TEL AVIV — Mossad Director Roman Gofman has removed two of the Israeli spy agency’s most senior intelligence officials following the failure of a clandestine operational strategy aimed at overthrowing the Iranian regime.
According to a report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, the dismissals affect the head of Mossad’s Intelligence Directorate—who was appointed only months ago in December—and the chief of the agency’s Iran Division. Neither official has been publicly identified.
The two senior officers were reportedly the primary architects of a written strategic proposal developed in close coordination with Western intelligence partners, including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The plan envisioned using broad military air strikes as cover to arm and mobilize ethnic minority groups—particularly Iranian Kurdish opposition forces—to launch armed incursions into northwestern Iran, stir widespread mass protests, and collapse the government in Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly used elements of the strategy during high-level briefings with U.S. leaders prior to the outbreak of military hostilities with Iran. However, security sources cited by Channel 12 revealed that the ambitious regime-change scheme stalled at an early stage, failed to generate popular domestic uprisings, and ultimately proved unviable.
While security insiders noted that Director Gofman had experienced strained relations with both officials since taking over leadership of the agency, the decision to remove them forms part of a broader structural reorganization of Mossad’s priorities regarding Iran following the collapse of the regime-change initiative.
Neither the Mossad nor the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has issued an official public statement regarding the reported dismissals.
