Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) greeting Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

JNS.org – Turkey exposed the identities of up to 10 Iranians working for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency in Iran, according to a report in The Washington Post on Thursday by columnist David Ignatius.

According to sources quoted in the report, relations between Israel and Turkey had deteriorated so greatly early last year that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the order to “shop” Israeli agents to Iran.

The spies in question were Iranian nationals who would meet with their Mossad handlers inside Turkey. The Turkish-Iranian border is relatively easy to cross.

Ignatius wrote that Israel and Turkey have cooperated on intelligence for more than 50 years, and Israel was blind-sided by the Turkish betrayal, which was described by knowledgeable sources as a “significant” loss of intelligence and “an effort to slap the Israelis.”