Missing Iranian general Ali Rez Asghari is "one of the modern-day architects of terror" who might contain key information that could unsolved the mystery concerning the fate of missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, Rami Igra, a former top Mossad official, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Asghari, a retired general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) and a former deputy defense minister, went missing last month after arriving in Turkey on a private visit from Syria. According to an American official quoted in the Washington Post on Thursday, Askari's disappearance was orchestrated by Israel.

'Israel behind general's defection' Another official was quoted in the paper saying that the former Iranian general was in Western hands and providing intelligence services with information about Hizbullah, Iran and the ties between the two. On Tuesday, Iranian officials confirmed that Asghari was missing and speculated that he had been abducted by western intelligence agencies.

Igra served until 1999 as the head of the Mossad's department for prisoners and missing persons. In his position, he spearheaded efforts to find Arad and is even reported to have flow abroad over 100 times to meet with sources as well as colleagues from other intelligence agencies to gather information about the missing IAF navigator.

According to Igra, Asghari, 63, has been known to Israeli intelligence for decades and served in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the representative of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) in Lebanon. In that position, Asghari was responsible for establishing Hizbullah as well as spreading the Islamic revolution to Lebanon.

Regarding Arad, Igra said that if the missing navigator who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 was sold to the IRG as some in the Israeli intelligence community have speculated, than Asghari would have intimate details concerning his fate.

"There is no proof that Arad was sold to Iran," Igra said. "But if this claim is true than Asghari would have a lot of information about the missing navigator."

But even if Asghari did not know what happened to Arad, he would still have immense value, Igra said, since he was "one of the exporters of terror from Iran to Lebanon and in the early 1990s when terror groups prospered."

In the Washington Post article, the US official said Asghari was cooperating with his interrogators, but did not divulge Asghari's whereabouts or specify who was questioning him. He made it clear that the information Asghari was offering was fully available to US intelligence.

Iranian officials said Asghari, who in the past had commanded the country's Revolutionary Guards, was not involved in the country's nuclear program. Igra said that while he might have knowledge concerning general details of the program, the West was mostly after technical details that Asghari would most likely not know.