Ayatollah Khomeini
Revealed: Mossad was asked to kill Ayatollah Khomeini
Book by former Mossad official Yossi Alpher details secret relationships with Irans Shahs and an unusual request to take the life of the revolutionary Ayatollah.
In a shocking revelation at a special conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, it was revealed that former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister before the Islamic Revolution, asked Mossad agents in Tehran to assassinate the leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.
The new information was revealed with the release of a new book from Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official. In it's pages, Alpher saying that Eliezer Tzafrir received the request from Bakhtiar in January 1979 to kill Khomeini who was living in Paris at the time after being deported from Iraq.
Mossad agents briefly considered a request to assassinate Ayatollah Khomeini.
Iraq offered to hand Khomeini to the Shah in Iran to be executed, but the leader refused and the revolutionary found assylum in France.
Israel maintained a top secret relationship with the Shahs of Iran and carried out deals that included extensive sales of arms produced in Israeli factories. Additionally, the two countries created an intimate relationship in the field of intelligence.
After Tzafrir received the request of serious implications, the message was passed on to Mossad officials in Tel Aviv who met to discuss their options.
"Mossad director Yitzhak Hofi announced at the beginning of the meeting that wasn't prone to support the request on moral grounds but asked to hear the opinions of those who were present," said Alpher. "I told the heads of the Mossad that I had difficulty supporting the request because we didn't know enough about who and what Khomeini was. I really regret not supporting that request."
