Iran Says It Foiled Israel-Linked Attacks on Iranian Sites

Israel is suspected of being behind a recent string of mysterious deaths inside the Islamic Republic

Originally published on AntiWar

On Saturday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced a network of agents with ties to Israel were arrested after entering Iran to carry out attacks on “sensitive” targets inside the country.

The Intelligence Ministry said that the suspects were caught entering Iran from Iraq. “This network’s members were in contact with [Israel’s] Mossad spy agency through a neighboring country and entered Iran from [Iraq’s] Kurdistan region with advanced equipment and strong explosives,” the ministry said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran didn’t offer details about how many people were arrested or what they intended to attack. The ministry statement just said that the “members of the network” planned to carry out “unprecedented terrorist activities in some sensitive locations and pre-determined targets.”

Israel has a long history of carrying out assassinations and attacks on nuclear facilities inside Iran. The reported arrests came after a string of mysterious deaths in Iran that were tied to Israel, including the killing of a colonel in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

IRGC Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei was gunned down in Tehran in May, and The New York Times reported that Israel told the US it was responsible. Around the same time, an Iranian engineer was killed in a suspected Israeli drone attack on an Iranian military facility, which followed a pattern of previous Israeli operations.

Iran also believes that Israel poisoned two Iranian scientists at the end of May who died within a few days after falling ill. Other Iranians linked to the IRGC or Iran’s military industry who died in recent months were labeled “martyrs” by Iranian authorities, suggesting they were killed.

Israel has a history of carrying out operations inside Iran in an attempt to sabotage diplomacy between Washington and Tehran. The latest string of attacks and Iran’s reported arrests come as talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, are stalled. Israel is an outspoken opponent of the agreement, and the recent operations could be an attempt to kill it for good.

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