Had diplomatic punitive steps gone in much more significant directions, this would have had a far greater impact on the Iranians.By Yaakov Lappin, JNSIn a rare public announcement on Oct. 26, Israel’s Mossad intelligence organization exposed the identity of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander whom it said was responsible for a global terror network targeting Israelis and Jews, including failed plots in Australia, Greece and Germany.The announcement identified the commander as Sardar (Persian for Commander) Amar, the head of Corps 11,000 in the Quds Force, operating under the direct command of Quds Force Commander Esmail Qa’ani.According to the Prime Minister’s Office, which relayed the statement on behalf of Mossad, Amar’s unit was directly responsible for the attempted attacks in 2024-2025.The exposure of the plots, which relied on recruiting foreigners and local criminals to maintain “plausible deniability,” led to a wave of arrests and diplomatic fallout, including Australia expelling the Iranian ambassador and Germany reprimanding its envoy.While the exposure is one of many significant intelligence victories over Iranian global terror plots, observers in Israel warn that Iran’s regime views such diplomatic penalties as a non-issue.Oded Ailam, a former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad and currently a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS that Iran’s use of criminal proxies is a well-established tactic.“This pattern of operation stems from the overall Iranian perception of the method of operating and recruiting agents. The Iranian method does not shy away from what is called ‘fire and forget’ recruitment. Unlike the classic Western concept of nurturing the agent, protecting his security, and that same ‘asset’ for the long term, this does not exist with the Iranians. For the Iranians, these are disposable cups,” said Ailam.He added that because Iran already considers itself a “pariah state,” it is immune to the kind of diplomatic pressure that Western countries apply to it.“[The Iranians] are not paying a significant price in their eyes. It could be that for another country, an act of expelling an ambassador is a very dramatic and important act; for the Iranians, it is nothing,” he said.Had diplomatic punitive steps gone in much more significant directions, such as the confiscation of all Iranian assets in a given country, or banning business deals with Iranian entities, this would have a far greater impact on the Iranians, Ailam assessed.The Quds Force Unit 11,000 and its low-level, high-volume terror model received a boost in Iran, following the 12-day war with Israel in June this year, after other top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders were eliminated.The option of low-level international terror attacks “became a very preferred option by the Revolutionary Guards, for the reason that a large part of the other options simply no longer exist. And therefore, we are definitely seeing organization, we are seeing resources, we are seeing even a diversion of resources in this direction,” said Ailam.Despite the high success rate of Israeli and Western intelligence in foiling these plots, Ailam warned that Iran is playing a numbers game that will likely, eventually, lead to an attack.While the success rate of Mossad, Shin Bet and Military Intelligence is very high, he said, “the Iranians are not stupid. They draw lessons, they change tactics, and also work on the principle of large numbers.”“When you activate such a network so sweepingly, it is impossible to block it hermetically,” he said.“It is not possible in any way, and there will always be that fish that slipped through the holes of the net, and we will always have that one or two or three who will succeed in deceiving us or others, and this must be taken into account.”Dr. Yossi Mansharof, an expert on Iran and Shi’ite political Islam, as well as on pro-Iranian transnational networks in the Persian Gulf, who is a research associate at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told JNS that the Mossad’s announcement was highly significant, uncovering an explicitly antisemitic Iranian terror network.“First, it is important to note that the Mossad announcement stated that the senior officer, Amar, who heads Corps 11000 in the Quds Force, is responsible for a mechanism that promotes attacks against Jewish targets, and not just Israeli ones. In this, one can notice the anti-Semitic motive, which is an important component of the Iranian regime’s aspiration to destroy Israel,” Mansharof said.In recent years, and especially during the recent war, a large number of Iranian intentions to harm Jewish sites and individuals were reportedly thwarted, he noted.For example, it was reported last July that German authorities had arrested a Danish citizen of Iranian origin after he conducted surveillance against Jewish institutions and individuals in Germany.Mansharof explained that the public unmasking of the Iranian terror network and its commander is a direct signal to Tehran, timed to counter Iran’s own desire for revenge after its losses in the war.The exposure of Amar’s name and his unit, he said, is intended to signal to the Iranian regime that Israel knows and is closely monitoring Iran’s growing attempts to promote terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets.He called it “an important and significant success for Israel in the shadow war against Iran.”“Israel seeks to clarify to Tehran that it is ‘burned’ and that its intelligence penetration into the depths of the Iranian regime is still high, as was demonstrated in Operation Rising Lion, in which a long line of senior security and nuclear scientists in Iran were eliminated in targeted strikes,” he said.“The current timing is not surprising. Tehran seeks to avenge Israel for the severe and unprecedented blow inflicted on it in ‘like a lion,’ and since the Iranian desire to harm Israeli and Jewish targets existed even before the war, the motivation for it has only increased.”Mansharof cautioned that Iran’s determination remains strong, and the diplomatic price it has paid so far is insufficient.“In light of the intensity with which Iran operates, as can be seen in the espionage affairs of Israeli citizens who are exposed in Israel time and again, it seems that despite the Israeli success, the Iranian determination and the intensive activity on the part of Iran’s intelligence and espionage mechanisms, do not allow Israel the possibility of stopping for a moment from the monitoring and thwarting efforts against Iranian subversion.”He called on countries to punish Iran with more severe measures for its subversion of their territory as part of its goal of harming Israeli and Jewish interests around the world.It is important to note, he added, that just as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has determined that this is a war of determination, the Western world, led by the United States, must demonstrate determination in the fight against the Iranian regime.“Efforts to support the Iranian opposition must be promoted so that the Iranian people will succeed in fulfilling their wish and ousting the dictatorial regime in Iran,” Mansharof said.“Only in this way will it be possible to bring a solution to the Iranian challenge, which is manifested not only in terror but of course also in the nuclear program, an ambitious missile program, and the brutal repression of human rights in Iran and everywhere the Iranian regime intervenes.”The post ‘Expelling an ambassador is nothing to the Iranians’ appeared first on World Israel News.