Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated at an IRGC residence in Tehran -

Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in three separate rooms of a building where a Hamas leader was staying, the Telegraph has learned.

The original plan was to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of the Palestinian terror group, in May when he attended the funeral of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s former president.

The operation didn’t go ahead due to the large crowds inside the building and the high possibility of its failure, two Iranian officials told The Telegraph.

Instead, the two agents placed explosive devices in three rooms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) guesthouse in north Tehran where Haniyeh might stay.

The agents were seen moving stealthily as they entered and exited multiple rooms within minutes, according to the officials who have CCTV footage of the building.

The operatives are then said to have snuck out of the country but had a source still in Iran. At 2am on Wednesday, they detonated the explosives from abroad in the room where Haniyeh was staying.

The explosion killed Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” an official within the IRGC told the Telegraph from Tehran, referring to an IRGC unit responsible for the safety of high-ranking officials.

He said: “Upon further investigation, they discovered additional explosive devices in two other rooms.”

A second official within the elite military forces of the IRGC told the Telegraph: “This is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”

The official said a working group had been established to come up with ideas to portray the assassination as not being a security breach.

“It’s still a question for everyone how it happened, I can’t make sense of it. There must be something higher up in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” he added.

There is now an internal blame game taking over the IRGC, with different sectors accusing each other of the failure, revealed the first official who spoke to The Telegraph.

Esmail Qaani, the commander of the IRGC Quds force, has been summoning people to be fired, arrested and possibly executed, he said. “The breach has humiliated everyone.”

The official added: “The Supreme Leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days, he wants answers.

“For him, addressing the security breach is now more important than seeking revenge.”

The IRGC is currently evaluating its options for retaliation, with a direct strike on Tel Aviv being a primary consideration, which would involve Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies, the Telegraph understands.

The assassination of Haniyeh in the Iranian capital has intensified fears about Israel’s reach and influence within Iran.

Ali Younisi, Iran’s former intelligence minister, expressed concerns in a 2020 interview, saying, “All the officials of the Islamic Republic should be worried about their lives.”

“If the Zionist regime has not yet targeted the political authorities of the Islamic Republic, it is because it has not chosen to do so,” he said.

“This negligence to Mossad has allowed it to strike repeatedly and openly threaten the officials of the Islamic Republic,” he added

‘Intentional’ coincidence

The assassination of Haniyeh also coincided with Mr Pezeshkian’s first day in office.

During his election campaign, he had distanced himself from previous provocative policies of the Islamic Republic and promised to restore Iran’s position on the international stage through dialogue.

A close aide to Mr Pezeshkian suggested to The Telegraph that the security lapse may have been an intentional bid by the IRGC to harm the new president’s reputation.

The aide, who worked on Mr Pezeshkian’s election campaign, claimed the IRGC does not approve of his views on international diplomacy and other aspects of his reformist politics.

“No unharmed brain can accept that this happened by accident, especially on Mr Pezeshkian’s first day in office,” he said. “He may have to go to war with Israel in his first few days in office and it’s all because of the IRGC.”

However, Mr Pezeshkian’s son announced on Friday night that the nation’s priority “is not a war with Israel”

“Poverty, corruption, discrimination, inequality and wasteful political factions and debates are the real fronts in which the Iranian people are fighting against in our country,” Dr Yousef Pezeshkian has said on his website.

“Social reforms and progress in Iran are the best counter-attacks that we can direct at Israel,” he added.

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