Three Israeli spies have been detained in a joint operation with Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The three Mossad agents who held Iranian nationality were detained in the mountainous region between Iran and Afghanistan.
News of the arrests came a day after a Taliban delegation arrived in Tehran for meetings with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other top officials. The three Israeli agents had been planning to launch kamikaze drone attacks from the Afghan border towards targets in Iran. They will be transferred to Iran for interrogation. They are thought to be in Afghanistan.
A statement is circulating on social media platforms that is apparently linked with the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It says that the Taliban’s interim government in Kabul has requested permission from its neighbors to enter Jerusalem in order to fight the Israeli army.
The statement has been seen going viral in Urdu and English, and even Israeli newspapers have also reported the statement. Israel National News reports that the”Taliban terror organization, which controls Afghanistan, has reportedly asked its neighbors for passage so it could join Hamas in its attack on Israel.”
The Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan issued a statement and said: “Afghanistan has been closely monitoring the recent events in the Gaza Strip and considers such events to be the result of the violation of the rights of the oppressed Palestinian nation by the Israeli Zionists and repeated insults and disrespect to Muslim holy places.”
The statement reads, “Any kind of defense and the resistance of the Palestinian people for the freedom of the land and holy places is their legitimate right.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan declares its support for the legitimate, historical and legal right of the Palestinian people to have a permanent country in the historical Palestinian land and calls upon the Islamic countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the international community and especially the influential countries in the region to stop the violence of the Israeli occupying forces.”
Tehran accuses Israel of having carried out a wave of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme. The Islamic Republic does not recognize Israel, its arch enemy, and the two countries have engaged in a shadow war for years.
In August, security services claimed to have foiled an Israeli plot to sabotage its ballistic missile production. They claimed to have arrested several people.
Tehran has also accused Israel of being behind a January drone attack on a defense ministry site in the central province of Isfahan.
Iran has emerged as one of the most strident voices against the brutal Israeli bombardment of Gaza. This is in line with its staunch anti-Israel foreign policy. The two Middle Eastern nations are often described as archenemies.
The Palestinian issue has been at the center of the hostilities for decades, and Tehran has been warning Israel and its closest ally, the US, that the war with Hamas could spread as Tel Aviv has escalated attacks beyond Gaza. Israel has bombed positions in Lebanon and Syria, two countries where Tehran wields considerable influence.
