I'm also told that Israel Israeli officials actually briefed u.s.

Officials on this operation But only after it took place only after we learned that is my al-hanaya had been killed in this What's also interesting here is that this guest house was actually under the control of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and so this represents a stunning breach of security for them a very big embarrassment for the IRGC and We've reached out to Iranian officials for comments on this, but we know of course that we heard yesterday from Iran's a supreme leader vowing revenge saying that Israel has quote paved the way for your harsh Punishment this assassination has put this region on a knife's edge in addition, of course to the Israeli strike in Beirut Just hours before this that took out a senior Hezbollah commander.

There are now threats of retaliation Not only from Iran But also from Hezbollah and Hamas putting this region and this area where I am right now in northern Israel Very much on edge as the possibility of retaliation now looms Aaron Thank you very much.

Jeremy diamond Cedric Leighton joins me now Colonel Cedric Leighton Colonel Jeremy's reporting is really stunning and he mentioned this but let's just emphasize this again.

He is reporting that ostensibly Some Israeli operative although they have not confirmed their involvement Planted an IED in Tehran in a guesthouse controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the elite IRGC two months ago and then remotely detonated it when they knew that the guy they wanted to get was actually staying in that house Holy cow Yeah, holy cow is right here.

And this is a classic operation You know kind of in line with the tradition of Israeli intelligence going back, you know Almost to the founding of Israel and what the Israelis if they did this What they were able to do was Jeremy pointed out was breach security in a really remarkable way The IRGC the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is very much in control of a lot of different aspects of Iranian life But they weren't in direct control of this guest house Which was ostensibly their own guest house and whoever breached this and you know the supposition is that it was Israel, but whoever did this did a remarkable job and the fact also has to be noted that this was not detected for probably over two months if you know if Jeremy's Reporting is in his sources are accurate.

So that that really indicates that you know people were quite frankly overcome by You know by their own sloppiness in this particular case and This this very fact on the Iranian side shows that Israel has been able to penetrate Their security apparatus quite a bit and that of course Signals some major weaknesses in the Iranian structure.

I mean Jeremy just to emphasize this and and I know Obviously, I don't know if your reporting is is how detailed it is on the form of an IED But you have an improvised explosive device inside a guest house Which would presumably mean no one was sweeping it or checking it before this Hamas leader Came in or in fact any time in the past two months, which would seem to be just a really basic basic point of protocol Yeah, look we don't know exactly what kind of explosive device this was we don't know exactly where it was hidden whether this was something That could have evaded the typical checks that the IRGC would conduct on this, but I think one clear Failure of security here is the fact that this guest house the reason why this bomb was planted there is because it was a guest house where Ismail Haniyeh was known to have stayed and so This indicates that Haniyeh was a repeat guest in this same location, which is obviously a security a major security Vulnerability that the Israelis appear to have exploited here And so we don't know exactly how this happened, but there's no question that there will be Major questions asked within the IRGC within Iran's top political and military echelons about how this could have possibly Happened and I also think it's notable that yesterday Iranian state media was reporting that this was a rocket that was fired from outside Into this guest house that actually killed Haniyeh But the fact that it was actually something that was planted in the guest house suggests even additional layers of failure It also makes clear that this was not Fired by a drone or by a fighter jet that would have violated Iranian airspace So that also may factor into how Iran chooses to retaliate for this assassination And that's a significant point as well Colonel it also though what Jeremy's saying does just make one thing sort of unbelievably clear So let's just say it in black and white That means a human being is involved who's in Tehran who actually gets access to this guest house and plant something at some point There is a human being Infiltration, which is different than what Jeremy's saying They had originally been put out there about a rocket or a drone, right?

Which could be completely done remotely that shows actual physical human involvement colonel It does absolutely and it's really a classic case of in essence a clandestine operation These are the kinds of operations you would have seen the British conduct in World War two with a special operations executive In Europe you would have seen the OSS the forerunner of the CIA doing stuff like this also in that conflict and The Mossad has a history of doing things of this type In various countries around the world and of course, Iran is a prime target We know a lot about the you know, many of the nuclear scientists who have been killed in Iran ostensibly by the Israelis that kind of operation and the fact that these things are continuing that there's such a Significant penetration of IRGC security at a guest house that is frequented by people like Ania That really shows that as Jeremy said there's a significant weakness in their security apparatus And they you know, they really didn't didn't take care of things.

All right.

Thank you very much Colonel and Jeremy for that incredible and significant reporting on that assassination