Mossad Reportedly Abducted Iranian Generals in Search for Ron Arad

Mossad reportedly abducted two Iranian generals abroad while seeking information about missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, according to an investigation published on November 15. The account describes operations in Istanbul in 2006 and Damascus in September 2021, but conflicts with earlier reporting about the fate of one of the men. Former U.S. officials cited in the investigation alleged that Israel seized Ali-Reza Asgari in Istanbul, questioned him for weeks about Arad and subsequently killed him. One former official alleged that his body was dumped in the Black Sea. Their account said the questioning yielded no information establishing Asgari's involvement in Arad's disappearance or resolving the navigator's fate. The investigation also described the alleged abduction of Gen. Abdullah Saberi, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards veteran, in Damascus in September 2021. Regional officials, including Iranian officials close to him and a Syrian official who reviewed video, described operatives posing as movers near his residence. According to that account, two men restrained and drugged Saberi, concealed him in a refrigerator box and transported him in a white van before he was taken to Israel for questioning about Arad. An April 2024 investigation presented a conflicting account of Asgari's disappearance. Citing three American intelligence sources and a senior European diplomatic source, it reported that the former Iranian deputy defense minister had defected and was living in the United States under a different identity. Arad was captured in Lebanon in 1986, and his whereabouts remain unknown.