Shin Bet Arrests Israeli Spy Recruited By Iran To Assassinate Top Leaders

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — It was revealed for publication that an Israeli citizen was recruited by intelligence agencies in Iran to initiate the assassination of Israeli public personalities. The citizen, who has not been named, was smuggled twice into Iran and received payment for carrying out missions.

In a combined countermeasure operation by the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Lahav 433 department of the Israel Police, the Israeli citizen was arrested during August 2024 on suspicion of committing security offenses related to establishing contact with intelligence agencies in the Iranian regime, according to a report by Arutz Sheva.

The investigation found, as part of the inquiry conducted by the Shin Bet and the IDF, 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 living in Iran named Edi, through the mediation of Turkish officials Andrey Farouk Aslan and Junaid Aslan, in order to promote business activity.

In order to promote his 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. When it became clear that Edi could no longer leave Iran for Turkey, the Israeli citizen was smuggled by car over the Turkish bordernear the city of Van, which is located 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. During these meetings, Edi offered the Israeli to carry out various security missions in 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 employed in the country on behalf of the Iranian regime who did not carry out the requested tasks. The Israeli citizen asked to look into the matter.

His investigation also revealed that during August 2024, the Israeli citizen entered Iran for the second time while being smuggled through the border crossing 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 the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu or Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant or  Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.

The Iranian intelligence officials also asked him to investigate 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, which was attributed by the Iranian authorities to the State of Israel.

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

The next day, the Israeli 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 high-level security indictment was submitted in this case.

A senior Shin Bet official: “This is a very severe 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 for the purpose of gathering intelligence and carrying out terrorist missions in Israel, while also turning, among other things, to those with a criminal background in order to carry out the 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 cooperation of Israelis with Iranian elements during war constitutes a serious security offense, even when the motive for the contact is for criminal or business purposes.

“The Shin Bet regards with the utmost seriousness any contact by Israelis with Iranian elements, while the motive for the contact in the first place being a business pretext or a criminal platform does not diminish the severity of the acts and the risk inherent in them, much less 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.”