June 12, 2021: Yossi Cohen gave details about the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive.The warehouse raid in 2018 ferried tens of thousands of documents out of the country to Israel.He also hinted at Israeli involvement in the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, and the assassination of a nuclear scientist
Mr Cohen retired as head of Mossad last week. He spoke to journalist Ilan Dewan on Channel 12’s Yoda documentary, which aired Thursday night on Israeli television. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Mr Cohen chief of Mossad in late 2015. He joined the agency in 1982 after studying at a university in London, and told the program that he had “hundreds” of passports throughout his career. The most revealing moment of the interview was about the theft of Iran’s nuclear stockpile.
Mr Netanyahu revealed the stolen files at a 2018 press conference, proving that Iran had once secretly tried to build a nuclear weapon and kept the information secret – Iran Denied the allegations. Mr Cohen said in an interview that the operation took two years to plan. A total of 20 Mossad agents were involved on the ground, said journalist Ilan Dayan. None of them were Israeli citizens
The intelligence chief was watching the operation from a command center in Tel Aviv. The agents broke into a warehouse and had to break into more than 30 safes, he said. “There was amazing excitement for all of us,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. He added that all the workers survived the attack and were fine, although some had to be expelled from Iran.
Israel has spoken openly about taking tens of thousands of documents. But Mr Cohen also pointed to Mossad’s long-running involvement in other rumors that it was the work of Israeli agents. At the beginning of the interview, Mr. Cohen spoke about Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz. Iran says the sabotage set fire to a uranium enrichment site in July 2020. A day after the new equipment was unveiled in April this year, officials reiterated that it had been sabotaged and severely damaged. Iran has accused Israel of “nuclear terrorism.”
Mr Cohen told Ms Dayan he knew the site well, and could take it to the box where “spinning centrifuges are located”. He then added: “The ones that used to move around. Nowadays, the basement doesn’t look like it used to.”
And he also spoke about Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Iran’s top nuclear scientist was assassinated on a road outside Tehran last November – an attack Iran publicly blamed on Israel.
The ex-Mossad chief did not confirm or deny involvement in the death. But he said the scientist was a target “for many years”, adding that his scientific knowledge concerned the agency.
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