Hossein Alaei, former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy and current advisor to Iran's security council, addressed the 12-day war events and admitted that the Islamic Republic's intelligence structure against Israel has proven insufficiently effective.
Alaei made the remarks Saturday, stating, "If the country's intelligence service was properly focused on Israeli activity, it should have been updated on plans to assassinate Iranian commanders and scientists by aircraft."
According to the former IRGC Navy commander, the events of Operation Rising Lion demonstrated that Iran's government has not organized its intelligence apparatus "in a manner matching the intelligence and security efforts and operations of Israel."
He said he sees a need to "rebuild and deliberately focus" the Islamic Republic's intelligence organizations, adding that current institutions "do not respond to the type and level of threats" posed by Israel.
The former IRGC Navy commander continued his remarks by describing Mossad as "one of the world's strongest security and intelligence agencies." Allaei criticized the Islamic Republic's intelligence structure, saying, "In some cases, people who were known as Israeli targets all lived in the same tower, which allowed Israel to strike the building and be sanctified from the punishment of several people simultaneously."
He added that the two main institutions, the Ministry of Intelligence and IRGC Intelligence, are both involved in "internal security issues" and focus on Israel, while this model clearly has not borne fruit and has not shown the required effectiveness. Allaei proposed that one of these two institutions should focus entirely and exclusively on Israel. Earlier in October, he acknowledged the incompetence of the Islamic Republic's intelligence and security services against Israel.
These statements come against the backdrop of increased speculation in recent days regarding the future of the Islamic Republic's nuclear and missile programs and how the United States and Israel will respond to them.
This is not the first time that officials and figures identified with the Islamic Republic have recognized Israel's superiority in the 12-day war. On December 17, Masoud Pezeshkian, president of the Islamic Republic, announced that during the 12-day war, Israel had missile superiority.
He said in this context, "It is true that there were our missiles, but their missiles were more numerous, stronger, more accurate, and more convenient. It is the people who disappointed them."
On December 19, Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of parliament's National Security Committee, called the doctors' statements "unprofessional" and told them, "Weakening the country's defense capabilities is a mistake."
