east's most implacable foes, israel and iran, have been embroiled in a shadow war. the biggest flashpoint is iran's nuclear programme. israel does not believe iran's assertions that it is a purely peaceful civil one. we have our intelligence capabilities to go after those who try to threaten us. the past few years has seen an accelerating pattern of hostile actions by both countries. this shadow war has now taken a dangerous turn. iran's most prominent nuclear scientist has been assassinated, and there have been explosions in nuclear and missile facilities. those behind such activities must have an exquisite understanding of iran's nuclear enterprise. former iranian officials are worried. mossad, israel's foreign intelligence agency, has infiltrated iran's security and intelligence services. the iranian authorities won't speak to the bbc but i have travelled to israel to investigate mossad's role in the attacks against iran's nuclear and missile facilities. tehran. late january 2018. in the dead of night, a break in takes place in a storage facility just outside iran's capital. in less than seven hours, thieves break through two doors and melt the locks of dozens of giant safes, escaping with half a ton of iran's clandestine nuclear archive. iranian officials kept quiet. three months later, the stolen documents are showcased in israel. these files clearly show that iran planned to design, build and test nuclear weapons, and here's what we got. 55,000 pages. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu claimed the mossad agents have stolen the archived iranian military and nuclear programme documents from a warehouse in tehran and brought it here to israel. at the time, the iranian officials called it a bluff, a fairy tale. but now we know it was a true story. but during iran's presidential election campaign in 2020, former iranian officials finally confirmed iran's secret nuclear documents were stolen. that's the only place where you find in the core, enriched uranium. a few days after the israelis showcased their stolen documents, donald trump pulled the us out of the iran nuclear deal. iran and israel were allies for a time. but that all ended with iran's 1979 islamic revolution. the country's new leaders branded israel as an imperialist power in the region and put their support behind the palestinian group hamas and hezbollah in lebanon, both hostile to israel. in turn, israel regards iran's potential to build nuclear weapons as a threat to its existence. the two countries now view each other as rivals for power and influence in the region, but have held back from open clashes. i'm almost done. over the past few years, both israeli and iranian tv series have showcased the intelligence war between the two states. gando is a series that is aired on iranian state tv. it highlights iranian revolutionary guards intelligence superiority. but the reality on the ground tells a different story. iran tends to exaggerate its counter—intelligence capacities, which is proven by the fact of what mossad was able to achieve with the acquisition of the nuclear weapons cache. i can't travel to iran, so to explore more about the conflict between israel and iran, i went to tel aviv, one of the most secular cities in israel. it is also the command centre for israel's security and intelligence institutions. israel says for the sake of the existence of the jewish state, they will use every tool available to them to stop iran developing nuclear weapons. for the islamic republic of iran, confronting israel is largely ideological. they say the state of palestine will be created only when israel is wiped off the face of the region. the war with israel also helps the iranian shia regime in its quest for regional hegemony in the predominantly sunni middle east. so the shadow war is a power play that could have serious ramifications beyond tehran and tel aviv, and it has now stepped up a gear. mossad has been so secretive, even many israelis, they don't know where its headquarters is located in israel. mossad has been so secretive, even many israelis, they don't know where its headquarters is located in israel. but we know it is somewhere here in tel aviv. in early 2016, israeli agents report to mossad that iran has moved its clandestine nuclear archive to a warehouse in the suburb of tehran. at the time, yossi cohen was the chief of mossad. once i understood the iranians are accumulating nuclear secrets, as the head of the mossad, i made two important decisions. first, i asked my agents to keep their eyes on the archive�*s movements. second, i asked them to prepare to bring these documents home to me. mossad kept watch on the warehouse for two years. mossad built a copy of a mimic of the whole site. the streets. they even brought dogs to imitate the dogs and to prepare the agents, the operatives. israeli investigative journalist ronen bergman has looked into iran—israel clandestine operations. safes 2.5 metres each that were manufactured in tehran, so they bought under false disguise. they bought two empty safes from the same manufacturer in tehran. they flew them to europe. they flew them to israel, to the mossad site and started to drill them and find what's the fastest way to open them. late january 2018, 10pm at night in tehran. yossi cohen of mossad, orders his agents to start the operation. there were 32 safes, but the agents knew which safes contained the most the most important documents. when they broke into these enormous safes, and started to get into the depth, the first images of the description in persian, which we read in real time, we understand we have what we wanted. we