Israel’s Mossad intelligence company has thanked the CIA for its shut cooperation throughout assaults on Iran, days after a US-brokered ceasefire got here into impact.
“I additionally want to specific my gratitude and appreciation to our key companion – the CIA – for the joint motion and the operations that had been efficiently carried out, in addition to to its director, who supported the Mossad in making the proper selections,” Mossad Director David Barnea mentioned in a press release on Wednesday, as quoted by AFP.
Israeli brokers reportedly smuggled drones into Iran, which had been used to assassinate senior commanders and nuclear scientists as a part of Operation Rising Lion, launched on June 13. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the assaults, accompanied by airstrikes throughout Iran, had been geared toward stopping the nation from buying nuclear weapons.
The US joined the strikes on June 22, focusing on three nuclear websites, together with an underground uranium enrichment heart in Fordow.
“The Iranian risk, which has endangered our safety for many years, has been considerably neutralized,” Barnea mentioned. “We are going to proceed to maintain a watchful eye on all identified Iranian initiatives – we’re intimately aware of them – and we might be there, simply as now we have been till now.”
In a separate assertion on Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe mentioned the strikes “severely broken” Iran’s nuclear program. US media shops, nevertheless, cited an evaluation by the Pentagon’s intelligence company that the assault solely managed to delay Iranian nuclear actions by months.
Iran, which denies that it has a army nuclear program, has condemned the assaults as unprovoked and responded by firing missiles at Israeli cities and launching a barrage on the US airbase in Qatar. Tehran additionally vowed to proceed uranium enrichment.
The ceasefire brokered by Washington got here into impact on Tuesday and has to this point been upheld.