The Mossad, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and the IDF made an unusual joint announcement on Monday, exposing a worldwide Iranian terror network that targeted Israeli officials and assets around the world.
Top Iranian leaders of the network from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence Unit 4000 were killed during the recent Israeli-US war against Iran.
In early March, Azerbaijan announced that it had foiled a series of planned Iranian terror attacks on its territory, notably against Israel’s embassy in Baku, a synagogue, and local Jewish leaders.
It was unclear why the agencies published their joint statement some six weeks after that disclosure.
However, in the event that the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran is truly over, this could be an opportunity for a “victory lap” by the Israeli defense establishment, especially because its achievements, this time, have been unique.
If in the past, the Mossad and Shin Bet have helped foreign countries such as Azerbaijan and others to foil Iranian terror plots, this time the plots of rank-and-file terrorists were being thwarted at the same time as their top managers in Iran were being killed by the Israel Air Force (IAF) during the war.
Typically, the IDF is not mentioned in these kinds of overseas operations.
Usually, those terror handlers in Iran who were struck by the IDF might have been untouchable as compared to the rank-and-file terrorists in the field.
Israel pushes to address Iran terror network in negotiations
Additionally, with US-Iran negotiations still wide open, this could have been an opportunity for Israel to remind the US and other nations, who might influence the negotiations, that Iran’s sponsorship of a global terror network should be dealt with during talks – and not ignored.
In a video statement, Azerbaijan said it had “prevented terrorist acts and intelligence operations in Azerbaijan organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Another target of the Iranians had been the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia and Turkey.
According to the joint Israeli defense agencies’ statement, the Iranian plotters smuggled explosive drones into Azerbaijan and collected intelligence on potential targets.
Foreign media reports have indicated in the past that Israel and the Mossad have strong connections with Azerbaijan, which has a long porous border with Iran, and with specific allegations that the border is one of many places where agents can penetrate the country.
Arresting the local terror agents helped uncover the identities of the rest of the network, as well as of their handlers back in Iran.
Special Operations Division 4000 – within IRGC’s intelligence – chief Rahman Moghadam managed the network and was killed at the start of the recent war.
He served under senior IRGC intelligence official Majid Khademi, who Israel also eliminated during the war.
Moghadam trained and recruited spies and operatives inside Iran and abroad, assigning them to collect intelligence regarding Israeli political and diplomatic officials, Israeli defense officials, and Israeli and Western military installations, ports, and Israeli ships around the world.
A key operator for Moghadam and also part of Division 4000 was Mohsen Suri. He traveled globally to meet with terror cells that were part of the network, and he was also killed during the war, along with a number of other Iranian intelligence officials, at an IRGC safehouse uncovered by the Mossad.
Mahdi Yekeh-Dehghan, “the Doctor,” was another key player for the network in Azerbaijan and in other parts of the Middle East. He was exposed in January when Turkey arrested several people, including an Iranian national, on espionage charges.
Yekeh-Deghan and his network smuggled explosive drones from Iran to Turkey to Cyprus and collected intelligence on American military units at the Incirlik base.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday announced that terrorists, mostly or all with Iranian backing, have targeted over 30 Israeli embassies since October 7, 2023.
In the wake of the US-Israeli attacks against Iran in June 2025 and the most recent operations, the IRGC has invested new efforts to build terror cells for carrying out attacks abroad.
Sa’ar said that Iran “spreads chaos and terror throughout the world.”
He specifically noted two recent attempts to strike Israeli officials in the United Arab Emirates using explosive drones, as well as another deadly plot by a different terror cell.
In September 2023, Mossad director David Barnea revealed in a speech at Reichman University that the Mossad had thwarted an impressive 27 global terror incidents in foreign countries that Iran had planned against Jews and Israelis.
In September 2024, The Jerusalem Post reported exclusively that the volume of global terror attacks planned by Iran against Jews and Israelis in foreign countries since October 7, 2023, and prevented by the Mossad, has at least doubled compared to the prior year, reaching over 50 such attempted attacks worldwide.
The latest numbers provided by Sa’ar are specifically embassy or diplomat-related attacks, meaning that the total number of attempted attacks in the last year probably far exceeds 30 and possibly even the September 2024’s 50 attempts.