TEHRAN - After a relatively long period of silence on Israel’s acts of sabotage, the Iranian authorities dropped a new bombshell, indicating that a huge intelligence war had been raging on behind the scenes.  

Over the last year, there have been very scant announcements about potential acts of sabotage by Israel. While Iran’s progress in sensitive areas continued unabated, the silence from Israel and Iran was noticeable. 

But this deafening silence was loudly broken on Thursday. 

Iran’s defense ministry released a statement on Thursday detailing how it had managed to foil an attack by Israel’s foreign spy agency, Mossad, on its missiles program. 

“The Ministry of Defense has successfully neutralized an industrial sabotage plan by the Mossad, the Zionist regime's espionage service, aimed at Iran’s missile, aerospace, and aviation industries,” read the statement.

According to a spokesman for the ministry, the Iranian missiles program in recent years has been the target of various sabotage acts due to its strategic effectiveness in creating deterrence against enemy threats.

Emphasizing the country's self-sufficiency in designing and producing various systems and missiles, he added that multi-layered intelligence plans have been drawn up and implemented to deceive rival spy services into buying defective compounds.

“The missile industry not only contributes significantly to the country's military and defense capabilities but also provides a suitable platform for trapping complex spy networks and inflicting significant blows to the intelligence capacities of rival services,” stated the spokesman.

The official revealed that a professional network, under the direct guidance of Mossad, had plotted to bring faulty and equipped pieces into the supply chain of the production line of advanced missiles in the missile industries of the defense ministry through the cooperation of some infiltrating elements. The aim was to turn these produced missiles into explosive tools to target industrial lines and employees.

“Despite the enemy's elaborate plan, the operation was under constant surveillance from the beginning and was completely neutralized with the arrest of its agents. Through the execution of this successful project, all of Mossad’s foreign and internal agents were identified and put under intelligence monitoring.” 

The spokesperson added that up until recently, Israel was completely confident that its sabotage plan and transfer of defective parts to the defense industry had been successfully executed. “They are still unable to fathom the depth of their defeat,” said the defense ministry official. 

Iran’s national TV has released the footage of the faulty parts. 

The new Iranian announcement regarding the Israeli sabotage put an end to speculations that the intelligence war between the two sides might have jerked to a halt. It transpired that beneath the veneer of silence over the last year there have been huge intelligence operations. It also indicated that Israel studiously continued its efforts to inflict sabotage on Iran’s defense program but it failed due to counterintelligence efforts by Iran.

The busting of Mossad’s spy networks in Iran was another blow to Israel’s intelligence assets in Iran, which Israeli officials have always been keen to boast of. The Thursday announcement showed that Israel is no longer able to carry out big operations.