{"id":2463,"date":"2025-06-25T02:56:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T20:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/?p=2463"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:36:54","slug":"how-iran-became-a-palace-without-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/how-iran-became-a-palace-without-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"How Iran Became a Palace Without Walls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among those recently killed in Israeli attacks on Iran were several nuclear scientists<\/strong>, as well as senior commanders of Iran\u2019s military and Revolutionary Guard<\/strong>. The nature of these attacks and the identities of the victims send a stark message: Iran\u2019s intelligence apparatus is in shambles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the Iranian context, the two military figures killed could be considered the third most important individuals in the country<\/strong>, right after the Supreme Leader and the President. They were supposed to have the highest level of protection<\/strong>, and yet both were killed\u2014on Iranian soil. This wasn\u2019t even a surprise strike; the entire world knew for days that an attack on Iran was imminent. Yet, Iran failed both to conceal their locations from Mossad<\/strong> and to protect them from the assault.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, we witnessed another massive intelligence failure. While attending the funeral of the Iranian President, Ismail Haniyeh<\/strong>, head of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas<\/strong>, was assassinated. Everyone knew that since October 7, Haniyeh topped Israel\u2019s hit list. Iran had reportedly given him the highest possible security<\/strong>. Yet, he was murdered in his own bedroom<\/strong> in a high-security compound. Mossad agents allegedly planted a bomb under his bed. This means Mossad not only knew which room he was in, but also had direct operational access<\/strong> to it.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s most powerful proxy, Hezbollah<\/strong>, has suffered similar intelligence breakdowns. During its recent confrontation with Israel, several Hezbollah members\u2019 pagers exploded simultaneously<\/strong>\u2014Mossad had planted explosives in the devices, and Hezbollah didn\u2019t even realize it.<\/p>\n

Compare this to the assassination of Yahya Sinwar<\/strong>, Hamas\u2019s military chief in Gaza. That attack was accidental; Israel didn\u2019t know it had killed someone so senior. But when Mossad went after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah<\/strong>, it had pinpointed his location<\/strong>. They had been tracking him for days and knew exactly which tunnel he was in. On the day of the strike, Israeli forces followed his vehicle until it entered the tunnel, and then dropped a bunker-buster bomb<\/strong>, collapsing it and killing Nasrallah.<\/p>\n

The point of recounting these events is to illustrate how badly exposed Iran\u2019s intelligence network has become since October 7<\/strong>. Iran\u2019s archrival is Israel, whose Mossad is among the most elite intelligence agencies in the world. To survive in such a geopolitical environment, Iran must maintain an equally competent intelligence network. And for years, it did.<\/p>\n

Yes, Iran has lost nuclear scientists to Mossad operations before, but never this many top military generals<\/strong>. Likewise, Hezbollah<\/strong>\u2014Iran\u2019s strongest proxy\u2014has never seen such catastrophic intelligence failures. In the 2006 war<\/strong> between Hezbollah and Israel, it was Hezbollah\u2019s intelligence<\/strong> that often outmaneuvered Israel\u2019s. Israel tried\u2014and failed\u2014to touch Nasrallah. In fact, Hezbollah managed to sink an Israeli warship during that conflict.<\/p>\n

So what changed in recent years that left Iran and Hezbollah\u2019s intelligence so vulnerable?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine the strategic shifts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the early 2010s, the Arab Spring<\/strong> spread to countries like Syria and Yemen<\/strong>, both crucial to Iran\u2019s regional influence. Iran\u2019s key goal became preserving Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime<\/strong> in Syria, and empowering Shia factions in Yemen<\/strong> to challenge Saudi Arabia<\/strong>, its archrival, right at its doorstep. But both missions were far from easy.<\/p>\n

At one point, Syrian rebels nearly toppled Assad. Cities like Aleppo were overrun. Iran panicked and deployed Hezbollah fighters to Syria<\/strong> to fight for Assad. Eventually, Iran succeeded in keeping Assad in power.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels<\/strong> began winning major victories. Alarmed, Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched heavy aerial bombings<\/strong> and armed opposition forces. To maintain influence there, Iran ramped up support to the Houthis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

These proxy wars lasted for years<\/strong>, consuming Iran\u2019s military, intelligence resources, and strategic focus<\/strong>. Naturally, its attention to Israel diminished<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And this is where, I believe, Israel seized the opportunity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mossad took advantage of Iran\u2019s distraction to deeply infiltrate<\/strong> both Iran and Hezbollah. Because Iran was focused elsewhere, it failed to detect Mossad\u2019s penetration into its most secure zones. Slowly, Mossad operatives embedded themselves deep inside<\/strong> high-security compounds.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t happen overnight. Israel has likely been laying the groundwork for years<\/strong>, waiting for the right moment. And now that moment has arrived.<\/p>\n

And Mossad may not be done yet.<\/p>\n

If a full-scale war breaks out<\/strong> between Israel and Iran, we could see even greater intelligence failures<\/strong> on Iran\u2019s side\u2014failures that could be far more catastrophic.<\/p>\n

By Ishfaq Farhan Siam, Researcher, Department of International Relations, Georgetown University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among those recently killed in Israeli attacks on Iran were several nuclear scientists, as well as senior commanders of Iran\u2019s military and Revolutionary Guard. The nature of these attacks and the identities of the victims send a stark message: Iran\u2019s intelligence apparatus is in shambles. In the Iranian context, the two military figures killed could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions\/2465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday24hour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}