Israeli recruited by Iran to assassinate top Israeli officials arrested

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The target: the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and head of the Shin Bet. An Israeli citizen was recruited by intelligence agencies in Iran to push the assassination of Israeli public personalities. He was smuggled twice into Iran and received payment for carrying out missions.

An Israeli citizen was arrested in August on suspicion of committing security offenses, related to holding contact with intelligence agencies in the Iranian regime, the ISA and Israel Police’s Lahav 433 revealed Thursday morning.

The investigation found that the citizen was a businessman. He had lived in Turkey for an extended period of time and had business and social ties with people of Turkish and Iranian origin.

The citizen agreed, in April 2024, to meet with a rich businessman named Edi, who was living in Iran, through the mediation of the Turkish officials, Andrey Farouk Aslan and Junaid Aslan, in order to promote business activity.

The citizen traveled to the city of Samandag in Turkey, where he met with two representatives, sent on behalf of Edi and held a telephone conversation with Edi, as the latter could not leave Iran.

The investigation also revealed that following this meeting, in May 2024, the citizen went to Turkey, where he met with Andrey, Junaid and two of Edi’s representatives, and after it became clear that Edi could no longer leave Iran for Turkey, the Israeli citizen was smuggled by car, over the Turkish border, near the city of Van in eastern Turkey, into Iran. There he met with Edi and another man named Haja, who was introduced to him as an activist on behalf of the Iranian security forces.

The Israeli citizen held two meetings in Iran and went with the others to Edi’s house, where he was introduced as an Israeli citizen. During this meeting, Edi offered the Israeli to carry out various security missions on Israel’s territory on behalf of the Iranian regime, including: transferring money or a gun to pre-determined locations, photographing various crowded places in the country and sending the photographs to the Iranian authorities, threatening other Israeli citizens who did not carry out the requested tasks, on behalf of the Iranian regime. The Israeli citizen asked to look into the matter.

His interrogation also revealed that during August 2024, the Israeli citizen was smuggled over the border crossing and entered Iran for the second time, hidden in a truck cabin. During his stay at Edi’s house in Iran, he met other Iranian intelligence officials, and was asked by them to carry out terrorist activities for Iran on Israeli soil. He was also asked to promote assassination attacks on Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, or head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.

The Iranian intelligence officials also asked him to consider the possibility of assassinating other senior figures, such as former Prime Minister, Mr. Naftali Bennett, and other public figures, which they regarded as revenge for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil in July 2024, for which the Iranian authorities blamed Israel.

The Israeli citizen demanded an advance payment of one million dollars before taking any action.

The next day, the Israeli citizen held another meeting with the Iranian intelligence officials, in which they repeated their proposal to assassinate senior officials, explored the possibility that he would deposit funds in certain locations in Israel for others, work to locate Russian and US officials for the purpose of eliminating opponents of the Iranian regime in Europe and the US, and recruit a Mossad agent who would agree to work as a “double agent.”

During this meeting as well, the Israeli demanded an advance payment of one million dollars, but the Iranian agents refused his request and informed him that they would contact him in the future. Before leaving Iran, he received 5,000 Euros from Edi and a representative of Iranian intelligence for his participation in the meetings.

On September 19, 2024, a severe security indictment was filed in this case.

A senior Shin Bet official: “This is a very serious case, that is an example of the great efforts the Iranian intelligence agencies take to recruit Israeli citizens, in order to promote terrorist activities in Israel. The security officials believe that the Iranians will continue their efforts to recruit operatives in Israel in order to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist missions in Israel, while also contacting those with a criminal background to carry out these missions.”

“At a time when the State of Israel is fighting a war on several fronts, an Israeli citizen goes to an enemy country on two different occasions, meets with Iranian intelligence agents and agrees to carry out serious acts of terrorism on Israeli soil. His actions helped Iran and its intelligence agents in their war against Israel. This is to emphasize that Israeli cooperation with Iranian elements during war constitutes a serious security offense, even when the motive for the contact is for criminal or business purposes,” he continued.

“The Shin Bet regards with the utmost seriousness any contact by Israelis with Iranian elements, even though the motive for the contact in the first place is for business or criminal purposes, and this does not diminish the severity of the acts and the risk inherent in them, as well as any cooperation with these agencies. The General Security Service, in cooperation with the Israel Police and other security agencies, will continue their efforts to monitor Iranian activity to recruit and activate Israeli elements and arrest them, while bringing the perpetrators to justice,” said the Shin Bet official.