Assassinations have not slowed Tehran’s nuclear plan, says Israeli official

New details have emerged about Mossad’s long campaign of sabotage and assassination, aimed at keeping Tehran in check.

The damaged car of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh after it was attacked near Tehran in 2020. Picture: AFP

Mossad’s assassination of the brigadier in charge of Iran’s nuclear program a year ago did little to hinder its development, an Israeli official has admitted, as the country’s “direct action” campaign against Tehran is increasingly debated.

The “senior official”, who spoke to Israeli television on condition of anonymity, was discussing the choices the country faces as talks in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program remain deadlocked.

Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Picture: AFP

Israel has threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear sites if it believes it is about to build a nuclear weapon. But over the past 15 years it has depended on a campaign of sabotage and assassination, openly discussed but never admitted.

The official who spoke to Israel’s Channel 12 was not the first analyst to cast doubt on these efforts, but was the first from inside the Israeli government to suggest the shooting of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh with a satellite-controlled machine gun had not been the triumph it was first considered.

“The killing of Fakhrizadeh did not brake Iran’s progress,” he said. “The current situation is the most advanced that Iran has ever reached.”

Last week The New York Times reported that US officials also warned that Israel’s campaign against Iran had been “counter-productive”.

As well as killing at least four nuclear scientists in the past 12 years, Israel is believed to have sabotaged nuclear facilities with explosives, drones and malware.

The campaign had encouraged Iran to “build back better”, the US officials were reported to have said.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani and Fakhrizadeh. Picture: AFP

The killing of Fakhrizadeh, who oversaw all aspects of the nuclear program and was also a deputy defence minister, has not stopped Iran speeding up its uranium enrichment program.

President Raisi has been taking a much harder line than that of his predecessor, President Rouhani, in the talks, which resumed on Monday.

When the talks broke off for Iran’s presidential election in June, they were said to be close to agreement.

Iran and the US have agreed in principle to return to the terms of the 2015 deal torn up by President Trump which would reinstate severe limits on the nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions reimposed by Trump.

However, the Iranians are now demanding compensation for economic losses and a guarantee that the US will not pull out of the deal again. The US wants the deal to be followed by negotiations on Iran’s regional policies.

This year Iran has already enriched uranium to 60 per cent purity, well above the 20 per cent it had reached before the 2015 deal and closer the 90 per cent necessary to make a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli establishment is said to be debating an attack on Iran’s facilities, and its air force has a $1.5 billion budget to prepare for the possibility.

The Times