Report: Israel waging covert war against Iranian nuclear program

Israel is assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists as part of a covert war against the Islamic Republic's illicit weapons program, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday, quoting Western intelligence analysts.

The British daily said the Mossad espionage agency was rumored to be behind the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a top nuclear scientist at Iran's Isfahan uranium plant, who died in mysterious circumstances, allegedly from "gas poisoning" in 2007.

Other recent deaths, say analysts, are Israeli "hits" on important figures in the procurement and nuclear enrichment process and were intended to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the head of the program.

The Telegraph also quoted intelligence sources in the United States as saying Israel is using sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime's weapons project as an alternative to direct military strikes.

Israel has been carrying out similar covert activities for about a decade, ever since Iran was first suspected of seeking nuclear weapons. The U.S. journalist James Risen wrote recently that the CIA and the Mossad have planned together several operations to sabotage the Iranian program, including damaging power lines to nuclear sites so as to damage computer systems and equipment.

The Telegraph also quoted Israeli officials as privately acknowledging the new U.S. administration is unlikely to sanction an air attack on Iran's nuclear installations, and that President Barack Obama's offer to extend a hand of peace to Tehran puts any direct military action beyond reach for now.

Israel allegedly aims in its covert campaign to delay or interrupt Iranian research, without a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war.

"Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way that they don't realize what's happening. You are never going to stop it," a former CIA officer knowledgable about Iran was quoted as saying.

"The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach," he added. "We certainly don't want the current Iranian government to have those weapons. It's a good policy, short of taking them out militarily, which probably carries unacceptable risks."

Reva Bhalla, a senior analyst with Stratfor, the U.S. private intelligence company with strong government security connections, was quoted by the paper as saying the strategy was to take out key people.

"With cooperation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key human assets involved in the nuclear program and in sabotaging the Iranian nuclear supply chain," she was quoted as saying.