An Iranian Mossad agent, who was among those on the ground in Iran carrying out preemptive attacks as Israel launched strikes to destroy Iranian nuclear sites last year, described his actions and how he came to work for the spy agency in an interview with Israeli television.
The man, whose name was kept secret, spoke to Channel 12’s investigative show “Uvda” for a report aired Thursday evening.
He spoke of his motivation in volunteering to become a Mossad agent, visits to israel, and what happened on June 13, 2025, when Israel hit out at what it said was an immediate, existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear development program.
In the early hours of June 13, as Israeli warplanes were sent to strike Iran, a wave of rocket and drone attacks, launched from within Iran, destroyed key air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, and targeted senior Iranian military figures, as well as nuclear scientists.
The attacks paved the way for the airstrikes that followed, and hampered Iran’s ability to instantly launch a missile and drone counterattack, tho those would come in the following days.
The agent, identified in the show by the alias “Arash,” was heavily disguised to prevent any possibility of being recognized. Uvda did not specify where the interview was held, saying only that it was filmed before the recent internal anti-regime protests in Iran starting in late December.
Arash, who uvda reported is around 40-years-old, said he first became uncomfortable with the Iranian regime when he started school and was immediately indoctrinated with hatred for Israel and the US. one night, when he was 11, his seventeen-year-old sister was arrested and beaten for not wearing a hijab. His father paid for her release, but the incident was enough to make the family leave Iran for an unidentified Western country.
But Arash was left with a deep desire, he said, to act against the regime in Iran and hel
Israel Developed Plan to Infiltrate and Destroy Iranian Fordo Nuclear Facility
Israel spent years developing a highly complex operation to destroy Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment plant from within, according to former Mossad chiefs Yossi Cohen and Tamir Pardo. The plan, which was never executed, aimed to bypass the facility’s defenses – buried deep under a mountain – which rendered it safe from airstrikes.
The 12-day war following the initial planning stages saw Israel launch attacks on Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile sites, with Iran responding with missile barrages targeting Israeli military sites and cities. However, Fordo remained untouched.
Cohen, who led the Mossad from 2016-2021, described the proposed operation as “would have been the greatest operation in the history of the country.” Pardo, Mossad chief from 2011-2016, also contributed to the planning.
Israel first became aware of activity at Fordo in 2010,prompting the Mossad to begin formulating the ambitious plan. Concerns regarding the operation included the substantial resources needed, its intricate nature, the synchronization of multiple activities, the large number of agents required, and the logistics of extracting those agents from Iran after the attack. The Mossad reportedly prioritized using its own operatives over foreign recruits.
