Mossad’s internal communications described Gandhi as a “bitter dynast” allegedly involved in “coordinated efforts” to damage Adani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an explosive revelation with far-reaching geopolitical implications, sources have told Sputnik India that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally ordered the country’s spy agency, Mossad, to counter an alleged international campaign aimed at tarnishing the reputation of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

This unprecedented operation, codenamed Operation Zeppelin, reportedly included hacking into the personal servers of Indian political strategist and Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) head Sam Pitroda.

According to highly placed sources, Mossad’s intervention was triggered days after the now-infamous Hindenburg Research report released on January 24, 2023, which accused Adani of orchestrating “the largest con in corporate history.” The bombshell wiped off approximately $150 billion from Adani Group’s valuation and led to one of India’s most severe stock market crashes.

Haifa Deal and Israel’s Strategic Concerns

The timing of the Hindenburg report raised alarms in Tel Aviv, occurring just days before Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) closed a landmark $1.2 billion deal to acquire Haifa Port—Israel’s largest and most strategic shipping hub. Sources told Sputnik India that Netanyahu, present during the finalization of the Haifa deal, raised the issue directly with Adani in a high-level closed-door meeting.

“This report… it is a serious threat to your business, isn’t it?” Netanyahu reportedly asked Adani, who was alone representing his group at the time. Present alongside Netanyahu were key aides, including Eshel Armoni, former Mossad operative and then-chairman of Haifa Port.

Adani’s calm rebuttal—“Not at all. It’s all lies.”—did little to ease Israeli concerns.

Netanyahu, citing the strategic nature of the India-Israel relationship, is believed to have told Adani, “Even if you see no threat, we have to be concerned. If it weakens you, it could sabotage not just this port deal but everything we have worked to build with India.”

According to sources, he described the Hindenburg charges as an “indirect attack” on Israel and assured Adani: “Israel believes in protecting its friends.”

Mossad Launches Operation Zeppelin

Within days, Mossad launched Operation Zeppelin, activating its elite Tzomet (Human Intelligence) and Keshet (Cyber Operations) units. The operation aimed to uncover what Israeli intelligence perceived as a coordinated global effort to derail the Haifa deal and undermine India’s standing.

Targets reportedly included Hindenburg Research’s New York headquarters and its founder Nathan Anderson, who were put under direct surveillance. The operation expanded to monitor hedge funds, activist lawyers, journalists, and political figures allegedly linked to the U.S. Deep State and billionaire George Soros.

One of the most startling aspects of the operation was the cyber intrusion into the Illinois-based residence of Sam Pitroda. Sources claimed that Mossad successfully accessed encrypted chatrooms and backchannel communications allegedly linking senior Indian opposition figures, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, to Anderson’s team.

Citing these findings, sources said Mossad’s internal communications described Gandhi as a “bitter dynast” allegedly involved in “coordinated efforts” to damage Adani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Global Surveillance and Western Media

Mossad’s operations reportedly spanned multiple geographies—ranging from the U.S. and Canada to Europe and Australia. One decrypted email from Anderson, dated September 2023, allegedly confirmed a broader plan: “Nate’s report was just the beginning. More’s coming.”

By January 2024, Adani was privately briefed on the Zeppelin findings by Israeli intelligence operatives in Switzerland. The resulting dossier—spanning 353 pages—accused Western media outlets, USAID, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) of amplifying anti-Adani narratives.

According to sources, USAID played a “central role” in disseminating disinformation through media channels.

In November 2024, intermediaries linked to Mossad reportedly leaked segments of the dossier to Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Guardian. Only French investigative outlet Mediapart published a report. “Most buried the story,” the sources noted.

Legal Blowback and Political Fallout

The dossier’s release coincided with legal actions against Adani by U.S. agencies, reportedly influenced by Biden administration officials. However, these cases collapsed under scrutiny, and sources say they led to the resignation of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace.

In December 2024, Adani’s legal team—led by powerhouse firm Quinn Emanuel—sent a seven-page legal threat to Hindenburg Research. A month later, Nathan Anderson allegedly agreed to dissolve Hindenburg in exchange for immunity, which was revoked after Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025.

Congress Responds

India’s main opposition party, Congress, has categorically denied any links to Hindenburg or foreign entities. In a statement, it called the allegations a diversionary tactic to shift attention away from the serious issues raised by the Hindenburg report.

