Occupied Jerusalem

- Under the title of "A New Era", Israel waged a special campaign in the seventies and early eighties to obstruct and thwart the Iraqi nuclear project.

Its intelligence service (Mossad) carried out dozens of secret operations in Iraq and around the world, including the recruitment of Arab and foreign agents, and bombings in order to prevent the construction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor "July".

In an extensive report published by the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz", the intelligence analyst, Yossi Melman, reviews the "New Age" campaign that was led by the deputy head of the Mossad at the time, Nahum Admoni.

The newspaper talked about Mossad operations in European countries aimed at thwarting the Iraqi project, but Tel Aviv decided to bomb and destroy the nuclear reactor after the failure of its intelligence campaign.

The beginning was in the middle of 1976, when a small envelope exploded outside a house in a town near the capital, Rome, and minutes later there was Tariq at the door.

The family members, who thought that the police or neighbors had arrived, were surprised by the presence of two foreign men (who were from the Mossad), and asked to speak with the head of the family, whose job no one knew.

But the two men knew that the owner of the house was a nuclear scientist working for an Italian company that provided services to the French atomic company, Bratam.

And that he participated in the project to build a nuclear reactor near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Memoirs published by "Haaretz" newspaper from an interview with a Mossad official who traced the construction of the Iraqi reactor before its destruction (Al-Jazeera)

Secret diplomacy and intelligence

Israel constantly tried to dissuade the French from building the reactor in Iraq in the 1970s.

Simultaneously, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, and his security and foreign ministers, did not stop warning of the "danger" of this project.

Israel used overt and secret diplomatic means to dissuade France and other countries from helping Saddam Hussein build a nuclear reactor, but behind the scenes the Mossad carried out bombing operations and recruited agents to thwart the Iraqi plan.

However, Israeli diplomatic efforts did not succeed, and according to the details of the "New Era" plan, in November 1975, France signed an agreement to supply Iraq with two nuclear reactors.

In search of the reactor site

During this campaign, the Tsumit division of the Mossad was assigned to recruit agents. Heads of missions, information-gathering officers and many members of the apparatus participated in the campaign.

Where Aharon Sherf was heading the "Tsumet" mission in France.

Sherf recently published a book entitled "Mails from the Mossad", which included memoirs revealing the scenes of his work in the Israeli intelligence service over decades.

Regarding the "New Era" plan, Sherf, 85, said in an interview with Haaretz supplement, "We worked under the watchful eyes of the French...and at a very early stage we obtained the preliminary maps and plans for the reactor...".

But this was not enough, and the Mossad needed knowledgeable human resources with direct access to the construction of the reactor, Sherf said.

He added that there were many such sources, as the French company that built the reactor used to directly and indirectly employ hundreds of technicians, engineers, physicists and chemists, and hired the services of foreign experts and companies, including German and Italian ones.

In particular, the Mossad searched for people who had worked and visited the reactor construction site.

Recruitment of Arabs and foreigners

"It's not easy to recruit clients," Sherf says. "You have to be creative and it wouldn't hurt to be lucky too."

Here, the intelligence official spoke about "an officer from an important Arab country who came to study in Paris, and we learned that he is a Muslim, religious and nationalist, and that his country is above anything for him. But on the other hand, we learned that he is alone and does not know the local language (French) and that it was not very acceptable." At his workplace, we realized his weakness."

Then suddenly, his neighbor became nice to him and advised him to shop and manage his daily affairs, and he started buying a good baguette (French bread).

"It is clear that she was from us [a Mossad agent]," Sherf says.

Some time later, a man arrived at the neighbor's house and introduced himself as her cousin from Italy.

In fact, he was the Mossad intelligence-gathering officer, and the two invited the Arab officer to meet at the bar.

"I was observing the meeting from the street," Sherf says.

In professional language, Sherf says, "This process of seduction is called drudgery, as the target person for recruitment is underestimated and gradually entrapped with blackmail and threats...but instead, he is offered offers that are difficult to refuse, whether by financial temptation, taking care of him and his family, and most importantly trying Not telling him that his interlocutors are Israelis."

The Israeli official considers the recruitment of this Arab officer, who advanced in the course of his military career in his country, one of the most prominent achievements of the Mossad representative in France.

"We convinced him that the information is of interest to us for the sake of world peace, as he provided us - for 20 years and after his promotion in the military ranks - with information without knowing that he was working for us," he said.

The same applies to the process of recruiting the Italian nuclear engineer who targeted the door of his house with an explosive envelope, as two Mossad agents persuaded him to provide them with information about the Iraqi reactor, according to what Sherf revealed in his memoirs.

With the progress of the construction of the Iraqi reactor, Menachem Begin instructed a series of "loud" measures represented in assassinations and bombings (communication sites)

"noisy" procedures

Despite the "New Era" Israeli intelligence campaign, progress in building the Iraqi nuclear reactor continued.

In the early 1980s, Israel realized that threats and warnings did not prevent Saddam Hussein from getting close to building the nuclear reactor.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Menachem Begin instructed the Mossad to turn to "loud" countermeasures, to carry out bombings and assassinations of scientists in order to prevent the continuation of the construction of the reactor.

The intelligence and operational efforts carried out by the Mossad, according to what was published by foreign media at the time, included sabotage of the equipment that France was supposed to provide for the construction of the Iraqi reactor.

It turned out that on April 6, 1979, the Mossad blew up warehouses belonging to a French company specializing in the production of parts for ships and nuclear reactors called "CNIM" (CNIM) in the town of "La Seine-sur-Mor" near Toulon on the Mediterranean coast.

The operation was preceded by the presence of the head of the Mossad at the time, Yitzhak Hofi, to France, disguised as a fictitious identity, in order to follow the operation closely.

However, it became clear later that the parts for the Iraqi nuclear reactor were not damaged by the explosion, and they were repaired and transported to Baghdad.

Among the operations carried out by the Mossad was the assassination of the Egyptian engineer, Yahya al-Mashad, in his room at the Le Meridien Hotel in Paris on June 14, 1980, claiming that he was one of those responsible for the plan to build the Iraqi reactor.

The assassination was carried out by members of the "Kidon" unit responsible for assassinations in the Mossad.

After years of intelligence work to prevent the construction of the "Tammuz reactor," Israel decided to bomb it in 1981 (French)

bomb the reactor

In the end, Sherf sums up his memoirs about the "New Era" campaign, saying, "At the beginning of 1981, it was clear to the Israelis that the intelligence campaign, the Mossad's bombings and assassinations did not prevent the progress of building the Iraqi nuclear reactor, which was nearing completion."

And then, "the deputy head of the Mossad informed Prime Minister Begin that only a military attack could eliminate the Iraqi nuclear program."

In June 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed the "Tammuz" nuclear reactor and destroyed it.