The official insignia of the Israeli Mossad.
Roman Gofman, the newly appointed director of the Israeli Mossad spy agency, has removed two top officials closely tied to a failed plot aimed at toppling the government in Iran, Channel 12 reported on August 6.
According to the report, the departing personnel include the head of the agency’s intelligence directorate—who had served in the role since December—and the head of the Mossad’s Iran division.
Channel 12 noted that both were key architects of a written operational strategy designed to overthrow the Islamic Republic by leveraging Iran’s minority groups, with the ultimate goal of installing a new government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly used this blueprint to persuade the U.S. President Donald Trump to launch military actions against Iran in February.
Security sources cited by the network indicated that while the two officials clashed with Gofman from the start, their exits were mutually agreed upon as part of a broader agency reorganization. Both are expected to transition into other roles within the Mossad.
The operation reportedly hinged on targeted Israeli strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions in Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iraqi border. These strikes were intended to clear a path for armed Iranian-Kurdish opposition forces to cross into the country and advance into major northwestern Kurdish cities. Mossad strategists anticipated that thousands of young Kurds would join the cause, sparking a mass movement capable of pushing all the way to Tehran.
Reports indicate the agency also expected this offensive to trigger widespread protests nationwide, mobilizing millions of demonstrators to bring down the regime.
A key pillar of the plan allegedly involved reinstalling former Iranian hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new leader of the Islamic Republic.
Last month, The New York Times reported that Israel ran a multi-year operation to recruit Ahmadinejad, which included a covert meeting with then-Mossad chief David Barnea on the sidelines of an academic conference in Hungary. Ahmadinejad’s office has denied the claims, and analysts have speculated that the former Iranian president may have played the spy agency.
At the onset of the war, Israel and the U.S. launched a high-level decapitation campaign against key regime officials while simultaneously carrying out heavy strikes across northwestern Iran. targeting army bases, missile systems, police stations, and Basij sites, these tactical strikes were designed to ease the path for advancing Kurdish forces. Ultimately, however, Washington pulled the plug on the operation, derailed by media leaks, intense Turkish lobbying, and reluctance among the Kurds themselves.
“The failure of the Mossad plot was a major setback for Israel and the U.S., who ultimately failed to achieve most of the goals they set when initiating the war with Iran.”
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