Israel’s Not-so-Secret Plan to Target Tehran and Prevent Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

On the evening of January 31, 2018, a group of Mossad officers entered a hidden warehouse on the outskirts of Tehran and took with them an archive containing tens of thousands of highly confidential documents detailing the Islamic Republic’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

The book “Target Tehran” by Yona Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar was published in September 2023 by Simon & Schuster and discusses how Israel has hindered the Islamic Republic’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons through sabotage, cyber warfare, and diplomacy, resulting in a change in Middle East policy.

The book has recently been listed as one of the top six political books of 2023 by The Wall Street Journal. The following is an interview with the authors conducted by The Times of Israel.

Bob, a senior military correspondent and literary editor for The Jerusalem Post, and Evyatar, the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Report, had access to former Mossad chiefs, several Israeli prime ministers, many current and former intelligence officers, and officials of the Trump and Biden administrations while writing this book.

Evyatar, in response to a question about the planning for the document theft operation in Tehran, said that the planning took two years, and Mossad had precise information about the building. When they entered, they knew exactly which safes to go to, how much time they had, and where the guards were. The group had exactly 6.5 hours to find the documents, load them onto a truck, and escape.

The Jerusalem Post continues to mention the killing of activists in the nuclear and missile field of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the sabotage at nuclear facilities, questioning why the Islamic Republic’s reaction to Israel’s attacks has been so weak. Evyatar said that the Islamic Republic tried to retaliate but Israel had thwarted 27 Islamic Republic attacks. Even the Islamic Republic had tried to harm Israeli traders in Cyprus. But currently, Mossad is one step ahead of the Islamic Republic.

Evyatar also emphasized the importance of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killing, who was a key figure in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and had comprehensive organizational information. Many say that the impact of his assassination on the Islamic Republic was as significant as the killing of Qasem Soleimani.

The Jerusalem Post further mentions the killing of Qasem Soleimani and asks if Mossad had any involvement in this operation, such as providing information to the United States. Bob replied that Israel certainly had several ways of intervening and the former head of Israeli military intelligence had confirmed that the information Israel acquired convinced America to take action to eliminate Soleimani.

They have also mentioned in their book that “Israeli intelligence had provided several mobile phone numbers for the CIA to track Soleimani” and raised the possibility that Israeli and American intelligence agencies had recruited individuals associated with the airline that Soleimani flew with.

Evyatar added that Israel’s assistance in killing Soleimani was not sudden or unexpected. He was a major enemy of Israel and his main strategy was to create a “ring of fire” around Israel, primarily through the smuggling of advanced weapons, especially rockets and missiles, for Islamic Republic proxy forces in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. So, his removal was beneficial for Israel.

The Jerusalem Post refers to the Abraham Accords and asks if the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the short and medium term affects Israel’s relations with the signatories of the Abraham Accords. Evyatar said that despite the Gaza war, Israel’s relations with the signatory countries remained strong. Although the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain publicly condemned Israel’s operations in Gaza.

Bob said that in the short term, Israel’s attention may have shifted from the Islamic Republic, but in the medium and long term, if the Islamic Republic seeks to cross the nuclear threshold, Israel is probably more prepared than ever to attack Iran.

The Jerusalem Post refers to an article in the Financial Times, which quoted a senior Islamic Republic diplomat as saying that he is not eager to see an expansion of the Hamas-Israel conflict. However, he warned Washington that if Israel continues its attacks on Gaza, regional engagement would be inevitable, and asks how to interpret these ambivalent statements.

Evyatar said that the Islamic Republic, as explained in the book, is delusional. The Islamic Republic, facing a strong American presence in the region and one of its proxy forces, Hamas, on the verge of losing power, has no desire to engage in direct conflict. The more important question is whether Israel will respond to the Islamic Republic’s support for Hamas and its use of Hezbollah and the Houthis to attack Israel, and if so, how?