“This is nothing but a smokescreen to protect the ruling party’s corporate allies,” a Congress spokesperson told local media.

If confirmed, the revelations about Operation Zeppelin mark an extraordinary case of transnational intelligence operations being deployed in the defense of private economic interests. It underscores the evolving nexus between geopolitics, corporate interests, and cyber-espionage.

As of now, neither the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office nor Mossad has commented on the allegations. Gautam Adani’s office has also declined to respond to queries from Sputnik India.

This story is developing.

The Qatar-mediated talks focused on the potential release of new categories of Israeli hostages other than women and children and the parameters of a truce, which the source said differed to the truce agreement that collapsed on Friday.

Israel and Hamas have been considering new parameters for the release of hostages and the truce since before it collapsed.

The truce which began on Nov. 24 saw Hamas release Israeli women and children taken hostage on Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of Palestinians, including women, held in Israeli prisons.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the collapse of the truce, which lasted a week and was extended twice before mediators were unable to find a way for a third extension.

Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women it held. A Palestinian official said the breakdown occurred over female Israeli soldiers.

These incidents show not only the weakness of the security apparatus but also foreign agents’ infiltration in these organs…

In recent years, a series of events have taken place in Iran, which initially were considered as a weakness of the regime’s security organs such as the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization, police, and other parallel security organizations such as the one under supervision of Mojtaba Khamenei (son of Ali Khamenei) overseeing activities of all political figures.

But with the repetition of these events, some of the regime’s leaders expressed concern about the influence of foreign agents in the same security systems. Of course, the regime’s initial reaction in all these cases was at first to deny or diminish its importance, but the dimensions of these events were so extensive that they were forced to admit them after a while.

These events began with the assassination of Iran’s nuclear scientists. In a relatively short period, four of the regime’s elites’ nuclear scientists were killed by unknown individuals in various ways, without any of the assassins being arrested.

However, as a cover-up the incompetence of the security apparatus, the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence claimed that they had arrested the perpetrators of the assassination and brought several people to television who admitted and took the responsibility for the assassinations, but it was later revealed in regime’s factional feud that these individuals all were ordinary prisoners who were forced to confess under torture and with false promises.

One of these people, Maziar Ebrahimi, was able to leave Iran after a while, exposing the regime’s false claim and explaining how he got 600 lashes and had his leg broken under torture to force him to accept the charge in front of the TV camera.

Then, on July 2, 2020, there was an explosion in Natanz’s uranium enrichment site, destroying an important part of the facility along with its centrifuges. No one was arrested in connection with this explosion, and it was said that the bomber had fled Iran.

Not long after, the news of the theft of secret documents related to the regime’s nuclear research from a warehouse on the outskirts of Tehran was published, and it turned out that the volume of documents was so large that they were taken away by several cars.

Later, on November 27, 2020, the regime’s most important nuclear scientist, also known as the father of Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who, according to Revolutionary Guards officials, had a 12-member security team was assassinated. Again, after this incident, conflicting news about how this assassination was carried out was announced by various organs as well as Fakhri Zadeh’s sons. Some said, “a couple of teams of enemy personnel took part in this operation”, some other said, “the operation was carried out by satellite, and no one was present at the scene”, and … again, without any of the assassins being arrested.

They then stole information about the regime’s space agency by piercing the roof of the space agency’s office and opening a safe containing documents. Again, at first, the regime denied it, calling it an ordinary theft without explaining what the ordinary thieves were looking for in the space agency building!

Then there was another explosion in Natanz site on April 21, 2021, destroying hundreds of centrifuges in the bomb-proof basements, which experts say would take at least nine months to rebuild and caused several billion dollars in damage.

The latest in these series of attacks was a drone strike on a regime centrifuge factory near the city of Karaj in mid-June, which some sources say caused severe damage to this center. Again, the regime initially claimed that the attack was on the Coronavirus vaccine factory next to the building, but later was revealed that the target was a centrifuge factory.

All these incidents show not only the weakness of the security apparatus but also foreign agents’ infiltration in these organs, who have easily and successfully carried out all these operations without even a single person being arrested.

As Alireza Zakani, head of the Research Center of the Iranian Parliament, said, “Spies are moving freely in Iran”.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the regime’s expediency council and one of the presidential candidates, acknowledged some of these events on April 14^th and said, “The country has experienced widespread security infection, and for example, in less than a year, three important security incidents have occurred, two explosions and one assassination”.

