its civilian nuclear program, steps Israel then points to as evidence Iran is working toward a bomb.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.