TEHRAN – An investigation by The New York Times has revealed that Israel’s Mossad abducted, interrogated, and killed Iranian General Alireza Asgari, a former deputy defense minister, in 2006 while seeking information about the disappearance of Israeli airman Ron Arad.
Citing three former American officials familiar with Israel’s intelligence operations, the report said Mossad agents kidnapped Asgari in Istanbul in December 2006, questioned him for several weeks and eventually killed him. He was reportedly interrogated aboard a vessel before being dumped into the Black Sea.
The investigation said Asgari was targeted because of his longstanding ties with Hezbollah and his knowledge of Lebanon, as Israeli intelligence suspected Iran was involved in Arad’s disappearance in 1986. However, interrogators found no evidence linking the Iranian general to the case.
Asgari’s wife, Ziba Ahmadi, told the newspaper that Iranian investigators had concluded Israeli agents had drugged and abducted her husband from his Istanbul hotel room.
The NYT investigation also challenged Israel’s longstanding allegations against Iran, revealing that several Israeli intelligence assessments had found no conclusive evidence of Tehran’s involvement in Arad’s disappearance. A 2006 Shin Bet review and a separate 2016 military assessment both pointed instead to the Lebanese village of Nabi Chit as the likely location where the airman had been held and possibly buried.
