Israel Kidnapped Iranian Generals in Decades-Long Hunt for Missing Airman Ron Arad

OPA WIRE, Nov 15 (OPA) — Gen. Abdullah Saberi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps veteran, was abducted while jogging in an upscale diplomatic quarter of Damascus. Israeli intelligence officers posing as movers slipped past local security checkpoints, intercepted the commander near a public park, subdued and drugged him, and concealed him inside an oversized refrigerator box before transferring him to a white van.

The captive officer was subsequently whisked across the border to Israel for intensive interrogation by security personnel. According to Middle Eastern officials, including senior Iranian sources close to General Saberi and a Syrian official who reviewed surveillance footage, the questioning focused exclusively on the fate of Ron Arad, an Israeli airman who vanished in Lebanon in 1986.

Mr. Arad remains the sole Israeli service member officially classified as missing in action, cementing his status as a powerful symbol of the state's vow to recover its troops dead or alive. Over the past four decades, the search for the downed navigator has spawned numerous government investigations, intelligence initiatives, books, and documentaries that have continuously captivated the Israeli public.

The decision to snatch a high-ranking Iranian general from the shadow of his own embassy underscores the extreme lengths to which the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus have gone to resolve the case. Despite alternative theories regarding Mr. Arad's disappearance that received little traction over the years, the government's steadfast conviction that Tehran held the answers drove the operation.