Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has revealed for the first time that Africa was the geographic area where spies from his agency carried out their “dress rehearsal” for the now famous operation in which they broke into Iran’s secret nuclear archives in January 2018.
The operation changed the course of history as it was the impetus for then-first-term US President Donald Trump to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal shortly after the operation’s results were revealed in spring 2018.
In turn, Trump pulling out of the deal and the failure of the parties involved to reach a new agreement are viewed by most as leading to the two wars with Iran in June 2025 and early 2026, and eventually to the deal signed on June 17 between second-term Trump and Iran.
In the book Target Tehran, published in 2023, a vast majority of the details are revealed regarding the Mossad operation, with Cohen himself adding some new information in his 2025 book, The Sword of Freedom.
One of the most crucial details had still been left out until now, however: where the dress rehearsal took place. While seemingly just one of many small details, it was actually significant.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposes files that prove Iran’s nuclear program in a press conference at the Kirya government headquarters in Tel Aviv, on April 30, 2018 (credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)Mission impossible: Archives breached, nuclear documents snatched
The ability of dozens of Mossad agents to breach the highly protected Iranian nuclear archives facility without setting off any alarms or alerting Iranian authorities for the 6 hours and 29 minutes they were there, and about two hours afterward, allowed them to seize entire bookshelves of the original nuclear documents, and for every single person to escape unharmed.
This operation was only possible because the team practiced beforehand using a full, life-sized model of the facility, including huge, heavy steel safes that required flamethrowers reaching 3,600 degrees to cut through them.
Despite numerous requests by The Jerusalem Post over the years, the identity of the geographic area was always kept under wraps due to various security and diplomatic concerns.
It is unclear what changed, which allowed Cohen to disclose this detail now, but it could relate, in part, to the intense beating that Iranian security and terror entities took during the recent war.
The report was also carried by Maghreb Online.
Morocco joined the Abraham Accords during Cohen’s term as Mossad chief
Interestingly, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords during Cohen’s term as Mossad chief, and there could have been overlap between the dress rehearsal and the period when he was secretly negotiating normalization with the country.
However, the Post has no evidence that the dress rehearsal took place in Morocco, and Israel has quiet relations with many countries viewed as off the radar.
In his interview, Cohen explained that such a large rehearsal in Israel of such a specific site could have drawn too much attention.
Morocco also has very close military relations with Israel and has publicly undertaken joint military drills as well as sent officers to the Jewish state earlier this week to work on developments for an International Stabilization Force in Gaza.