Former regime President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said in a video interview that the top person in charge of dealing with spies in the Ministry of Intelligence was himself a spy.

And now Ali Younesi, the former Minister of Intelligence, says that the security organizations parallel with the Ministry of Intelligence, instead of combating the infiltration of foreign spies, are controlling, and combating insiders, which has opened an opportunity for the world’s intelligence services to infiltrate and today we are right to be worried for everywhere and everything that happens. He even advised regime leaders to be concerned about their own safety.

All these facts point to a corrupt regime whose leaders, contrary to their ostensible claims and pretending religious sanctification, because of moral corruption and their greed for material gain have fallen into the trap of other countries’ spy agencies and work for them. Not only do they not care about Iran’s interests, but their only concern is the anger of the people and their uprising to overthrow the regime.

Aware of this fact, Khamenei’s intention to appoint Raessi as president is not to counter the influence of foreign forces and to protect and care for the country, but to further suppress and control the Iranian people.

As Ahmadinejad said in his recent speech, “instead of using security cameras to guard important centers of the country and protect these places, the security forces have installed cameras and are controlling my house”.

It is obvious that no country can survive in such a manner for a long time, and it should not take long to witness this regime being toppled by the people of Iran and its resistance.

Cyrus Yaqubi is a Research Analyst and Iranian Foreign Affairs Commentator investigating the social issues and economy of the middle east countries in general and Iran in particular.

The newly formed intelligence cooperation between Israel and several Arab states has already thwarted Iranian attacks.

The magnitude of the terrorist threat in the Middle East has grown steadily since the outset of the so-called “Arab Spring.” The need to modernize intelligence in the service of counterterrorism is a matter of particular concern to the Persian Gulf states, which share the common goal of impeding the spread of Iran’s transnational terrorist network and reducing the damage caused by Iran-affiliated Shiite militias. The newly formed intelligence cooperation between Israel and several Arab states has already thwarted Iranian attacks.

The large-scale withdrawal of US military forces from the Middle East, which occurred during the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, handed Iran an opportunity to dominate the region. The American retreat made the GCC states even more wary of Tehran’s malign influence and intentions.

The new peace agreements between Israel and its new Arab allies in the region, which found common ground with Jerusalem over their common fear of the Iranian regime, did more than secure freedom of navigation in international waters. They opened the Persian Gulf to Israeli intelligence, a consequence that was a shock to the mullahs in isolated Iran. The regime is on a quest to be the regional hegemon, and it is going after that goal via terrorism and a dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran threatens freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and supports the operations of the Shiite transnational terrorist network it painstakingly constructed.

During the past two months, Israel’s Mossad alerted the intelligence communities of its new Arab allies to threats coming from Iran, and the Israeli embassy in Ethiopia was put on high alert. Iran, which targeted embassies in the 1990s with the help of al-Qaeda, was suspected of planning a similar terrorist spree at embassies, this time to send a message to the Biden administration that it has to make a deal with Iran and make it fast.

Mossad is believed to have conveyed the message to its Arab allies that Iran was planning a series of attacks on Israeli, UAE, and US targets around the world, particularly in Africa. On February 15, 2021, Ethiopian authorities arrested 16 suspects who were planning an attack on the UAE embassy in Addis Ababa. According to the Ethiopian authorities, the Iranian cell had planned an attack on the UAE embassy in Sudan as well.

As these arrests indicate, cooperation on counterterrorism between Israel and its Arab allies will hinder the ability of the IRGC Quds Force to activate sleeper cells and conduct terrorist attacks.  

Planned Iranian terrorist attacks on Israeli, Emirati, and American embassies in an unspecified country in east Africa were thwarted in January thanks to this new intelligence cooperation. Iran had sent agents to east Africa to collect intelligence on those embassies for the purpose of carrying out future attacks. Some of the agents involved were European citizens with Iranian dual citizenship, including the mastermind of the foiled plot.

Tensions are high in the region over concerns that President Biden will return to the Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran and lift the sanctions placed on Iran by President Trump. The form Biden’s nuclear diplomacy will take with Iran is not yet clear, but it is to be hoped that he will take into account the US intelligence community’s ample information on Iran’s support for, and direction of, terrorist groups.

Article first published on Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

Erfan Fard is a counterterrorism analyst and Middle East Studies researcher based in Washington, DC. Twitter: @EQFARD.