Israeli operative's bone-chilling warning to Iranian general just before airstrike: 'You’re on our list right now'

Israel carried out an intimidating campaign against Iranian military officials hours after it struck Iranian targets on June 13, wherein the latter was warned of certain death if they didn't disassociate themselves from the Iranian regime. 

 

A leaked audio conversation between an Israeli operative and an Iranian general, obtained by the Washington Post, reveals the covert tactic carried out by Israel to "divide and destabilise" the Iranian regime. A Persian-speaking Israeli official is heard calling an Iranian official on his cellphone warning him to "escape with his family" or face certain death. 

 

"I can advise you now, you have 12 hours to escape with your wife and child. Otherwise, you’re on our list right now," the Israeli intelligence agent can be heard telling the general.  

 

"We’re closer to you than your own neck vein. Put this in your head. May God protect you," he said, adding that the general had  12 hours to make a video disassociating himself from the Iranian government. 

 

"How should I send it to you?" the general replies. "I will send you a Telegram ID," the operative said. "Send it."

 

The report added that such phone calls went to over 20 officials and the aim was to confuse the leadership. However, it is unclear whether the general sent such a video and whether he was alive.  

 

The operative is also heard bragging about the assassinations of an IRGC senior commander, carried out simultaneously as part of Operation Rising Lion. "I’ll explain to you, listen carefully. I’m calling from a country that two hours ago sent Bagheri, Salami, Shamkhani, one by one, to hell," he said, referring to the assassinations of Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the IRGC; Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, an IRGC veteran who was the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; and Ali Shamkhani, senior advisor to Khamenei. Iran has acknowledged the deaths of Bagheri and Salami but maintains that Shamkhani is still alive. 

 

The audio was released by the Washington Post after masking the voices so as not to reveal the identity of both parties. 

 

The individual who provided the recording said the content of the audio was not manipulated in any way, other than to mask the voice of the Israeli intelligence operative to protect his identity. The Post obtained the Iranian general’s name but is not publishing it and has removed his voice from the recording to conceal his identity.

 

The plan was to intimidate the second and third tier of Iranian generals who would soon replace the slain commanders.  The goal was to make it harder for Khamenei, who controls Iran’s national security policy, to fill the positions of those Israel killed, the Washington Post report added.

 

"The second-tier leadership that is supposed to inherit the positions and now fill in the places of those who have been eliminated, they are terrified," the report quoted an official familiar with the operation. "And they are being reminded on a personal level about what happened to the successor of Nasrallah and the successors of Hezbollah commanders who were eliminated, as well."

 

Middle East