are on the iranian military nuclear plant. this is one of the documents stolen by mossad. the document is very clear. it has iranian bureaucratic system, and is labelled completely secret. there is two suggestions in this document, one suggest that one part of the activity should be completely secret and hidden, and others should be normal. in other parts of the document, there is a suggestion that they should make those secret parts of the activities completely should make those secret parts of the activities completely mobile, so in this way, they might be able to keep it away from spying eyes. israel's acquisition of the nuclear weapons cache in iran is one of the most extraordinary intelligence successes of modern times, and it provided very real and clear evidence that iran and it provided very real and clear evidence that iran was retaining the capability to acquire a nuclear weapon. the iranian leadership always insisted that they never had a plan to produce nuclear weapons. hello. but israelis say theyjudge iran based on their actions, not words. ayatollah khamenei have issued a fatwa. we don't want a nuclear bomb. do you trust him? no. why not? because you don't have to reach to such level if you don't want to have it. if the nuclear bomb doesn't... is not good for iran, why israel have it? i'm not saying israel have it. i'm just saying that iran should not have it. over the past four decades, iranian officials have frequently threatened to wipe israel off the face of the earth. i do believe that there is an open proxy war in the region, in which iran's proxies are the sole aggressor. i do believe that there is an open proxy war in the region, in which iran's proxies are the sole aggressor. the israeli army say the quds force, the elite iranian unit, is equipping lebanese hezbollah and its proxies in syria with sophisticated weapons and armed drones. israeli cities and villages near the golan heights are the prime targets of iranian—backed militias' rocket and missile attacks. we are heading up to golan heights — a very strategic position between syria, lebanon and israel. to understand the role of mossad agents in israel military victories, i visited the former syrian army headquarter in the golan heights. today, it is the eli cohen museum. eli cohen was a mossad agent, who disguised as a syrian. in the �*60s, he penetrated syrian leadership and became a top adviser to the syrian defence minister. today, former iranian officials are worried that mossad has reached officials high up in iranian security and intelligence agencies. the fact that every mishap, every accident, every burned transformer on the iranian electrical grid is immediately attributed to mossad, while most of them, the vast majority are just mishaps. this fear spread intimidation among the ranks of what mossad sees as its main adversaries. in the past two decades, numbers of iran's most prominent nuclear scientists have been assassinated. there have been multiple sabotages in iran's nuclear and military facilities. the stolen iranian secret nuclear archive highlighted the role of mohsen fakhrizadeh. he was the most prominent figure in iran's nuclear programme. military intelligence thought that they should not kill fakhrizadeh because he is not a great bureaucrat. documents showed differently. he understood notjust the physics, notjust science, but also how to run such a big project and do that, of course, in hiding. but mohsen fakhrizadeh was the only individual to have managed the bureaucracy of a covert weaponisation programme. he also retained the confidence of iran's revolutionary guard leadership and the supreme leader himself. this is how dr mohsen fakhrizadeh, head of project amad, put it. remember that name — fakhrizadeh. late november 2020, mohsen fakhrizadeh and his wife were driving to his villa on the outskirts of tehran. his bodyguards�* vehicles were escorting him. suddenly, his convoy came under fire from a heavy machine gun. then a pickup truck packed with wood parked on the side of the road exploded. the mastermind of iran's nuclear programme has been... assassinated after gunmen opened fire on his car. iranian security forces first said there were a number of assailants at the scene. then they changed their accounts. conducted in a surgical fashion, often against moving targets in a major city with no civilian casualties. so this is a tremendous capability, a tremendous understanding of the environment. a former iranian revolutionary guards intelligence officer told me foreign agents have infiltrated iran's security forces. he doesn't want to be identified. those behind such activities must have an exquisite, dynamic and current understanding of iran's nuclear enterprise. that likely suggests a significant intelligence, and very successful intelligence effort. yossi cohen was the head of mossad when mohsen fakhrizadeh was assassinated. he says his agents physically were close to mr fakhrizadeh for years. i can say mohsen fakhrizadeh, for years, was definitely the most disturbing target on the scientific level and his knowledge of iran's nuclear military project. yossi cohen says mossad delivered a warning to iranian nuclear scientists that if they wanted to see their friends again, they should look for another job. if a man expresses an ability, which endangers israeli citizens, he must be stopped. he should cease existing. yossi cohen has signalled israel's responsibility for a series of attacks targeting iran's nuclear programme, but many israelis are against mossad officials talking about their operations. i'm against any publicity. if you want to shoot, shoot, don't talk. the