The head of Israel’s Mossad said yesterday that the campaign on Iran will not end until the fall of the regime.
“Our mission has not yet been accomplished,” Barnea said at a Yom HaShoah ceremony at Mossad headquarters. “We did not think this mission would be completed immediately after the fighting subsided, but planned for the campaign to continue beyond the strikes in Tehran.”
Speaking amid a two-week ceasefire as US-Iran talks stall, he added: “Our commitment will be fulfilled only when this extreme regime is replaced. A regime that seeks our destruction must cease to exist. We will not stand idly by in the face of another existential threat — guided by the command: never again.”
He said that the agency had operated “in the heart of Tehran”, bringing “precise intelligence to the Air Force, and we hit missiles that threatened Israel” in an operation which saw Israel take control over Iran’s skies.
It comes after Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the appointment of his military secretary, Roman Gofman, as the new director of the Mossad.
Gofman will replace the outgoing Barnea, whose five-year term is set to end on June 2.
Considered a close ally of the prime minister within the military hierarchy, he served as commander of the Etzion Brigade from 2015 to 2017 and the 7th Armoured Brigade before being appointed as Military Secretary to the Prime Minister in 2024.
During the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, he drove from his Ashdod home to the border city of Sderot and, alongside police volunteers, exchanged fire with terrorists at the Sha’ar HaNegev Junction.
Amid the gun battle, he suffered a serious knee injury and was hospitalised.
His promotion to Mossad director was approved by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court President Asher Grunis.
In his report, Grunis had suggested that Gofman should be disqualified from the position over a 2022 controversy while he was commanding the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division in the Golan Heights.
Gofman had approved the use of Ori Elmakayes, who was 17 at the time, for an Arabic-language campaign against Iran and Hezbollah.
Elmakayes was subsequently detained by security forces for 18 months after being accused of leaking classified information on social media during the campaign.
Gofman insisted he was not aware of Elmakayes’ age and had instructed him only to publish non-classified information, but the teen was released when it was established that the information he had published had been supplied to him by IDF intelligence officers.
Nonetheless, the three other members of the committee disagreed with Grunis, and the appointment was carried on a majority vote.
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