[Steel Wolf]

that there is another reason he wanted to leave

His handlers may have told him the time to leave is now.

Correct. But why would that be, I wonder?

Why cash out on such a goldmine. He'd easily be our highest placed source in the country, and a rare gem at that. How many deputy defense ministers are on the U.S. payroll at CIA? Especially from a threat nation like Iran? That would be one of the crown jewels of U.S. human intelligence. Why pawn it?

There's really only a handful of reasons for doing so, assuming that this is fact a defection, and that his cover wasn't blown.

[AU72]

His handlers may have told him the time to leave is now.

Correct. But why would that be, I wonder?

If an attack was imminent they would wait until the very last second to pull him as the Iranians would be scrambling their assets.

[DejaJude]

There's really only a handful of reasons for doing so, assuming that this is fact a defection, and that his cover wasn't blown.

Like get out before it hits the fan?