mossad, its reputation is to do fantastic operations allegedly, clandestine without publicity. israeli officials avoid talking directly about the assassination of mohsen fakhrizadeh. we have our intelligence capabilities. we have ou— intelligence capabilities. defensive capabilities, which are the state of the best in the world. i'm sure the iranians know what are the things that i'm not willing to speak about. the war in the 21st century is not with, you know, massive tank brigades going into the battlefields. this is war and those — israel and iran — are fighting a fierce battle over hegemony. if you're an iranian decision—maker, i you must wonder is your government capable of keeping anything truly secret, truly safe? - the former head of mossad says stealing iran's secret nuclear documents is a warning to iranian leadership. it was also important to send a message to the iranian leaders that my friends, first it is possible to infiltrate your system, second, we're watching you, and third, the time for hiding and telling lies to the world is over. iran and israel have pushed each other to the limit. neither side can afford to look weak, but both know they need to carefully calibrate their future actions to avoid triggering an all—out war. hello. there are something of a temperature yo—yo going on in the week ahead. sunday was a cold day across the uk. biting north—westerly winds, snow to parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england that a change afoot on monday as this warm front approaches from the atlantic. as this may suggest, it is going to the turn milder airfrom the suggest, it is going to the turn milder air from the letter was the case after that cold, frosty and in places it start temperatures will recover quite quickly. let's take a closer look at monday in the profession dominic profession of this one fund. bright skies and eastern areas, the dealer sometime before the crowd buildings and train starts to bait. more persistent rain later over the far north—west of scotland. temperatures back into double figures, 10—11 c. here is what i mean that the temperature y°�*y° what i mean that the temperature yo—yo because she tuesday this cold front slides its way southward then icy returns the colder air into scotland, perhaps parts of northern ireland in the far north of england. more on the web sometime here. view wintry showers and to the north and west of scotland on tuesday but for the south where we have got this frontal zone there will be lots of clouds and mist and fog over heels. again, some patchy light rain and drizzle but not amounting to much. single figures across scotland where we are in the cold ever double figures elsewhere. cold front on wednesday wriggling around trying to sync its way southwards. slowly that colder air stats to push its way a little bit further southwards but we're still holding onto that milder air across the large swathes of england and wales but where we have got the colder air should be more in the way of sunshine wednesday the northern ireland come much of northern england, getting to scotland but we are likely to see more wintry showers putting in the north and west of scotland slow further show accumulations here. we have got that cold front just lingering across central and southern parts of the uk and we will keep the cloud and the high—temperature is behind icy. again, temperatures in single digits. by the time we get to sunday that front is starting to clear. eddy of low pressure because scotland, squeezing the isomers, strong winds on thursday, the length of the gales particularly because the northern isles, further show showers, blizzards, plenty of sunshine further south and for many icy will be advised they are but likely to keep a little more cloud across the far south of the uk. wins bisque of us on thursday, especially so. scotland. as mentioned, there is a chance we these gales here and icy looks like that colder air by this stage on thursday could be starting to get into southern parts of the uk. as we had from thursday into friday we noticed this area of high pressure is starting to build on the west. that will then stay with us so friday is a cold frosty start in the uk. that area of low pressure will admit to a slightly so the winds are beginning to ease so there is still a sentence much as particularly across the northern isles but most of us on sunday icy is a dry, crisp and clear day and icy will be feeling cold. icy looks like we hold onto that area of high pressure to start the weekend and next icy will be in the sunday as well the most southern and eastern areas but then things that have ramp up in the atlantic, areas of low pressure starting to me closer towards us, introducing bands of rain, something milder as well, so icy is a temperature yo—yo, really, in the week ahead. icy is going to start mailfor some, then icy will turn cold. chance we see some snow across parts of scotland move into next weekend but if of high pressure drift away and things will then start to turn milder again. goodbye. this is bbc news. i'm ben mundy. the headlines at four. the prince of wales has led tributes to the queen on the day she becomes the first british monarch to reign for 70 years. we are alive at buckingham palace spending the day reflecting on a remarkable long reign and look into the future. a lawyer says a man jailed for the murder of milly dowler has admitted killing lin russell and her daughter, megan, in 1996. paul bacon says a statement from levi bellfield includes details of how he claims to have carried out the attack in kent. 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