this is bbc news, the headlines: french president macron has spoken to president biden to coordinate efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the ukraine crisis. mr macron will travel to moscow later to speak to his russian counterpart, vladimir putin. russia has continued to deploy large numbers of troops on the ukrainian border. at least ten people have been killed and thousands left homeless in madagascar — after the island was hit by the second severe storm in two weeks. cyclone batsirai brought strong winds and heavy rains leading to flooding. whole villages were reported to have been almost completely destroyed. the canadian capital ottawa has declared a state of emergency in response to more than a week of protests by truckers against covid restrictions. the mayor said the protests posed a threat to the safety of residents.

now on bbc news, for years, israel and iran have been involved in a hidden war. the bbc'sjiyar gol has travelled to israel on the trail of half a ton of missing iranian secret documents and investigates evidence suggesting they led to the assassination of an iranian nuclear scientist. for decades, two of the middle 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 facilityjust 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. 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 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 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 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. 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. 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. rememberthat 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 theirfriends 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 our 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. 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, 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. a quieter end to the night to come, the wintry showers are easing away, as are the winds, which have been a feature of the weather throughout the weekend, and that's because we're having a little ridge of high pressure building in. so not only are the winds easing but, as the showers die down, the cloud is breaking and temperatures tumbling away. close to freezing in many parts by dawn, so a much colder start on monday morning and potentially, as well, an icy start where the surfaces are still damp because temperatures notjust in the air but on the roads will be close to freezing. you can stay up to date with the warnings, as ever, on our website. for the day ahead, we've got further weather fronts coming in and fairly brisk winds but not as windy as it has been, and as those weather

fronts come in to the high pressure further south, there won't be that much rain. but what they will do is introduce much milder air through the day. so, initially, there could be some snow on the forward edge of that weather front as it moves into the hills of scotland but it will turn back to rain quite quickly. what we will find, though, is the sunshine that we start the day with. a lovely bright start will tend to fade as the cloud comes in. still staying largely dry and bright across many central, southern and eastern areas but some drizzly rain and hill fog in western and northern areas. more significant rain for the highlands and the islands but the temperatures, 10—12 degrees celsius — yes, there will be a stronger wind picking up towards the north—west but much milder air to the south of our weather front, and that continues through monday night into tuesday. the colder air returns, though, with a few wintry showers in the north. not as cold as it has been and still much milder a night for many as we go into tuesday, when we have that weather front straddling the country. probably northern ireland, parts of scotland, northern england, perhaps north wales. the dividing line, if you like, between that mild atlantic air

and lots of dry weather but quite cloudy weather in the south, and brighter but showery weather further north. and we will see some sunshine breaking through equally in the south as well, and it will be very mild on tuesday — 13s and 14s — and still relatively around normalfurther north, even in the colder air. and that battle continues through the week with our weather front straddling central areas. not producing that much rain, we don't think, as it's coming into the high pressure, butjust keeping a lot of cloud with us here whilst we could see a spell of windier weather midweek in the north and harnessing those wintry —— enhancing those wintry showers but then, high pressure builds towards the end of the week for a lot of dry, bright but chillier weather.

welcome to bbc news — i'm david eades. our top stories: can the french break the ice in tensions between russia and the west? presidents macron and putin to meet. we report on the front line of hostilities in the east of the country. this entire village is a casualty of the conflict. it is extraordinary that anyone still lives here. the handful who remain are pretty much cut off. chinese tennis star peng shuai again denies making allegations of sexual assault in her first western media interview since the accusations emerged on social media. a second storm wreaks havoc in madagascar. whole villages are swept away as a cyclone leaves a trail of destruction the canadian capital 0ttawa

declares a state of emergency