Top Spy or Secret Traitor? Ahmadinejad’s 2024 Claim Gains New Weight After Khamenei Assassination

In 2024, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an explosive claim that sounded almost like fiction: the boss of Iran’s elite counter‑Mossad unit, tasked with catching foreign spies, was secretly working for Mossad himself. Ahmadinejad added that nearly 20 members of the same unit had also flipped.

At the time, Iranian authorities neither confirmed nor provided evidence for these allegations, and the claims seemed destined to be dismissed as conspiracy.

Fast forward to February 28, 2026. The world watched in disbelief as a precision strike reportedly carried out by U.S. and Israeli forces killed Iran’s Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

In a breaking news announcement correspondent Jon Donnison was in Jerusalem and explained they woke up to the sounds of the sirens. He continued, "About an hour ago we saw Iranian missiles shot down by Israel just directly above our hotel."

Jon went on: "We had a missile land in Jerusalem. The first, I think, of this war with five people likely injured."

Labour's Secretary of State, Yvette Cooper, joined Breakfast hosts Jon Kay and Sally Nugent as she made the UK's position clear amid ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

It comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed he would allow the US to use UK military bases for defensive action but it could spell bad news for Trump.

"We made a deliberate decision to not provide support for US strikes that were taking place over the weekend," Ms Cooper explained.

"We continue to take the view that we wanted to see diplomatic progress and negotiated agreement around this threat on Iranian nuclear weapons."

She added: "We want to continue to see a de-esclatation."

There are currently an estimated 300,000 British citizens in other gulf countries that are being targeted by Iranian missiles.

Concern over the prospect of US strikes against Iran led a number of countries to issue warnings to their citizens in the region on Friday.

The UK temporarily withdrew staff from its embassy in Tehran and updated its travel guidance to advise against "all but essential travel" to Israel.

Countries including China, India and Canada urged their citizens to leave Iran as soon as possible due to the prospect of hostilities. Germany advised "urgently" against travel to Israel while France reiterated its advice not to do so.

The US president stressed that he did not want to use military force against Iran, but said sometimes "you have to".