Politics

Disappeared: The Iranian spy who revealed his country’s ‘nuclear secret’ to Israel and the USA

Ali-Reza Asgari was last seen in Istanbul in 2007, and it remains a mystery whether he fled Iran or was kidnapped by Western secret services.

Ali-Reza Asgari was last seen in Istanbul in 2007, and it remains a mystery whether he fled Iran or was kidnapped by Western secret services.

On February 7, 2007, Ali-Reza Asgari—a former deputy defense minister in Mohammad Khatami’s government and Iran’s top intelligence official in Lebanon—traveled to Turkey… and vanished.

So began one of the most intriguing espionage mysteries of recent decades. Did he defect, or was he kidnapped? Nearly 20 years later, the question remains unanswered. But whether Asgari provided information willingly or under duress, that intelligence may have played a decisive role in the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program and the targeted killings of its leaders by Israel and the United States.

Asgari was born on November 1, 1952, and joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following the 1979 establishment of the Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Khomeini. During the 1980s, he helped build Hezbollah in Lebanon and is suspected of having been one of the masterminds behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people. He later became Iran’s top intelligence official in Lebanon and, in 1997, was appointed deputy defense minister. However, in 2002, he resigned after clashing with other senior regime officials and was subsequently imprisoned for 18 months.

After his release, Asgari turned to the olive oil trade in Syria. According to The Sunday Times, he was recruited as a spy by a Western agency in 2003. Other sources claim the CIA recruited him in Thailand in 2005. Regardless of the exact timeline, the London-based Iranian opposition outlet Iran International reports that he made the decision to defect while still in prison.

Multiple sources suggest Asgari provided critical intelligence on Hezbollah’s organizational structure, Iran’s nuclear program, its codenames, and the locations of secret facilities. He reportedly identified Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the nuclear program, who was assassinated by Israel in 2020. He also revealed details about Syria’s secret nuclear site in Deir ez-Zor, which was destroyed by Israel on September 6, 2007. Israeli intelligence reportedly described him as a “gold mine.”

According to reports in several Western media outlets, Asgari began to suspect in 2006 that he was under investigation by VEVAK, Iran’s intelligence service. The Bush administration then began coordinating his escape and asylum.

On February 7, 2007, he traveled from Damascus to Istanbul on a business trip. Although he had reserved a room at the luxury Ceylan Hotel on the European side of the city, he instead checked into a modest hotel called the Ghilan, where security cameras captured him. He maintained contact with his family until Saturday, February 9, when his phone suddenly stopped working. What happened next remains unclear. Iran insists he was kidnapped by the CIA and Mossad. Western media outlets, including The Washington Post, reported that he defected voluntarily and sought asylum in the U.S., allegedly using three fake passports during his escape. Neither the U.S. nor Israeli governments have commented publicly.

Iran notified Interpol of his disappearance 17 days later. Hossein Daqiqi, then Iran’s deputy defense minister, declared: “We have abundant evidence that members of the Israeli intelligence service kidnapped Ali Reza Asgari in Turkey and brought him to Israel.” His family was interrogated and placed under surveillance, and the incident triggered a diplomatic spat with Turkey, which Iran accused of complicity. Interestingly, some sources suggest that the Turkish government criticized the U.S. for carrying out the operation—whether a kidnapping or a defection—on Turkish soil without prior notice.

The fallout inside Iran was significant. Iranian operatives in the West were compromised, security protocols were overhauled, senior officials faced increased surveillance, and internal purges were carried out. Iran has repeatedly requested information about Asgari’s whereabouts from the International Red Cross. In 2011, it accused Israel before the United Nations of driving him to suicide in an Israeli prison, following reports in the Israeli press.

In 2014, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird claimed that President George W. Bush granted Asgari asylum in 2007 in exchange for critical intelligence on Iran’s nuclear efforts. Bird also stated that Asgari had made phone calls to Iranian acquaintances from within the United States.

Most recently, in 2024, Iran International reported that Asgari is still alive, residing in the U.S. under a false identity as part of the witness protection program, according to sources within U.S. intelligence, European diplomatic circles, and the Iranian military.

Whether he was a traitor, a hero, or simply a pawn, the information Asgari provided—willingly or otherwise—may have been pivotal to Israeli and American intelligence, military operations, and diplomatic strategies concerning Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

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