Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has expressed grave concern that the West will go easy on Iran regarding the nuclear issue and its destabilizing the Middle East.
In his first speech since retiring on June 1, he asked a conference of Friends of Bar Ilan rhetorically: “Will we be pushovers to Iran? Will we let it support and carry out terror? Destroy embassies?”
“We need to be stubborn and determined with Iran. We need to declare to Iran that its actions are unacceptable. This is the central trend in our strategy,” said Cohen.
The former Mossad director continued, “if the US leaves Iraq, it will be conquered by Iran. The rockets from the North during Operation Guardian of the Walls were largely managed by the Iranians. It supports two terror organizations who are against us,” in Lebanon and in Gaza.
He warned that the Islamic Republic is providing advanced precise weapons to terror groups in both arenas which are creating a whole new level of danger to the Israeli home front.
In the past, terror groups never had such advanced weapons, said Cohen.
Regarding Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, he said, “It is not yet known if he is sick with the coronavirus, but something is wrong with him – we are trying to clarify this.”
Nasrallah recently gave a speech intended to show off his power, but which was panned as showing weakness because he was coughing throughout.
The heavy coughing has sparked speculation that the Hezbollah chief may be sicker than he has let on.
One area where Cohen reportedly admitted some fault was in dealing with Qatar.
During his term as Mossad chief, Cohen had been a major facilitator and proponent of transferring funds from Qatar to Hamas to avoid an economic collapse in Gaza, but keep the terror group on a tight leash which might restrain it.
Cohen seemed to admit following the May 10-21 Gaza war that this Qatar funding Hamas policy had gotten out of hand and had not brought the rewards he had anticipated.
In addition, Cohen reportedly expressed concerns about the triangle of the US, China and Israel and whether America might lean on Jerusalem too hard to limit some of its cooperation with Beijing.
Though Washington and Beijing have essentially been in a near-cold war state in recent years, Israel and China have continued to increase their joint business and cooperation, sometimes to the US’s chagrin.
More specifically, the US has expressed concerns about the potential for China to learn about classified US items through its increased interactions with and presence in Israel.