The Times spends more time and attention to the disappearace of the Iranian General Ali Resa Asgari. The Times‘s Richard Beeston and Michael Theodoulou quote the former head of the Mossad, Danny Yatom, as saying: “From the very start I thought this was a defection. All the signals showed that it was well planned and executed. He left Iran with his family, so that no one would be able to put pressure on them. I assume the defection was to the US.”
Although it’s not sure yet, it seems to me that Yatom is most likely right: this was probably a defection. Interestingly: it’s the first defection of such a senior figure since the Iranian “revolution 27 years ago”.
It now seems that Asgari doesn’t, most likely, know a lot about Iran’s nuclear program, but, luckily, he does know a lot about Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah and about Hezbollah itself of course. Beeston and Theodoulou point out that Western intelligence agencies and the Mossad don’t know a lot about Hezbollah.
A “Western source” explains: “He is a significant figure. It has so far been very difficult to get reliable information on how Iran ran its operations in Lebanon. This could be a big break.”
Nicholas Noe, “author of a forthcoming book on Hezbollah”, adds: “It means for the first time, Hezbollah’s adversaries may have accurate estimates of stockpiles, weapons types, even perhaps placement and tactics. This is crucial because the limits and placement of Hezbollah’s weaponry has been a major problem.”
It will be interesting to see whether Israel will change its strategy towards Hezbollah and whether any significant ‘successes’ will be achieved in the coming months (Hezbollah strongholds conquered, Hezbollah leaders arrested, etc.).
UPDATE
Fox claims that he’s not cooperating with any Western intelligence agencies according to an U.S. official.
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