Mossad was part of Iran’s mosaic pre-ayatollahs, what might it be there after them?

Acting Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar summoned Tsafrir to make a dramatic request: assassinate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at his exile residence near Paris.

Between the 1950s and the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran represented one of the most permissive and valuable intelligence environments for Israel’s Mossad.

Although rumors that Mossad helped the CIA establish Iran’s SAVAK (secret police) security apparatus seem exaggerated, relations between the intelligence agencies were at phenomenal levels.

Although the relationship between the CIA, Mossad, and SAVAK was strong, the agencies still had distinct identities, did not share everything, and the United States remained the major player in relation to Jerusalem.

Their distinct identities are expressed in a story told by former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit. The Jerusalem Post before dying.

During the time Shavit was stationed by the Mossad in Iran in 1966, American intelligence noted the presence of a new young couple – Shavit and his wife.

But U.S. intelligence never linked him to Mossad or understood that he was anything unusual — a fact he learned when a U.S. intelligence document was leaked to him around 1980.

Mossad agents gained access to Iranian officials

Senior Mossad agents had easy access to senior Iranian officials.

For example, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran in 1979, Mossad station chief Eliezer Tsafrir was at SAVAK headquarters.

A distraught general clung to Tsafrir, begging him: “Take me with you!”

Iran’s interim Prime Minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, summoned Tsafrir to make a dramatic request: assassinate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at his exile residence near Paris.

On January 28, Mossad Director Yitzhak Hofi gathered senior officers, including Iran’s chief analyst Yossi Alpher, to discuss the request.

Ultimately, they decided not to carry out the assassination, but the fact that Tsafrir had such easy access to SAVAK headquarters, that a general asked him to be brought to Israel, and that the interim prime minister asked him to assassinate an opposition figure speaks to the intimate level of intelligence relations with Mossad at the time.

Relations between Mossad and SAVAK included intelligence sharing, training and regional security operations, including support for Kurdish forces in Iraq against the Ba’athist regime in Baghdad.

THE ISRAEL SPY AGENCY was particularly helpful in training new SAVAK recruits when Iran established the agency in 1957.

Their partnership also involved joint technological efforts, intelligence sharing, and coordination against various Sunni Arab regional adversaries.

Regarding Sunni Arab adversaries, Iran was a pillar of the Jewish state’s intelligence and diplomatic strategy aimed at finding as many allies as possible in the region where it was usually surrounded by hostile neighbors.

Iran has provided Mossad with a significant reservoir of useful intelligence on many of these adversaries and physical space to operate much closer to them.

Even though there was a huge population of Israelis and Jews in Iran until 1979, there was no formal diplomatic recognition, so a variety of messages also circulated between key political leaders through Mossad.

There have been numerous arms deals, including Uzi cannons, mortars, radio equipment and Iranian aircraft renovations. Many of these projects were managed by the IDF or the relevant economic officials, but Mossad was often an initiator or behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of new projects.

Just as Israeli and Iranian generals frequently visited their respective countries, so did a large number of senior intelligence officials.

All this took place against the backdrop of Israel being dependent on Iran for around 40% of its oil imports, while Jerusalem was assisting Iran on the weapons and technology issues mentioned above, but also on advanced agricultural techniques.

As the United States helped Iran uncover aspects of its nuclear program, some have also speculated that Israel and the Mossad may have had a hand in it as well, although this has never been formally confirmed.

So, if the ayatollahs fall and the next regime is not led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) but by a regime that is not hostile to Israel or even, ultimately, friendly, what will be the role of Mossad?

Mossad might not need to work so hard on the Iranian issue if the regime stopped pursuing nuclear weapons and no longer threatened Israel with ballistic missile attacks or terror.

Mossad may be working with the CIA and others to discover sites they have not yet explored and neutralize these threats.

This would not require close relations, just the absence of investment in hostility, given that the two countries are 1,500 kilometers apart and have no inherent reason to fight, for example over an adjacent land dispute.

In a larger scenario, Mossad once again having access to Iranian territory as an intelligence ally would be a game-changer.

Having access to Iranian territory would make it infinitely easier to access Iraqi, Turkish and Pakistani territories – all bordering countries and of interest to Israel in the wider region.

It is unclear what implications a post-Islamic Iranian revolution would have for Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and other terrorist groups backed by the Islamic Republic.

But if Mossad had access to Iranian cooperation, it could constitute a step change in its ability to better understand and combat these groups in the long term.

The fall of the ayatollahs and the IRGC would in no way guarantee their return.

After all, they came to power thanks to the authoritarian, corrupt and incompetent regime of the Shah.

While Mossad was as ignorant as the CIA of the Ayatollahs’ power to overthrow the shah in 1979, perhaps this time that knowledge could also allow Israel’s spy agency to help contain such a potential threat in the future.

Either way, all this would only add to, not start with, Mossad’s presence in Iran.

As Mossad Director David Barnea stated in June 2025, the agency was deeply involved in the Israeli-Iranian war that month and continues to have operatives there.