Israeli spies ‘in Iran for years' before war on nuclear sites

Times

9 hours ago

Israel's spies infiltrated the heart of Iran's missile and nuclear programmes to wage years of covert intelligence-gathering and assess that Tehran's weapons-building infrastructure was far more extensive than previously thought.
Leaked intelligence documents shared with western allies, including the US and Britain, and seen by The Times, appeared to reveal the full extent of Iran's nuclear and missile ambitions. The conclusion of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, as well as other military intelligence arms, was that the capability, knowledge and components of the regime's development was racing ahead and it was far more extensive than just the main sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
An intelligence source told The Times on Friday that Israel had been monitoring multiple locations through intelligence agents for years, with each location having 'boots on the ground beforehand'. Israel began readying its attack on Iran from as early as 2010, based on intelligence about its accelerating weapons programme.
The documents were leaked amid conflicting reports over the damage to nuclear sites after the 12-day war. While President Trump said the Fordow site had been obliterated by so-called 'bunker buster' bombs, some experts suggest that residual stocks of enriched uranium and manufactured centrifuges may still be able to produce a nuclear weapon in the future. America also mounted attacks on Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.
Israel's military operation was based on intelligence that identified the production of centrifuges, instruments used to enrich uranium, at three sites in Tehran and Isfahan. All were attacked and destroyed by Israel during the conflict.
The attacks also focused on seven separate components in the Natanz facility, Iran's main enrichment site. Intelligence officers used spies on the ground to map the layout of Natanz, identifying overground and underground buildings which included piping, feeding and solidification of uranium. Israel also attacked the electricity infrastructure, a research and development building, the transformer station, and the generator structure to back up the electric grid. The attack also hit ventilation and cooling ducts.
As well as Natanz, Israel's reconnaissance infiltrated, attacked and destroyed a facility in Isfahan, the Nur and Mogdeh sites for calculation and labs, the Shariati military site, and the large hangar at Shahid Meisami which manufactured the plastic explosives used for testing nuclear weapons, as well as other advanced materials and chemicals. Many of these sites were set up by the SPND, an umbrella organisation led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian nuclear physicist who was assassinated in 2020 with a satellite-controlled machine gun — allegedly by Israel.
The documents also pointed to the infiltration of the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which was attacked in the later days of the war, and of nuclear sites such as the Sanjarian, which developed components involved in the creation of nuclear weapons, according to Israel. By the end of 2024, Iran had moved from the research stage of weaponisation to creating an advanced explosive and radiation system, running experiments and leading to nuclear capability 'within weeks', according to the report.
The scale and detail of the assessment points to years of intelligence gathering which may still be going on. 'You know they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,' Trump told reporters at the Nato summit in the Hague — suggesting that spies may yet remain on Iranian soil.
The depth of Israel's infiltration was revealed as early as 2010, when an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in broad daylight. Four others have since been assassinated. However, it was brought to the fore more recently with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, in July last year, when Mossad hired Iranian security agents to place explosive devices in several rooms of a guesthouse in Tehran.
Israeli intelligence also reportedly raised the prospect a few weeks ago of assassinating Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — something Trump made clear he was against.
Posting on Truth Social on Friday, Trump responded to Khamenei's recent claims Iran had given the US a 'big slap in the face', with the US leader saying he 'saved' the Supreme Leader from 'a very ugly and Ignominious death'.
'Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader', Ayatollah Ali Khamenei… say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie,' Trump said, adding he has 'dropped' work around sanctions relief in negotiations with Tehran as a result.
The intelligence documents seen by The Times show that Iran was aiming to produce dozens of long-range, surface-to-surface missiles a month, leading to up to 1,000 a year with a reported aim of a stock of 8,000 missiles. Experts estimate Iran began the war with some 2,000 to 2,500 ballistic missiles.
Agents in Iran visited every workshop and factory that were later attacked, enabling Israel to target 'the entire industry that supported the manufacturing of large amounts of missiles', according to an intelligence source cited in the documents, which added that the sites were both military and civilian in nature.
One such site was Muad Tarkivi Noyad in Rasht, located on the coast of the Caspian Sea, which operated under the auspices of the Iranian Aerospace Industry Organisation. According to Israeli intelligence, this produced all the carbon fibre needed to produce missiles. It too was destroyed by Israeli bombs.
MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AP
The dozens of locations and sites attacked in the last two weeks, including the Parchin military complex 30km southeast of Tehran, as well as sites for guidance, navigation and control of missiles and the production of warheads and engines needed to fly the missiles, reveal a complex production system that took decades to establish.
The scale of the infiltration of the Iranian regime has only served to increase paranoia in Tehran. Over the course of the 12 days of hostility, Iran arrested dozens of people suspected of spying. Efforts to hunt moles began after the assassination of Haniyeh, with IRGC members suspecting one another of security breaches. That was illustrated on Friday when Mossad, in a post on X, warned Iranians to stay away from IRGC officials and vehicles belonging to the regime.
Israel's methods of recruitment, including that of Iranian insiders, is a guarded secret, but has even prompted a popular spy thriller series, Tehran. One of Mossad's most famous heists within Iran was the seizure of Iranian nuclear archives from a giant safe in 2018. The top-secret documents were were later used as a basis to convince Trump to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Within the agreement, Iran would limit its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
• How badly damaged are Iran's nuclear sites and missiles?
Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, admitted on Thursday evening that the Israeli and American campaigns had done 'excessive and serious' damage to the country's nuclear facilities, without giving further details. Araghchi added that there had been 'no agreement' on upcoming nuclear talks with Washington.
'For decades, Israel has been observing activities inside Iran,' said Dr Efrat Sopher, an Iranian-Israeli analyst who chairs the Ezri Centre for Iran and Gulf States Research at the University of Haifa UK.
'Mossad has played a pivotal role in the success in thwarting the Iranian threat, where its successful operations vis-à-vis Iran and its proxies will be chronicled in the history books.'