Mossad Kidnapped Iranian Generals in Search for Missing Israeli Navigator
Translated & summarized from Arab48 by baba
Mossad abducted two Iranian generals, Abdullah Sabri and Ali Reza Askari, over the past 20 years in an attempt to locate missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad. Interrogations of Askari, who was killed by Mossad agents according to former U.S. officials, yielded no information about Arad. Current Israeli intelligence assessments indicate Iran was not involved in Arad's disappearance, a shift from previous beliefs.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Mossad abducted two Iranian generals, Abdullah Sabri and Ali Reza Askari, over two decades in search of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad.
- Ali Reza Askari was interrogated for weeks by Mossad agents about Ron Arad's disappearance before being killed, according to former U.S. officials.
- Abdullah Sabri was abducted in Damascus in September 2021 and interrogated solely about Ron Arad's fate.
- New Israeli intelligence suggests Iran was not involved in the capture or disappearance of Ron Arad.
- The search for Ron Arad, whose plane crashed in 1986, is currently focused on Lebanon.
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad abducted two Iranian generals from Syria and Turkey over the past two decades in an effort to locate missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad. One of the abducted generals was Abdullah Sabri, and the other was Ali Reza Askari, who disappeared in Istanbul in 2006.
According to former U.S. officials cited in a New York Times report, Mossad agents interrogated Askari for weeks about his potential connection to Arad's disappearance. Arad's aircraft was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The interrogations yielded no results, and the report states that Mossad agents killed Askari, with one official claiming his body was dumped into the Black Sea.
Neither general possessed information regarding Arad's fate, and the ongoing search for him is concentrated in Lebanon. Sabri was abducted in September 2021 while jogging in Damascus's diplomatic quarter. Mossad agents, disguised as transport workers, bypassed a security checkpoint and seized Sabri near the Iranian embassy before forcibly taking him to Israel.
Iranian officials confirmed that Sabri, who held senior positions in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was questioned solely about Arad. Despite past Israeli certainty about Iran's involvement in Arad's disappearance, recent Israeli intelligence reports suggest Iran was not involved in his capture. This revised assessment is supported by intelligence gathered during the recent war in Lebanon, indicating that Iran did not detain Arad at any point.
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