Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has claimed that the head of the secret unit, tasked with targetting Mossad agents working in Iran, was himself an Israeli spy.
In an interview to CNN Turk, the former president alleged that Mossad had extensively infiltrated the Iranian intelligence services.
"Israel organised complex operations inside Iran. They could easily obtain information. In Iran they are still silent about this. The man who was in charge of the unit in Iran against Israel was an Israeli agent," Ahmadinejad said in the interview.
The former president also said that there were another 20 Israeli agents working for Mossad besides the spy head within the Iranian spy unit.
Ahmedinejad said that Iran's intelligence services established a particular unit to combat the activities of Israel's Mossad in the country. However, the Israeli agents infiltrated the unit itself.
According to the former Iranian president, the agents were responsible for significant intelligence operations inside Iran, including the theft of documents related to the Iranian nuclear program and the elimination of several Iranian nuclear scientists.
In August, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran claimed to have arrested 12 people on suspicion of serving as operatives collaborating with Israel and planning acts against Iran’s security.
The claims made by Ahmedinejad in the interview to CNN were similar to the ones made by former Iranian intelligence minister Ali Younesi, who said that Israeli spies had planted themselves in the top positions of power in Iran.
"The Mossad has infiltrated many government departments in the last 10 years, to such a degree that all the country's top officials should fear for their lives," Younesi said in an interview in 2021, according to India Today.
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was the president of Iran between 2005 and 2013. He was succeeded by former President Hassan Rouhani.