In May 1994 due to the remarkable operation by the Israeli Defense Forces one of leaders of AMAL Shekh Mustafa Dirani, who kept the Israeli pilot Ron Arad as a prisoner in his house, was arrested. At Shin Bet Mustafa Durani said that Arad was taken away by Hizballah’s soldiers, according to a direct order of General Ali Rezzi Askari, and now only this Iranian knew location of Arad.
In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, General Ali Rezi Askari became the deputy defense minister and the special aide of Iran’s President. He begins control and promotion of the nuclear program of his country, and succeeded in this pat, unfortunately.
In 2011 first serious conflict between General Askari and the ruling elites occurred. The reason was the issue of treatment Osama bin Laden after 9/11 by Iran. An experienced terrorist and cool-headed murderer, general Askari, unexpectedly stated that Iran should judge mega-terrorist attacks and support the international society in arrest of bin Laden.
This position of Askari didn’t find understanding of the Iranian authorities. Since this time his career began to fade away. After Askari’s arch-enemy, Ahmadinejad, had come to power, General Askari was fired and signaled that he was persona non grata in Tehran.
However, there were rumors on other reasons for his ban – Ali Rezi Askari stood against wide-scale corruption in the top official circles of Iran.
Nevertheless, General Askari felt humiliation, offence and injustice. From this moment not only Jews were his arch-foes, but President Ahmadinejad and his circle as well. American and Israeli intelligence services decided to use this hatred.
The last person, who saw General Ali Rezi Askari in Istanbul, was the administrator of the hotel Ceyllan Intercontinental. According to the administrator, on February 6th, 2007, two European men entered the hotel’s hall. They ordered a comfortable suite for Mr. Ali Rezi Askari priced at 800 euro per night and paid for him for three nights forward. The next day a man, who presented himself as Ali Rezi Askari, arrived to the hotel, got keys and entered the elevator… nobody had seen him again. When he left Ceyllan Intercontinental, the administrator doesn’t know. Probably the man, who presented himself as Ali Rezi Askari, was not Genreal. If Mossad and CIA decided to transit General Askari abroad, they would hardly place him in such popular hotel. Probably real General Askari flew to some European country the same day.
However, on February 7th he called relatives in Tehran, and the call was made from Istanbul – it was determined by the Iranian special services. In Istanbul Ali Rezi Askari came from Damascus, and he defined his visit’s aim as “meeting business partners.”
One thing is obvious: the operation on transit of General Askari wasn’t spontaneous. Preparation for such operations normally takes a couple of years. That means that even in autumn 2006 all members of Askari’s family left Iran, and in winter 2006 he arrived to Damascus on business. After Askari had spent several days in Syria, he flew to Istanbul. And it was a right step.
First of all, General Askari couldn’t leave Syria imperceptibly even with forgery – ties between Tehran and Damascus are too strong, Iranian special services have many residents there. The Syrian special services controlled events in the country either. Thus, General Askari leaves the country openly, as if he has nothing to hide.
This step by the resigned general couldn’t cause any suspicions of the Iranian and Syrian special services. But Istanbul is not a simple city. It is a city, where one of the biggest transit airports of the planet is situated. Istanbul is a gate between East and West, the meeting point of civilizations, political systems and points of view. In this city you can get lost or find someone you are looking for. Thus, it is easier to fly from the Istanbul airport to New York than from the Damascus airport for a man, who has changed his appearance and got new documents.
The fact that General Askari arrived to the US was confirmed several weeks later, when protocols of evidence by Askari to investigators of CIA appeared on the table of Meir Dagan, the head of Massad.
The main point of Askari’s story is that Iran could advance in the path of development of nuclear armament further that the US and Israel had thought.
General Askari told new information about activities of Iranian international terrorist organizations and anti-Israeli propaganda, conducted by Iran in all countries of the world. The aim of the campaign is establishing atmosphere similar to the situation ahead of the Second World War, when the international society considered Jews genocide as a normal thing. The difference is that for Iran it is important to make the society think Israel is illegitimate as a state.
But the biggest disappointment was the issue of Ron Arad: General Askari surprisingly stated that he doesn’t know location of the Israeli pilot.
A month after General Askari’s escape, in March 2007, another top officer of Al-Kuds special troop, Amir Shirazi, disappeared. Later the commander of IRGC in the Persian Gulf, Muhammed Sultani, got lost too.
According to Tehran, both of them were kidnapped by Mossad. According to the European mass media, they were recruited by Israel and later received asylum in the US or some European country.
Evidence of all Iranian deserters enabled Mossad to develop operations, which postponed creation of the Iranian nuclear bomb for 6-7 years.
Petr Lukimson
