Mossad scales back covert ops against Iran’s nuclear scientists: Report

In a report published on March 30, the Time magazine quoted unnamed senior security officials as saying that, operations have been reduced in areas such as high-profile missions, including assassinations and bomb attacks.

They added that Mossad is also cutting back on such operations as recruiting nuclear spies, and gathering on-the-ground intelligence.

According to one official, the reduction in intelligence missions has caused “increasing dissatisfaction” inside Mossad.

Some official sources have attributed the reduction to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reluctance as he is worried about the outcome of the operations being discovered.

The report added that the Iranian intelligence has already cracked a cell trained and equipped by the Mossad.

Western intelligence officials have confirmed that the detailed confession of Mossad agent, Majid Jamali Fashi, over the January 2010 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi was genuine. They blame a third country for exposing the cell.

The report added that Israeli officials have come to realize that the cost of anti-Iran operations is rising and that the US is no more willing to turn a blind eye to them.

After the most recent killing of nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan in January, the United States “categorically” denied involvement in the assassination and issued a condemnation.

Experts, the report said, argue that with the Iranian nuclear issue at the forefront of the international agenda, an embarrassing operation can undo the global front Washington has assembled against Tehran.

Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department nuclear proliferation specialist who opposes the assassinations said, “It undercuts the consensus; the international consensus on [anti-Iran] sanctions.”

The US and Israel accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear energy program and have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the “option” of a military strike.

Tehran refutes the claim as baseless, arguing that as a member of International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has every right to the peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

In November 2011, some of the US presidential hopefuls called for conducting covert operations ranging from assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists to launching a military strike on Iran as well as sabotaging Tehran's nuclear program.

The calls for assassinations have not been idle threats as a number of Iranian scientists have been assassinated in connection with the country’s nuclear energy program since November 2011.