Former Mossad Chief Says Iran Nuclear Archive Raid Was Rehearsed in Africa

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has revealed new details about the January 2018 operation that obtained Iran’s nuclear archive, saying the agency prepared for the raid by building a full-scale replica of the archive warehouse in Africa. In an interview with the French magazine L’Express, Cohen described the area as a discreet “mini Tehran” used because Israel was under constant surveillance and needed a hidden training site.

Cohen said that from the moment he took office, he ordered his teams to track Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whom he called the father of Iran’s military nuclear program. To penetrate the heavily secured facility in Tehran and remove half a ton of documents and data, Mossad needed what he called surgical preparation.

According to Cohen, dozens of Mossad agents broke into the archive without setting off alarms or alerting Iranian authorities for 6 hours and 29 minutes, and remained undetected for about two hours after leaving. The team carried out entire shelves of original nuclear documents and all members escaped unharmed.

Cohen said he flew to Africa several times to oversee the training. Mossad also bought giant safes identical to those in Iran and imported guard dogs of the same breed so agents could practice neutralizing them. He said about 800 people were involved in the overall operation. The archive raid later helped push then U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran after the operation’s results were revealed in spring 2018.