The IDF called on Iranian dissidents to contact it on Thursday amid continuing tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
“We ask patriotic Iranian people to please follow only our official contact channels and get in touch with us for any kind of cooperation,” the IDF appealed on its official Persian-language X/Twitter account, noting that the links listed in the post were the only official accounts.
“Please ensure that you only follow and interact with the official Israeli government pages in Persian on the Telegram platform,” a Persian-language graphic attached to the post, labeled “important notice,” stated, noting that non-official pages may expose users to misinformation or “hostile elements.”
This is not the first time Israel has tried to reach out to Iranian dissidents.
At the start of the protests in December, an X/Twitter account that has been associated with the Mossad urged Iranians to protest against the Islamic regime, telling them that Mossad operatives were physically with them at the demonstrations.
“Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the post read. “We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”
Additionally, during the Israel-Iran War in June, the IDF’s Farsi account called on dissident Iranians to contact the Mossad.
In the post, the IDF wrote that Israel understands the “difficult situation and circumstances that the regime has created,” as they have received many concerned messages from the relatives of Iranian civilians.
“Even those who identify themselves as members of the regime’s security institutions express their fear, despair, and anger at what is happening in Iran and ask us to contact Israeli authorities – so that Iran does not suffer the same fate as Lebanon and Gaza,” the IDF wrote.
“We understand that you are yearning for a better future. May God Almighty be your helper and companion,” the IDF’s post concluded.
In June, Mossad Director David Barnea alleged that Israel “will [continue to] be there [Iran], like we have been there,” he told Mossad agents in an address.
He also revealed that the Mossad had worked for months and years “to do all of the right actions to get to the right moment…We understood the fatefulness of the hour.”
Before the war with Iran, Mossad agents had been monitoring nuclear sites in Iran for nearly 15 years, The Times reported in June.
One source told the outlet that the Mossad had “boots on the ground” at several different locations across Iran since 2010.