Mossad hired Iranian agents to plant explosives that killed Haniyeh: Report

LONDON: The Mossad spy agency enlisted agents from within the Revolutionary Guards to plant explosives in the Tehran guesthouse where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was staying, according to a Saturday article in The Telegraph and amid reports authorities in Tehran were carrying out a series of arrests in connection with the killing.

The Telegraph cited two Iranian officials as saying that the initial plan was to assassinate Haniyeh when he was in Tehran in May for the funeral of the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash. That operation was reportedly called off due to the large number of people in the building and the seemingly high possibility of failure.

Instead, according to the British daily, the agents went ahead and planted explosives in three different rooms at the compound, and later left Iran. The sources quoted in the report said surveillance footage shows them moving discretely from room to room. They reportedly detonated the bombs from abroad.

“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi security unit,” an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the newspaper, referring to a unit tasked with protecting senior officials.

Another IRGC official was quoted as saying: “It is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.” The IRGC runs the guesthouse in an upscale neighborhood of Tehran where Haniyeh and other dignitaries were staying.

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“It’s still a question for everyone how this happened, I can’t understand it. There must be something higher in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the official added, noting that a team was working on a spin that would paint the attack as a lesser security breach.

Both Iranian and Hamas officials have claimed that Haniyeh was killed by a missile fired from the air, even launched from outside the country. But asked about the killing on Thursday, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Israeli military did not carry out any other airstrike overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday aside from the assassination of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

“We struck on Tuesday night in Lebanon and killed Fuad Shukr in an accurate aerial strike. I want to emphasize, there was no other aerial strike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night, and I won’t comment further,” Hagari said during a press conference.

The official also told The Telegraph that addressing the security breach was more important to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei than seeking revenge, though he reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel hours after the explosion.

The Revolutionary Guards Corps’ specialized intelligence unit for espionage has taken over the investigation and was hunting down suspects that it hopes will lead it to members of the assassin team that planned, aided and carried out the killing, two Iranian officials told.

The Telegraph report also suggested that the killing was purposely timed to coincide with the swearing-in ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend, to besmirch the new premier’s reputation.

“No intact brain can accept that this happened by accident, especially on Mr. Pezeshkian’s first day in office,” a source close to Pezeshkian was quoted as saying. “He may have to go to war with Israel within his first few days in office, and it’s all because of the IRGC.”