Former Mossad Chief Reveals Details of Iran and Hezbollah Infiltration, and the Assassination of Soleimani and Mugniyeh

SadaNews - Yossi Cohen, the former head of Israel's Mossad who ended his term a few years ago, revealed that the security operation to infiltrate Iran began in the early 2000s, which he described as having achieved astonishing successes.

According to Cohen, who was central to the recent operations in his recently published book titled "The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad, and the Secret War", Israel at that time had information that Pakistan and North Korea were providing nuclear expertise to Tehran. Therefore, the former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, appointed a commander for a new unit aimed at uncovering and eliminating the Iranian nuclear project and the ballistic missile production project.

He indicated that this unit discovered details regarding Iran's support for organizations and arms such as "Hezbollah", "Hamas", and "Islamic Jihad". The first task was to insert surveillance devices and equipment into the heart of "Hezbollah" (some of which were used in the 2006 war) and into Iran itself, as well as using cyber weapons against the Iranians and their allies.

He stated that this unit was able to monitor the activities of several military leaders and atomic scientists, putting together a file on each of them that included the most precise details about their habits, daily behavior, and the places they frequented.

Cohen is considered the architect of these missions, noting himself that he proposed several times to initiate an attack on Iran and/or on "Hezbollah", but successive Israeli army chiefs opposed his proposal one after the other. He mentions that Netanyahu, the Prime Minister at the time, aligned with the chiefs of staff to abort the attack, claiming it could lead to a war in which several buildings in Israeli cities would be destroyed.

Elsewhere in the book, Cohen criticizes Netanyahu for reaching a truce with "Hamas" in 2014, saying: "At that time, a decision should have been made to eliminate it." However, Cohen gives Netanyahu a major gift by absolving him from responsibility for the failure on October 7, 2023, placing the blame on the security agency leaders.

Regarding the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the "Quds Force" in the Iranian "Revolutionary Guard", Cohen states that he presented a detailed plan for it that was endorsed by all intelligence chiefs, but Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi objected, and Netanyahu supported him, asking Cohen to inform the Americans. President Donald Trump (during his first term) was furious about Netanyahu's decision. CIA Director Gina Haspel also expressed her discontent to Cohen, stating (as she reportedly said): "Your generals are like our generals; they don’t like to fight."

Cohen recounted: "I made an urgent visit to the United States and provided them with an abundance of information about Soleimani. I referred to him as 'the little prince', and the Americans chose this name for the assassination operation. After its success (in January 2020), I was awarded a medal of appreciation by the Americans. During the 12-day war in June 2025, the Iranians took revenge by bombing my house in Tel Aviv."

Concerning that war, Cohen says it led to the destruction of Iranian air defense capabilities, "the proof being that it did not fire upon the attacking Israeli planes, and the destruction of the majority of enriched uranium and specialized enrichment reactors, achieving deterrence. Today, Iran is no longer invulnerable and knows that Israel and the United States have freed themselves from the fear of attacking it." However, he wonders why a decision has not yet been made in Tel Aviv or Washington to overthrow the "Mullah regime". In a single sentence, without details, he states that the last war missed the opportunity to bring down the Iranian regime.

In his book, specifically in the sixth chapter, Yossi Cohen recounts how he recruited a Lebanese agent for the Mossad who was close to Imad Mughniyeh, who was the operations chief in "Hezbollah". He says he focused on "an educated person from the old militants in Lebanon" who was twenty years older than him. For the purposes of writing, he refers to him by the alias "Abdullah". He was very close to the party. Cohen discovered that the man was looking for a secure economic future for himself in Latin America.

As a precaution, he met him the first time unarmed, but he carried a gun in their second meeting, then attached a remote observer to follow his movements as if he were a researcher monitoring a laboratory rat. It became clear to him that Abdullah's affiliation with "Hezbollah" was ideological, stemming from his religious doctrine and his belief that he was protecting Lebanon, "which is highly coveted."

The timeline was in the early 1990s. The cover chosen by Mossad officer Yossi Cohen for himself was that he was an Argentine businessman searching for a partner to work on a business project in the Middle East. After several meetings, during which Cohen felt that the man liked him and trusted him, he proposed they become partners.

After several meetings, he brought up an offer about the nature of the work, saying there was a company offering them a job to conduct an investigation into "Hezbollah" for a substantial amount of money. At first, Abdullah flatly refused the task and cut off contact with Cohen for several days. But unexpectedly he returned and informed him of his acceptance. They visited Israel together, touring Tel Aviv, and Abdullah did not know that his Argentine partner was a Mossad officer.

The main mission was to determine the fate of the two Israeli soldiers, Rahmim Sheikh and Yossi Finak, who fell into the hands of "Hezbollah" after being ambushed by the party in 1986. Bernd Schmid Lauer, the security advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, was mediating between Israel and "Hezbollah" for a deal regarding them.

"Hezbollah" refused to disclose whether they were dead or alive, and requested a large number of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for them. Abdullah succeeded in bringing back the certainty that they had died from their injuries. This dramatically changed the "price of the deal". At that point, Cohen realized that Abdullah was a very valuable catch; he had excellent connections, high capabilities, and was committed to the role.

But the most important development occurred in the following months and years; Abdullah managed to gather astonishing information about Imad Mughniyeh, who was wanted in 42 countries around the world, with the United States offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture due to his responsibility for the deaths of many Americans in Lebanon. Israel was interested in eliminating him.

Cohen does not speak much about the details of this operation, which took place in 2008 in Damascus, where he was assassinated by a car bomb. However, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted in 2024 that his government was responsible for the operation, and that a Mossad cell was the one that devised and executed the plan in partnership with American intelligence.