Top Iranian secret service officer was Israeli spy: Iran ex-president's bombshell

In a bombshell revelation, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that the head of a secret service unit tasked with countering Israeli espionage in Iran was himself an Israeli spy.

Ahmadinejad revealed that by 2021, it had become clear that the most senior person in the country responsible for dealing with Israel's intelligence operations in Iran was a Mossad agent.

"Israel organised complex operations inside Iran. They could easily obtain information. In Iran they are still silent about this. The man who was in charge of the unit in Iran against Israel was an Israeli agent," Ahmadinejad told CNN T¼rk.

Ahmadinejad claimed that this was not an isolated incident, stating that an additional 20 agents within the Iranian intelligence team tasked with monitoring Israeli intelligence activities were also working for Mossad.

According to Ahmadinejad, these alleged double agents were responsible for providing Israel with sensitive information on Iran's nuclear program. They were allegedly involved in the theft of Iranian nuclear documents in 2018 and also killed off several Iranian nuclear scientists.

The revelations come on the heels of reports that an Iranian spy tipped off Israel about the location of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah before he was killed in an airstrike on Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut.

A vocal critic of the current Iranian regime, Ahmadinejad's remarks echo former Iranian intelligence minister Ali Younesi's claims that Israeli spies had planted themselves in the top echelons of power in the Islamic Republic.

"The Mossad has infiltrated many government departments in the last 10 years, to such a degree that all the country's top officials should fear for their lives," Younesi had said in an interview in 2021.

Ahmadinejad's allegations come amid heightened tensions in the region. On Tuesday, Israel's military said it began a “limited and targeted” ground operation against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as it continued shelling areas close to the border and carrying out airstrikes on the capital, Beirut.