New York Times Report Details Decades of Failed Efforts to Find Ron Arad

A comprehensive investigation by The New York Times has revealed new details about Israel's decades-long, ultimately unsuccessful search for navigator Ron Arad, who disappeared in Lebanon in 1986. The report, based on interviews with dozens of Israeli, Iranian, and American sources, challenges the long-held Israeli assumption that Arad was transferred to Iran or that Tehran knew his fate. Instead, intelligence assessments accumulated over the years suggested Arad may have died in Lebanon as early as 1988, yet intelligence agencies continued to operate under the suspicion of Iranian involvement.

The investigation highlights two covert operations where Israel abducted senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers to interrogate them about Arad's whereabouts. According to former U.S. officials, one of these interrogations resulted in the death of the abducted officer. Neither operation yielded information that resolved the mystery of Arad's disappearance.

In 1994, Israeli forces captured Mustafa Dirani in Lebanon, who claimed to have held Arad before he disappeared from his captors' care. Dirani later stated that Iranian Revolutionary Guards had taken Arad to Iran, a claim that divided Israeli intelligence. Some believed it, while others warned the information was coerced. Mossad official Rami Igra suspected Dirani was lying and believed Arad likely met his end in Lebanon.

Despite these doubts, the suspicion of Iranian involvement persisted. In 2004, as part of a prisoner exchange negotiation, Iran and Hezbollah conducted a joint search for Arad, concluding he likely died in 1988 in the Lebanese village of Nabi Sheet. However, Israeli intelligence interpreted Iran's participation as proof of its complicity. A 2005 Israeli intelligence report concluded Arad was abducted by the Revolutionary Guards, a conclusion later deemed likely erroneous by its co-author, Raz Zimmt.

The report also details the alleged 2006 abduction and killing of Ali Reza Asgari, a general in Iran's Quds Force, by Mossad agents. Former senior U.S. officials stated that Asgari was interrogated about Arad but no connection was found. Asgari's wife reported that Israeli intelligence drugged and abducted him.

Despite internal Israeli intelligence reviews in 2006 and later by Avi Kalo, head of the IDF's POW and MIA division, which concluded Arad likely died in Lebanon and was never held by Iran, these findings had little impact on decision-makers. Kalo presented his conclusions to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late 2016, recommending a focus on Nabi Sheet, but intelligence officials remained fixated on Iranian involvement.

Even after these assessments, Mossad conducted another operation in September 2021, abducting Abdollah Saberi, a Revolutionary Guard commander, in Damascus. Saberi was interrogated solely about Arad, but no breakthrough was achieved. He was later released in South Africa, claiming torture. The current prevailing assessment among those involved in the search is that Arad was never held in Iran and Tehran was not involved in his disappearance. Recent intelligence gathered during conflicts between Israel and Iran/Hezbollah has reinforced this conclusion. The focus of the search has now shifted back to Nabi Sheet, Lebanon, where Arad was initially held. The disappearance of former Lebanese security official Ahmed Shukar in December, suspected to be an Israeli abduction, has further complicated the case, with one theory suggesting Arad was executed in retaliation for the death of Shukar's brother in 1988. Israeli forces recently searched a local cemetery in Nabi Sheet for Arad's remains but found nothing. The search continues, now centered on Lebanon.