Yossi Cohen var åpenbart en meget smart Mossad-sjef. Han har vært personlig rådgiver for Netanyahu og fulgt ham på viktige reiser. Han utelukker ikke en politisk karriere.

Nå har han gitt et åpenhjertig intervju til Kanal 12, mer åpenhjertig enn noen tidligere Mossad-sjef. Forklaringen er enkel: Israel vil gjerne sende Iran en beskjed: Iran kommer aldri til å få atombomben. Glem det. Hvis Iran ikke tar budskapet, vil prisen fortsette å stige.

Cohen sier at Israel har stått bak to eksplosjoner blant sentrifugene i undergrunnsanlegget i Natanz. Uansett hvor store anstrengelser Iran gjør: Anleggene er aldri utenfor Israels rekkevidde. Når noe er viktig nok, klarer Israel å løse oppgaven.

En atombombe i hendene på ayatollaher som har lovet å utslette Israel, er noe som aldri kommer til å skje. Israel har sendt mange «meldinger»:

Early in the more than an hour of conversations for journalist Ilan Dayan’s “Uvda” (Fact) documentary show on Israel’s Channel 12, Cohen indicated that he was deeply familiar with Iran’s various nuclear sites, and said that, if given the opportunity, he would take Dayan to the underground “celler” at Natanz, where, he said, “the centrifuges used to spin.”

“It no longer looks like it did?” Dayan asked.

“Indeed,” said Cohen.

“Unless they fixed it,” she said.

“It doesn’t look like it used to look,” insisted Cohen.

Intervjuet med Kanal 12 er for å gjøre det tydelig for iranerne at Israel aldri vil tillate dem å få bomben:

“We say very clearly [to Iran]: We won’t let you get nuclear weapons. What don’t you understand?”

Sentrifuger spinner med høy hastighet og må stå på solide fundament. Israel sørget for at det var støpt eksplosiver inn i marmorfundamentene.

“a huge quantity of explosives” were built into a marble platform used to balance the centrifuges. “The man who was responsible for these explosions, it becomes clear, made sure to supply to the Iranians the marble foundation on which the centrifuges are placed,” Dayan said. “As they install this foundation within the Natanz facility, they have no idea that it already includes a huge quantity of explosives.”

Israel har gjort mange slike triks mot Iran, som ikke ser ut til å lære. Israel er på et nivå som Iran ikke kan forestille seg.

Det største kuppet var da Israel raidet arkivet over Irans hemmelige atomprogram i Teheran. Det var en dristig operasjon som kunne gått galt. De hadde syv timer på seg til å komme seg inn i hvelvene der materialet var oppbevart. Interessant nok var det ingen israelere med i operasjonen.

Materialet ble overført digitalt i sanntid, for man var ikke sikker på om man ville klare å få det med seg ut.

“We understood they were secretly storing their nuclear secrets — things we didn’t know… I decided we needed to see what the Iranians are planning for us,” Cohen said, “and I told my people to prepare to bring this home” because it would potentially show “the wider picture” of the Iranian program.

Twenty Mossad agents were involved on the ground — none of them Israeli nationals, said Dayan.

Mossad built a replica of the site, learned all about the containers holding the material, and knew how the containers were arranged, Cohen indicated. “We had a certain problem” on the night itself, said Cohen, regarding “something we recognized” that had apparently changed, but the decision was taken to proceed as planned.

Cohen said they knew they had seven hours maximum at the site — “after that trucks and guards and workers” would arrive and “you can’t be jumping off fences and bursting through walls.”

The team neutralized alarms, removed the warehouse doors, and reportedly opened 32 safes holding the material. Opening safes like those takes “more than minutes for each,” Cohen said.

Dayan indicated that Mossad had numerous decoy trucks driving around the Tehran area to throw the Iranians off the scent of the single truck bringing the 50,000 documents and 163 discs out of Iran over land, and Cohen did not deny this.

He said the Iranians knew by the morning that the warehouse had been emptied, and all exit points from the country were closed. “We knew they’d chase us,” he said. “We’d taken their most sensitive secrets.” Because of concerns that the material might not make it out, much of it was transferred digitally to Tel Aviv before the truck crossed the border, Dayan revealed.

Israel har over tid eliminert flere av Irans atomteknikere. Det største kuppet var da de eliminerte sjefen for det hemmelige programmet, Fakhrizadeh, i november 2020. Det er ingen som tviler på hvem som sto bak. Fakhrizadeh ble drept med et fjernstyrt tungt maskingevær som selvdestruerte da operasjonen var gjennomført.

Israel har forsøkt å sende meldinger til iranske atomfysikere: «Skift beite, finn på noe annet.»

Cohen does not take responsibility for a specific operation, but reveals, for the first time, the behind-the-scenes. “If the scientist is willing to change career”, Cohen explains, “and will not hurt us anymore, than yes, sometimes we offer them.”

Did you ever approach an Iranian scientist – I just give an example – and he understood who was approaching him and says: ‘Dear friend, perhaps you want to become a piano teacher?”

“Yes.”

Do they understand the alternative?

“They see their friends.”

In stunning, revelatory interview, ex-Mossad chief warns Iran, defends Netanyahu