Ron Arad Died in Lebanon in 1988, New York Times Investigation Reports

A classified report concluded that missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad died in 1988 in the Lebanese village of Nabi Chit, where he was subsequently buried, according to an investigation published Sunday by The New York Times. The report cites three former senior Iranian officials who revealed that a joint investigation by Iran and Hezbollah had confirmed Arad's death and identified his burial location. The findings come eight months after the IDF conducted an unsuccessful operation in the Lebanese village in an attempt to locate Arad's remains.

According to the investigation, Iran made extensive efforts to deliver the classified findings to Germany, hoping to demonstrate the steps Tehran and Hezbollah had taken to determine Arad's fate. Those efforts reportedly included then-Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who sent one of his children to personally deliver the findings to German intelligence officials. Israeli authorities remained skeptical, interpreting Iran's decision to assign a senior Revolutionary Guards commander to assist in the search as further evidence of possible Iranian involvement in Arad's disappearance.

Mossad Reportedly Abducted Two Iranian Generals in Search for Answers

The investigation also alleges that Israeli intelligence operatives abducted two senior Iranian generals from Turkey and Syria over the past two decades in an effort to uncover information about Arad's fate. Neither interrogation reportedly produced any useful information.

The first case involved Ali Reza Asgari, a former senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force who had also served as Iran's deputy defense minister. Asgari, who maintained connections with Hezbollah, disappeared from his hotel in Istanbul in late 2006 or early 2007. For years, his disappearance remained a mystery, with speculation that he had defected to the West.

According to former senior American officials cited in the investigation, Mossad agents abducted Asgari and interrogated him for several weeks aboard a ship, attempting to establish whether he had any involvement in Arad's disappearance. When investigators reportedly concluded that he possessed no relevant information, he was executed and his body was thrown into the Black Sea.

The second case involved Iranian General Abdullah Sabri, who was allegedly abducted from Damascus in September 2021. Sabri had served as a Revolutionary Guards commander responsible for coordinating activities with Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to the report, Mossad operatives disguised as movers kidnapped Sabri and smuggled him away inside a large cardboard box designed for transporting refrigerators.

Sabri was then secretly transferred to Israel, where he underwent intensive interrogation. Israeli intelligence officials were reportedly particularly interested in questioning him because he had previously assisted Iran's efforts to locate Arad. After investigators determined that Sabri had no new information, he was reportedly flown to South Africa and released on the streets of Johannesburg.

Israeli Intelligence Now Believes Arad Never Reached Iran

The investigation, published to mark the 40th anniversary of Arad's capture, sheds new light on the decades-long efforts to determine the missing navigator's fate. For years, Israeli intelligence operated under the assumption that Arad had been transferred from Lebanon to Iran. However, according to Israeli sources and Iranian and Hezbollah reports cited by The New York Times, the prevailing assessment has shifted.

Israeli intelligence officials now reportedly believe that Arad was never taken to Iran, but instead died and was buried in Lebanon in 1988. As a result, current efforts to locate his remains are focused primarily on Lebanon, where authorities continue searching for answers to one of Israel's longest-running unresolved military mysteries.