Former Mossad chief: ‘Iran lying to the whole world’
“The regime in Iran is the global financier of terrorism in the world. This regime calls for the obliteration of the State of Israel from the map,” former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said, as the Biden administration appears to be on the cusp of signing a renewed nuclear deal with Tehran.
Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen. (Yossi Zelliger)
Speaking on Monday at a conference initiated by the World Zionist Organization to mark the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in Basel with over 1,400 participants, Cohen pointed out that Iran is trying to surround Israel from the south in Gaza, through the north in Syria and Lebanon.
Iran “trains and finances terrorist organizations. The regime allows terrorist organizations to send thousands of missiles towards Israel,” he charged.
He shared that during his tenure as head of the Mossad, his agents “carried out many operations against the Iranian nuclear program, including in the heart of Iran.”
He further warned that the Iranian regime “is lying to the whole world and we proved it when we brought thousands of documents from the Iranian archives, documents that proved that the Iranians lied to the IAEA.”
In April 2018, Israel exposed Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program called Project Amad, and its nuclear archive, a trove of more than 100,000 documents obtained by the Mossad, which revealed that Iran was developing five nuclear warheads as early as 2003 while lying to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
However, while the talks about a nuclear agreement with Iran are taking place, Cohen said he “can guarantee that Israel will do everything necessary to delay and prevent the Iranians from building atomic bombs that would threaten the State of Israel.”
Israeli officials say that the nuclear agreement that is taking shape is a bad one, and Israel does not see itself committed to it and will continue to work for its security and curbing Iran’s nuclear efforts.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz held a briefing for the directors of leading think tanks in Washington on Friday, following his meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the latest Israeli attempt to influence the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran.
Gantz warned that “Iran has gained knowledge, infrastructure and capabilities – much of which is irreversible. This will enable Iran to further expand its nuclear program during the period of an agreement that would have fewer restrictions. Iran would be able to acquire a nuclear weapon when the said agreement would end in 2031.”
Gantz also discussed Iran’s production of thousands of advanced centrifuges, which if stored and not destroyed, will be readily available for enrichment once the agreement comes to an end, or in the case in which Iran chooses to withdraw from the agreement. He also noted the new advanced cascade at Fordow, where Iran can enrich uranium to weapons-grade 90% immediately, should it decide to do so.
“The common goal of Israel and the US is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and the way to do so is to take Iran back and to deter it. The agreement in discussion contains a number of problematic clauses. Iran has accumulated infrastructure, capabilities and knowledge. As such, improvements are necessary in the nuclear agreement in discussion – with an emphasis on the ‘sunset’ clause” when the term of the deal ends.
In any case, “Israel will continue to take action [to ensure the security of the State of Israel] regardless of any developments and to prevent Iran from achieving regional hegemony. Israel will continue to strengthen its military superiority,” Gantz declared.
Finally, Gantz touched on Iran’s heavy financing of its terror proxies in the Middle East.
“Iran provides over a billion USD to its proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza. Hezbollah, which harms Lebanon and threatens Israel, receives over half a billion USD per year. Iran also provides over 100 million USD per year to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. As such, regardless of any future scenarios, action must be taken against Iranian proxies, which threaten the entire Middle East region,” he said.
The world is now waiting for Iran’s response to the latest text of the nuclear deal. Iran is studying the US responses received via the European Union coordinator. The EU proposed a final text, which the Iranians commented on, the US responded to, and now the Iranians are studying again.
