Israeli man charged with aiding ‘Iran-backed’ assassination plot

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An Israeli man has been charged with spying on Iran’s behalf, including allegedly demanding $1mn to carry out surveillance for an assassination plot against the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other senior figures, the Shin Bet security agency said.

The unnamed businessman, identified in Hebrew media reports as a Jewish man in his 70s, was smuggled into Iran from Turkey twice, including once hidden in the cabin of a truck, the Shin Bet said. He was arrested in August.

The Shin Bet said the man met Iranian intelligence agents who tried to recruit him to carry out surveillance to aid in killing Netanyahu or other senior officials — including the head of the Shin Bet or former prime minister Naftali Bennett — as retaliation for the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran this year, which was blamed on Israel.

The Israeli businessman demanded $1mn to carry out those tasks. He received €5,000, the security agency said.

Israel’s security agencies have recently unveiled what they said were other attempts by Iran and Hizbollah to recruit assets within Israel’s borders to carry out espionage or assassinations.

This week the Shin Bet disclosed a plot to kill another unnamed senior Israeli official using a remotely activated “Claymore” mine fitted with a cellular detonator and a camera.

For decades Israel has carried out assassinations of senior officials and operatives of its enemies across the region, focusing in recent years on those working on Iran’s nuclear programme, and in recent months on Hamas and Hizbollah leaders.

The assassination of Haniyeh — who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian — was particularly embarrassing for Iran because the Hamas leader was a guest of the president and was killed in a government guesthouse near other government offices.

Iran has not retaliated in a similar manner against Israeli officials so far, either within Israel or abroad.

One task assigned to the man charged on Thursday was to threaten other Iranian recruits in Israel if they failed to complete tasks they had been assigned, according to the Shin Bet.

The man was apprehended in August but had visited Iran in May, and then again in August at the height of tensions between Israel and Iran, after Israeli assassinations and Tehran’s retaliations brought the region to the edge of full-blown war.

“While Israel is at war on several fronts, an Israeli citizen travels on two different occasions to an enemy state, meets with Iranian intelligence agents and expresses willingness to commit serious acts of terrorism on Israeli soil,” the Shin Bet said in a statement attributed to an unnamed senior official.

The statement warned of ongoing efforts to “recruit operatives in Israel for intelligence gathering and carrying out . . . missions in Israel”.

The Shin Bet did not release the full indictment, and Israeli trials involving security threats often include secret evidence that neither the accused nor their lawyer are allowed to hear. Since the man was unidentified, the Financial Times could not locate a lawyer for comment. The statement did not clarify the exact charges.

The Shin Bet’s statement described him as a businessman with interests in Turkey who was approached in April by two Turkish men to meet a wealthy Iranian businessman.

The businessman was told that the Iranian contact, called “Eddie” in the statement, was unable to travel to Turkey. In May the Israeli was taken across the border near the Turkish town of Van to meet Eddie and a second man who identified himself as an “Iranian security operative”, the statement said.

“During this meeting, Eddie offered the Israeli to carry out various security missions within Israel for the Iranian regime, including: transferring money or a gun at predetermined points, photographing various crowded places in the country and sending them to Iranian elements, threatening other Israeli citizens activated in the country by the Iranian regime who did not complete requested tasks,” the statement said.

In August the man was smuggled into Iran, this time “hidden inside a truck cabin” where he was met with more Iranian “intelligence agents”. He was asked to help in attempts to assassinate Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant or the chief of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.

He was also asked the next day to deposit cash in various Israeli locations, to recruit a Mossad agent to betray Israel or to recruit people in Europe to kill critics of the Iranian regime.

Given the timeline between his last meeting and his arrest, it is unclear whether the accused would have been able to execute these tasks. The payment of €5,000 was for “participating in the meetings”, the Shin Bet said.