Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:06:54 GMT
Revelations of a secret Israeli spy base, which was allegedly set up in Ankara to gather classified information on Iran and Syria, has dragged Tel Aviv into a new spy scandal.
Sources in Turkey's ruling party told Russia's Mignews that Israeli spy agents ran an advanced electronic monitoring station from the Ankara military headquarters to keep tabs on communication networks in Iran and Syria.
According to the sources who were speaking on condition of anonymity, the Signals Intelligence station was solely managed by Israeli intelligence personnel and had become off-limits for members of the Turkish government.
Israeli military sources have refused to comment on the revelations, which are likely to spark an outcry in Turkey, now that they have been leaked to newspapers and media outlets.
This is not the first time Israel finds itself at the centre of a major spy scandal.
For years Israeli politicians have masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Switzerland, and the US.
However, much of Israel's espionage operations are focused on the Tehran government, largely because of Iran's uranium enrichment activities, which is seen by Israel as a mortal threat.
Israel, which is reported to have an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads itself, accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and routinely threatens to reduce the country's enrichment sites to rubble.
This is while Iran, unlike Israel, is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has opened its enrichment facilities to UN inspection.
In mid-2009, Israeli President Shimon Peres paid a visit to Azerbaijan, one of Iran's northern neighbors, and reportedly managed to persuade the Baku government into signing an unspecified "document" on the construction of a plant in Azerbaijan to manufacture spyware, satellite projects and pilotless military vehicles.
Israeli daily Haaretz quoted former Israeli Ambassador to Baku Arthur Lenk as saying that the deal got through after four years of negotiations.
US analysts believe Israel, having failed to win US support for a military attack on Iran, is now seeking to derail Iran's uranium enrichment program by other means.
"With cooperation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key assets involved in the nuclear program and the sabotaging of the Iranian nuclear supply chain," said Reva Bhalla, director of analysis with Strategic Forecasting also known as Stratfor, a Texas-based private intelligence company with close links to the US security establishment.
Bhalla claims that Israeli operatives target Iranian nuclear scientists as part of efforts to intimidate Iranians and prevent them from continuing enrichment work. She goes as far as saying that there was "strong intelligence" that one of Iran's leading nuclear physicists, Ardeshir Hassanpour, was killed by the Mossad in January 2007.
Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, another Iranian nuclear scientist, is also believed to be assassinated by Israel's Mossad spy agency in the Iranian capital, Tehran on January 12.
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