Iran now threatens to punish neighbors hosting "Zionist facilities"
Iran's intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi called his second news conference in two days inTehranTuesday, Jan. 11, to pour abuse on Israel and its spy agency and accuse them of trying to retard "scientific progress in Muslim nations." He went on to elaborate on his charge Sunday that Mossad was behind the killing of nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi last January with a display of handguns – one fitted with a silencer - allegedly seized from the suspects, of whom "more than 10" had been arrested.
He also exhibited communications and filming devices which he said Mossad had given its Iranian agents and a "sticky bomb" like the ones attached to the cars of two Iranian scientists attacked in Tehran last month.
Monday, Iran's state TV broadcast a purported confession by a young man identified as Majid Jamali who said he had undergone training at a Mossad facility in Israel on how to place bombs on cars.
The Iranian minister went on to warn "regional and neighboring countries that have interactions with Israel to pay attention that any facility they provide to the Zionist regime is considered against the region and the Islamic Republic." He said Israel-linked networks had set up bases in countries neighboring Iran. "We ... created intelligence bases next to them through which we could strike heavy blows against the group," he said.
debkafile's Iranian sources note that although Moslehi did not name those countries, implicit in his threat was an offer for them to join Iran in setting up a close-knit intelligence front against Israel, instead of risking Tehran's ire by providing the Zionists with facilities. Iranian media have noted that Israel maintains military and intelligence ties with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Qatar, all neighbors of Iran. The minister's threat to countries hosting Israeli facilities apparently referred to the electronic surveillance stations set up there for tracking the nuclear and military activity inside Iran as legitimate targets for one of its "heavy blows." It was the first blunt warning ever to come from Tehran against its neighbors in the Persian Gulf, the Caspian region, the Caucasian and Central Asia.
Of late, Iran has been progressively deepening its intelligence and military ties with Turkey and Qatar.
Monday, debkafile itemized the three-front intelligence campaign Iran has just launched against Israel. (click here for the full article). It is expected to keep going with a further spate of "revelations" about alleged Mossad operations in the country and try to draw a response from Jerusalem.
So far, Israel's Foreign Ministry and the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have declined to comment on the allegations.
Western intelligence sources told debkafile that Tehran would not have launched this offensive against Israeli intelligence unless it had enough incendiary material to cause Israel and its spy service serious strategic damage and embarrassment.
