Tehran, December 11, 2025 – A high-ranking Iranian military official has directly blamed the Mossad for the assassination of prominent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, stating that the perpetrators were recruited within Iran and trained intensively abroad. According to Major General Ebrahim Jabbari, a military advisor to the regime, the attackers underwent three 21-day training cycles, with the Israeli intelligence service investing around 25,000 euros per recruit. The operation did not involve the direct entry of foreign commandos but rather the activation of a network of local collaborators who, after training abroad, returned to carry out the ambush against Fakhrizadeh. In that attack, a remotely operated machine-gun-equipped vehicle opened fire on his convoy, an operation widely attributed to Israel by Iranian authorities. In 2025, following the Israeli offensive on nuclear and missile facilities in Iran—identified as Operation Rising Lion—Tehran intensified arrests and executions for alleged espionage. Intelligence analysts warn that while such claims are not far-fetched, they require robust proof—documentation of trainings, people's transfers, international surveillance—which is difficult to obtain in a scenario heavily shrouded in state secrecy. The new narrative disseminated by Tehran heightens tension in an already marked atmosphere of mutual distrust, covert attacks, and an escalation of violence and retaliation between Iran and Israel. However, some human rights organizations and international observers warn that many of the detainees were convicted through opaque judicial processes based on confessions that may have been extracted under torture, casting doubt on the validity of the evidence presented by the regime. Meanwhile, the narrative of an assassination carried out by internally trained collaborators rather than directly infiltrated agents could further complicate Iran's situation: while it allows for the expansion of a persistent external threat narrative, it also highlights the degree of penetration that the Mossad—or at least according to the official version—has in Iranian society. No independent verification of Jabbari's version has yet emerged from the West.
