Mossad Abducted Iranian Generals in Bid to Find Ron Arad
Translated & summarized from JDN by baba
A New York Times investigation reveals Israel's intelligence community now believes navigator Ron Arad died in Lebanon in 1988, not Iran. This conclusion followed the Mossad's abduction and interrogation of two Iranian generals, Ali-Reza Asgari and Abdullah Sabri, who provided no information on Arad's whereabouts in Iran. The current assessment suggests Arad was executed in Nabi Sheet as retaliation. Recent efforts in March 2026 to find his remains in Lebanon are ongoing.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Israel now believes Ron Arad died in Lebanon in 1988, not Iran, after decades of investigation.
- The Mossad abducted two Iranian generals, Ali-Reza Asgari and Abdullah Sabri, for information on Arad.
- Asgari was interrogated on a yacht and then killed, while Sabri was abandoned in South Africa.
- A 2004 report by Iran and Hezbollah also indicated Arad died and was buried in Lebanon.
- Recent IDF searches in March 2026 at a Nabi Sheet cemetery failed to locate Arad's remains.
A new investigation, timed with the 40th anniversary of navigator Ron Arad's capture, reveals that Israel's intelligence community drastically shifted its understanding of his fate. The prevailing assessment in Israel today is that Arad was never held in Iran, that Tehran and Hezbollah were not involved in his disappearance, and that he was killed in 1988 in Nabi Sheet, Lebanon. This conclusion stems from a "confirmation bias" within the Israeli security system, which for decades believed Iran held Arad, partly based on a 1992 Iranian doctor's testimony and a 1994 interrogation of Mosaddegh Derani.
In an effort to gain crucial information, the Mossad conducted two daring operations to abduct senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers. One operation involved the abduction of former Iranian deputy defense minister General Ali-Reza Asgari from an Istanbul hotel. Former senior U.S. officials revealed that Mossad agents kidnapped him, interrogated him for weeks aboard a yacht about Arad's whereabouts, then killed him and dumped his body in the Black Sea when no information was obtained.
Another operation targeted General Abdullah Sabri, a senior officer in the Quds Force who had previously led searches for Arad in Lebanon. According to the report, Mossad agents ambushed Sabri during a morning run in Damascus, placed him in a large refrigerator carton, and smuggled him out for extensive interrogation. After weeks where his interrogators focused solely on Ron Arad, Sabri was abandoned on a street in Johannesburg, South Africa, with minimal funds and a phone number for the Iranian embassy.
Sabri's interrogation confirmed intelligence assessments that even the senior Iranian official responsible for the case had no information about Arad being in Iran. This aligned with minority views held within the Shin Bet and Aman (including Yuval Diskin, Rami Igra, and IDF Colonel (res.) Avi Kalo), and a 2004 secret report by Iran and Hezbollah, conveyed via the son of then-Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani to German intelligence. This report stated Arad died and was buried in Nabi Sheet in 1988.
Sources close to former Mossad chief David Barnea stated that after the Sabri operation, he ordered his agents to "shred" all intelligence gathered over decades based on the Iranian theory, and to focus efforts exclusively on Lebanon. The current Israeli assessment is that Ron Arad was executed in Nabi Sheet in retaliation for the death of a Lebanese fighter in a clash with IDF forces in 1988. In ongoing efforts to resolve the case, retired security officer Ahmed Shukr, who was involved in guarding Arad, disappeared from his home in Lebanon in December 2025. Three months later, in March 2026, IDF forces raided the cemetery in Nabi Sheet, digging at a grave in an attempt to locate Arad's remains, with searches in Lebanon still ongoing.
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