Today, Thursday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard dismissed its intelligence chief, Hussein Taeb, after nearly 12 years of taking office, in light of the high frequency of threats between Tehran and Tel Aviv, and the killing of a number of Revolutionary Guards members.
And Iranian Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ramadan Sharif announced, in statements carried by state television, that Muhammad Kazemi had been appointed as the head of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence, to succeed Hossein Taeb, according to local media, and indicated that Taeb had been appointed as an advisor to the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Hussein Salami.
Hossein Taeb has commanded the intelligence agency of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards since its first establishment in 2009, and before that he worked in the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
While Iranian officials did not reveal the reasons behind the dismissal decision, the decision to appoint a new head of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence comes in the wake of Israeli media reports circulating Taeb’s name and accusing him of being behind an alleged Iranian plot to target Israelis in Turkey.
On Monday, Israeli intelligence reports indicated that Taeb is the Iranian official tasked with carrying out operations targeting Israeli citizens in Turkey.
In turn, the Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed, last week, that Turkey is a safe country, in an indirect response to a warning issued by the Israeli authorities urging its citizens to avoid traveling to Turkey.
In a statement, the ministry said, "Some countries have issued warnings to their citizens in Turkey, and we affirm that Turkey is a safe country and continues to fight terrorism inside and outside its borders." Ankara considered the call to leave Turkey related to international developments.
The ministry added that the concerned authorities are taking all necessary security measures within the framework of cooperation mechanisms to combat terrorism.
Revolutionary Guard casualties
Iran has recently witnessed a series of deaths and assassinations of military figures and researchers linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and the Iranian authorities accused Israel of being behind some of these incidents and vowed to respond.
The frequency of threats between the two sides increased in recent weeks after the assassination of Hassan Sayyad Khodayi, an officer in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran on May 22, in which Tehran accused Tel Aviv of being behind it, and after an Israeli bombing of Damascus International Airport last Friday.
On June 13, Ali Kamani, a member of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace unit, was killed during a mission in Khomein, Markazi province, in the center of the country.
During the same month, an officer in the Quds Force killed the foreign operations officer in the Guard, Colonel Ali Ismail Zadeh, "after falling from the balcony of his house, which was not sufficiently protected," according to what the Iranian news agency (IRNA) reported.