Doomsday Clock Ticks Closer as Israel Released Iran Operation Footage to Trigger 21,000 Arrests
As the doomsday clock ticks closer, former Mossad chief David Barnea disclosed that Israel deliberately released footage of its operatives in Iran during the June 2025 conflict to trigger mass arrests by Iranian authorities and protect real agents.
Doomsday Clock and Mossad's Deliberate Footage Release
Former Mossad chief David Barnea has said Israel intentionally released images of their covert operation in Iran during the June 2025 conflict to provoke mass arrests and make it harder for Iranian forces to find real Israeli agents. [1] “One of the reasons we immediately released an official video on the morning of Operation Rising Lion, with the Mossad logo, was to protect the agents who were there,” Barnea said, according to comments The Jerusalem Post reported on 25 October. [1] Barnea said the leak of the footage of Israeli operations in Iran was not just an attempt to showcase the Mossad’s reach but also a strategy to overwhelm Iranian counterintelligence, causing them to make mass arrests, making it more difficult to distinguish operatives from ordinary citizens. [1] “We wanted to make sure they arrested so many people in Iran that they wouldn’t be able to distinguish the wheat from the chaff and would eventually release everyone,” he said. [1]
Scale of Iranian Arrests
Barnea said Iranian authorities arrested 21,000 people during the operation. [1] The strategy aimed to cause so many arrests that Iranian forces could not distinguish real Israeli operatives from ordinary citizens, leading to eventual release of detainees. [1]
Iran's Secret Military Import Network
Iran has created a secret network of military agencies with global reach to import at least $2 billion in hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025, evading both the US naval blockade and Western sanctions, a Reuters investigation has found. [2] Hidden behind names starting with the letters MOD, for the Ministry of Defense, are more than 5,000 agencies that form a formidable financial and military machine. [2] Their financial footprints are on bills of lading and other shipping data dating back to 2016. [2] Some are tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and to business conglomerates known as bonyads that are controlled by Iran's elite. [2] The findings offer a window into one of the war’s great mysteries: How is the IRGC replenishing its missile and drone arsenals while firing them in the thousands? [2] In the 18 months from January 2025 to June 2026 - including four months into this year’s war - a single one of these agencies, MOD 346428, imported huge quantities of rocket propellants, explosives and weapons components that are critical for making drones and missiles, as well as heavy-duty trucks that can serve as missile launchers. [2] The hardware came in by land, sea and air - much of it recorded as originating in China, Russia and Germany. [2] This investigation of the MOD network is based on thousands of Iranian bank and government records, corporate filings and import data. [2] The secret agencies all share the same Tehran address as Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, or MODAFL. [2] They list their incorporation date as February 11, 1979, the day Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran after overthrowing the monarchy. [2] Most were actually established in 2013, the records show, as Iran struggled under sanctions that saw its crude exports and currency plunge. [2] The agencies, identified for the first time by Reuters in collaboration with the Israeli-American risk consultancy 240 Analytics, form the backbone of Iran’s military procurement and sanctions evasion apparatus. [2] They operate a web of frontmen and foreign shell companies, collectively known as trustees, who use the proceeds from illicit oil sales to buy goods for the Islamic Republic. [2]
Key Materials and End Users
Senior military leaders involved in Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs use the network. [2] Phone numbers registered to 91 of the agencies also appear in records from state-run Bank Sepah of IRGC personnel with accounts there. [2] Among them are at least two commanders the US has accused of abuses against civilian protestors. [2] The weapons import network has provided many of the raw materials Iran needs to make missiles and drones. [2] Those munitions are responsible for Iran’s relentless precision attacks against Gulf energy infrastructure, allowing the Islamic Republic to blunt America’s military assault. [2] During the first six months of this year, according to the import data, deliveries included $1.9 million worth of detonators, tonnes of explosives, aircraft engine parts, rocket fuel ingredients and heavy-duty launch vehicles. [2] All could be used as key components to build and fire ballistic missiles and drones, including the Shahed series, according to weapons and sanctions experts. [2] One end user of the network is the military unit overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile program. [2] Another is Sahara Thunder, which was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for manufacturing and supplying drones to Russia that have devastated Ukraine. [2] “This looks like an industrial-scale effort to rebuild or expand Iran's existing fleet” of drones and missiles, said Peter Salisbury, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University who has spent the past several years researching Iranian arms transfers and supply chains. [2] “This data clearly shows the Iranian ecosystem’s adaptability and its ability to find new routes.” [2]
Iranian Defense Minister's Statement
Iran's Defense Minister stated the country is boosting military capabilities to respond without geographical limits amid mediation efforts. [3] Remarks come amid Qatari, Pakistani mediation efforts to revive talks between Washington and Tehran. [3]
US and International Reactions
In a statement in response to the Reuters findings, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said the United States “has severed the regime’s economic lifelines.” [2] “While the regime may continue its desperate attempts to evade our powerful sanctions, fund its military and weapons programs, and access foreign currency, we are always 10 steps ahead,” the spokeswoman said. [2] None of the Iranian government entities or companies contacted by Reuters responded to detailed requests for comment, including Tehran’s UN delegation to Geneva and the presidency. [2] In response to detailed questions about the Reuters findings, China’s Foreign Ministry said it was “unaware of the situation you describe.” [4] “We firmly oppose attempts to maliciously link regional hostilities to China or smear China’s reputation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement. [4] Russia’s Defense Ministry, the White House and CENTCOM did not respond to requests for comment. [4]
What to watch next: Iran has continued to fire on its neighbors and on ships trying to transit Hormuz while the United States and Israel have targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and drone operations from the start of this year’s war on February 28, including factories the Pentagon said were turning out munitions. [2]
