Ex-Mossad deputy chief slams Netanyahu for failing to confront Iran nuclear threat

The former deputy head of Mossad has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to confront the Iranian nuclear threat and the coronavirus pandemic.

In excerpts of an interview with the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, published on Thursday, the recently retired official referred to only as “Alef” asserted: “The bottom line was poor management. I saw poor management,” regarding the Israeli government’s handling of the Iranian threat and the pandemic.

“Compare the coronavirus to the treatment of the Iranian nuclear programme: The amount of uranium Iran has accumulated, its regional spread – it’s bad. But the operations we carried out along the way? Amazing,” he said, referring to Mossad’s theft of the Iranian nuclear archives in 2018.

“Same with the coronavirus. Soon [the death toll will reach] 6,000 victims, but take a look at that vaccination campaign. Great, isn’t it?” he added.

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Alef confirmed that Israel had an overt and covert programme to pressure former US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, adding that Mossad undertook a series of actions to make it happen, while it “implemented the directive of the political echelon.”

“How do you dismantle [the nuclear deal]?. Obviously, if you manage to get the Americans out of the agreement, it will collapse until it is finally finished. We prepared accordingly, we started the moves and the archive was one of them,” Alef explained.

However, Alef has criticised the outcome, stating that the current situation was not an improvement.

“We have a situation where there is uranium enrichment in Fordo, there is work in Kashan, there is work in Natanz, they have accumulated 2.5 tonnes of enriched uranium, and now also the advanced centrifuge. We have a Democratic administration [in the US] and our situation is worse today than it was at the time of the nuclear deal. They did not stop their regional expansion for a second – they are producing missiles,” he concluded.

The full interview is expected to be published in full on Friday.

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