חשיפה: קשרים הדוקים בין שירותי הביטחון של ישראל ועיראק
حصري: علاقات وطيدة بين اجهزة الامن الاسرائيلية والعراقية
You will read in today’s news that the Philippines arrested and deported to an Iraqi national suspected of working as a bombmaker or “rocket engineer” for Hamas. But you didn’t read and won’t read anywhere that contrary to Israeli law, its intelligence services tracked Taha Muhammad Al-Jabouri to the Philippines after he left Iraq, and asked Iraqi security services to demand his repatriation to Iraq. This information was conveyed to me by a knowledgeable Israeli security source.
The three countries are involved in an elaborate pretence. Israeli intelligence wants Jabori in Iraq rather than in Asia, because it has an arrangement with the Iraqis to monitor his whereabouts and activities. In return, Israel has promised it will not assassinate him, in similar fashion to last week’s failed bombing of another Hamas weapons dealer in Lebanon.
It seems unusual for Hamas to employ non-Palestinians as weapons makers as in this case. But there is precedent for Israeli intelligence targeting those developing weapons for the Islamist group in foreign countries. It assassinated a Tunisian developing drones for the movement last year.
As the Philippines is fighting an intractable Islamist insurgency, it was only too happy to deport Jabori. But what’s truly interesting here is that despite Iraq being considered a hostile state under Israeli law, to which no Israeli citizen may travel, Israeli intelligence services easily flout such protocols.
Iraq too is a country with a Shia majority and holds hostile views of Israel. So what is in this for the Iraqi intelligence services? That’s an open question I can’t answer. But when there is no obvious interest, Israel finds ways to create them. When it wants Rwanda and Uganda to accept expelled refugees it offers agricultural aid and weapons. When it wants to kidnap Gazans in the Ukraine it offers generous trade and tourism deals. When it wants a UN vote from Bulgaria it simply bribes political leaders there.
Despite Iraq being a hostile nation, Israel permits trade between the two countries (Israel has also purchased oil from Iran and sold military plane parts to Iran in the recent past, all in contravention of international sanctions). So perhaps the quid pro quo comes in the form of covert weapons sales or trade arrangements? Maybe they can ship a few Mercedes limos off to Iraq for security chiefs in return for a few favors?
Hi Richard,
Nearly all of the source articles claiming Iranian oil was sold to Israel and that helicopter (as I read it, not plane parts) were purchased by agents of the IRGC come from Israeli venues (or other venues not exactly in vogue with Iran’s government, even if they claim it).
Do Iranian pistachios find themselves in Israel? Yes, but not by Iranian will — they travel through Turkey. Iran, as with the Iran-Contra scandal, is generally in a position to undo their own sanctions by willingly conveying the Israeli intransigence on the topic, Israel being the tip of the spear on those same sanctions.
The Iranian people generally have a palate for such things and Iran’s government can withstand the notion that Iran sold oil to Israel and bought helicopter parts from Israel. On the other hand, the sanctions cannot.
It remains unconfirmed if that actually occurred, or if it is simply a sort of contrarian style propaganda notably evident in the past intended to demoralize Iran’s conservatives and the integrity of the geopolitical stakes for Iran (notably anti-Anglo-Zionist).
On the petrol front, if you really want to know who is smuggling anything to Israel nowadays, it’s the Kurds. They’re openly searching for conduits on networks like LinkedIn. They openly bear relations with all of the factions necessary and are geographically located with primacy.
And if you want to know who the diplomat of “opening doors” is, it’s Ehud Barak. It’s not a big secret. He’s “left politics” and makes deals.
Soli
@ Soleimani Khan: You’re wrong. The news about oil was published in Europe by a leftist Israeli-Swiss journalist. And parts were sold for Iranian F-4 jets by Israeli arms dealers to Iran. I don’t know anything about helicopter parts, though that’s possible as well.
And contrary to what you imply, these things happened. As for the Kurds, of course they’re selling oil to the Israelis. That’s well known. And much of that oil was first drilled by ISIS (at least until it lost control of those oil fields). But none of this means that Iran wasn’t selling oil to the Israelis.
It seems you have been asleep. There have been several items lately on Israeli television about thawing relations with Iraq. An Israeli citizen recently returned to Bagdhad and a book by an Israeli author was recently translated to Arabic and has raised a lot of interest in Iraq. Winds of change?
Do you have a source which support this Iraqi Israeli contact orbit is your observation based on the facts?
@Ariel Koren: Yes, Israeli Security source. I just added that to the post to make that clear. Although most of my security-oriented scoops here are based on such sources. So I thought it was self-evident.