TEHRAN – The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency has acknowledged thatthe regime is spying on the Islamic Republic, once again voicing Tel Aviv’ssupport for violence in Iran.
“We have eyes and ears and more, even in Iran,” Yossi Cohen told an IsraeliFinance Ministry conference in Jerusalem al-Quds on Tuesday, The Times ofIsrael reported on Tuesday.
The acknowledgement came a week after Iran’s Prosecutor General MohammadJafar Montazeri blamed Mossad and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)for orchestrating the unrest.
He said that “a bunch of scavengers” wanted to take advantage of “thedisgusting corpse of the riot,” but were identified by Iranian intelligenceand security agents.
Cohen said elsewhere in his comments that although the latest protests inIran were over economic woes, he would be happy if “a social revolution”occurred in the country.
“Iranian citizens went out to demonstrate because of the economicsituation,” the Mossad chief said. “That’s what brought them out on thestreets. There’s no need for great expectations, even though I would bevery happy to see a social revolution in Iran,” he said, adding wishfullythat, “Maybe it will happen in the future.”
Some two weeks ago, some peaceful protests were held in Iranian citiesagainst price hikes and the overall economic condition of the country.Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought toturn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the originalprotesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so thattheir legitimate activities would not play into the hands of violentrioters.
Law enforcement forces intervened to contain the vandals and armedelements, who launched attacks on public property, mosques, and policestations.
The US and Israel cheered the rioters, sparking anger among Iranians, whotook to the streets in large numbers over the course of several days toexpress their faith in the Islamic establishment and repudiate the unrest.
Speaking on Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed AliKhamenei said a “triangle” of enemies — including Israel — had beenplotting for the past few months to foment chaos and violence in Iran.