Iran thwarts Mossad plot targeting its missile manufacturing industry

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
31 Aug 2023 19:15

The Intelligence Department of Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics says the extensive Mossad plot to target its defense industry was being monitored from the start.

This frame grab from video footage released Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, by Iranian state television's IRINN network shows what officials described as faulty foreign parts that could be used in a missile or a drone. (IRINN via AP)

A plot aimed against Iran's defense infrastructure, designed by the Israeli Mossad, was foiled according to the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.

A source at the department told national Iranian TV that "Over the past months, a completely professional network had plotted to bring faulty and equipped pieces into the supply chain of the production line of advanced missiles in the missile industries of the defense ministry through the cooperation of some infiltrating elements," adding that the network "fell in a trap spread by the intelligence forces at the defense ministry and it was dismantled."

Moreover, the source reaffirmed that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, intended through the faulty parts, to "turn the produced missiles into an explosive tool to hit industrial lines and employees working in that field."

Significantly, the source further confirmed that the plot was "completely neutralized" and that the agents involved were all detained given that "despite the very complicated plot designed by the Zionist enemy, this action of the enemy was under intelligence and operational monitoring from the very beginning."

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry dismantles Israeli-terror cells

Late last night, several terrorist groups linked to the Israeli entity were announced by Iran's Intelligence Ministry to have been dismantled.

In a statement, the ministry reported that the "sabotage cells" were part of a large "Zionist-terrorist" network that carried out various operations in Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Kermanshah, and Sistan and Baluchestan.

The announcement detailed the arrest of 14 terrorists in four provinces by Intelligence Ministry agents and the confiscation of 43 strong ready-to-detonate explosives.

According to the Ministry of Interior, two "fully armed and well-equipped" terrorists were apprehended earlier this month in Khuzestan Province, with 382 varieties of homemade explosives, bomb-making tools, and chemical chemicals, as well as 65 incendiary bombs.

Two more terrorists carried out other false-flag operations in the western province of Kermanshah and supplied footage to the commanders of the terrorist cells headquartered in Denmark and the Netherlands.

The terrorists apprehended by Iran's Intelligence Ministry were allegedly plotting strikes against the country's police and law enforcement.

The Iranian judiciary has issued criminal charges against the three principal terrorists engaged in the recent fatal terrorist attack on the Shah Cheragh shrine in Iran's southern city of Shiraz.

The statement emphasized that the terrorists utilized Telegram, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter as their primary social media platforms and that they had media connections with broadcasters such as Iran International and BBC Persian.

The Ministry explained that the terrorist groups' bases were located in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark and that ISIS operators were also stationed in Afghanistan, with particular gangs operating from Pakistan.