JERUSALEM: While Israeli fighter jets bomb targets across Iran, the country’s Mossad spy agency has stepped up efforts to reach ordinary Iranians, in a push to identify people willing to help bring down the Islamic republic.
Israel and the United States launched a massive attack against Iran on February 28, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and igniting a regional war that has seen Tehran launch missiles and drones at Gulf countries and Israel.
Israel’s intelligence prowess has proven instrumental in this war, with its military hunting down other key figures in the Iranian leadership over recent days.
While pounding the country alongside the US, Israeli leaders have repeatedly addressed the Iranian people, who just weeks before the war erupted had come together in a huge protest movement that authorities quelled with a brutal crackdown.
On December 24, weeks before the war began, a new Persian-language Mossad channel appeared on Telegram. A link to the channel appears on the agency’s official website, confirming its authenticity, alongside links to recruitment accounts on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
A pinned message reads in Persian: “Welcome! If you have made it here, you probably want to get in touch with us. We are pleased about that. There is a good chance we can work together and achieve our common goals.”
The message is followed by step-by-step instructions on how Iranians can safely contact the agency, via a Telegram post or Mossad’s website.
Israel is also looking for assets elsewhere, with planes dropping propaganda leaflets over Lebanon during its war with Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. Leaflet drops for asset recruitment and propaganda warfare has also been used in Gaza.
Mossad’s channel, which has around 48,000 subscribers, posted a message on March 6 encouraging Iranians to send intelligence information from inside the country. “Keep sending your field reports. You are the narrator of the truth. We will continue until victory!” it said.
