Israel says foiled Tehran plot to assassinate Netanyahu & Gallant, arrests man 'recruited by Iran'

The Israeli Police on Thursday said it has foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders and officials.

In a statement in Hebrew, the police said it last month arrested an Israeli citizen recruited by the Iranian intelligence agencies to assassinate Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and internal intelligence agency Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

While the police did not name the suspect, it said he is an Israeli businessman who has lived for long stretches in Turkey and has business links in Turkey and Iran. It said he was approached by the Iranian agents in Turkey.

The businessman was smuggled into Iran twice where he met Iranian intelligence officers and was also paid regarding the assassination, according to the police.

Assassination plot in guise of business trip

The unnamed Israeli businessman was in April approached in Turkey by two Turkish persons, Andrey Farouk Aslan and Junayd Aslan, for a meeting with a rich Iranian businessman named Eddy for a business deal, according to the Israeli police.

While the police did not reveal the suspect’s identity, The Times of Israel reported that he is a Jewish Israeli man.

When the businessman agreed for the meeting, he was taken to the Turkish city of Samandag, close to the border with Syria, where he met two representatives of Eddy as Eddy was purportedly not able to leave Iran, as per the police, which added that the Israeli suspect and Eddy held a phone call there.

As Eddy could not travel outside of Iran, the suspect was smuggled to Iran in May to meet Eddy.

In Iran, the police said the businessman met Eddy and an Iranian security official identified as Khwaja. It was during this meeting that the businessman was told to do a number of tasks at the behest of the Iranian regime:

• Providing money or guns at pre-arranged points in Israel

• Photographing various places in Israel for mass-casualty attacks and sharing footage with Iranian agents

• Threatening other Israelis on behalf of Iran who did not carry out similar requested tasks

The statement said that accused said he would look into the tasks.

Then, in August, the accused was smuggled into Iran for the second for the meeting with Iranian intelligence officials, according to the police.

In this meeting at Eddy’s house, the police said Iranian intelligence official recruited him for the assassination of Netanyahu, Gallant, and Bar.

For the assassination, the Israeli business asked for $1 million in advance, but was told that he would be contacted later for the payment, said the police statement, adding that he was instead paid 5,000 Euros before he left Iran.

During the same meeting, the businessman was also ordered to recruit agents of the Israeli external intelligence agency Mossad and turn them into double agents.

The curious timing of Netanyahu’s assassination plot

The Israeli police’s statement about the plot to assassinate Netanyahu comes just two days after it disclosed a plot to assassinate former military chief and defence minster Moshe Yaalon.

Last year, the Israeli authorities foiled a plot by Hezbollah to killed Yaalon and arrested nine persons in the case, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli police has also disclosed about the plot to assassinate Netanyahu at a time when Iran has also been indicted for trying to assassinate Trump . In recent years, Iran hawks such as John Bolton have also faced credible risk of assassination.

Moreover, the news of the Iranian assassination plot comes weeks after Israel assassinated top allies of Iran in the Middle East.

In a colossal embarrassment, Israel in July is said to have assassinated the then-Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in an Iranian regime’s guesthouse in Tehran hours after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of President Massoud Pezeshkian. Hours earlier, Israel had assassinated Hezbollah military chief Faud Shukr in an airstrike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.

Earlier, Israel had assassinated Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in an airstrike in Gaza Strip.