Iranian efforts were particularly intense following the
assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which most of
the world has attributed to Mossad. However, Israel has made sure not to take
any credit for it.
In addition, the Islamic Republic, at a somewhat more vague
level, explored assassinating former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and
other top Israeli defense officials.
The plot was to use an Israeli businessman, named by Israeli
media as Moti Mqman, 73 years old from Ashkelon, who spent extensive time
living in Turkey and had financial dealings with both Turkish and Iranian
persons to develop assassination plans in Israel.
To effectuate the plan, in April of this year, Turkish
citizens Andrei Farouk Aslan and Guneid Aslan contacted the Israeli businessman
to conduct financial transactions, inviting him to the Turkish city of Samandag
to meet with two representatives of a rich Iranian named Edi. In May, the
meeting was held.
But when he was told that Edi could not leave Iran for
Turkey, he agreed to have himself smuggled by car from Turkey into Iran, where
he met Edi and a member of the Iranian security establishment named Haj.
The Israeli businessman initially had requested one million
dollars before undertaking any activities.
The Israeli businessman later visited Iran a second time in
August and received 5,000 Euros as part of the start of his undertaking
financial, logistics, and weapons-related actions for accomplishing the plot,
including potentially converting a Mossad agent into a double agent.
During the second visit to Iran in August, he was smuggled
again into Iran from Turkey, this time in a truck, and met again with Edi,
though this time also with multiple other unidentified Iranian security
officials. During this meeting, they asked him to assist with the assassination
plots.
The Israeli businessman was also requested to take videos of
certain Israeli sites for surveillance and intelligence gathering purposes as
well as to deliver threats to Israeli citizens who Iran had contacted to carry
out missions that were not complying with Iranian directives.
Also, during the second visit to Iran, the Iranians asked
the businessman if he would be able to recruit Russians and Americans who could
be used to kill Iranian figures opposed to the regime who live in Europe and
the US.
The Shin Bet did not provide any indications that the
Israeli businessman made any significant progress toward any of the terror
activities. Still, it did stress that any involvement with hostile Iranians,
let alone in Iranian territory itself, during a time of war, was viewed as a
very serious security crime.
Further, the Shin Bet said that Iran appeared to be
continuing a hard push for such terror activities, such that uncovering this
one plot did not bring an end to the danger.
The businessman was indicted on Thursday.
It was unclear why the Shin Bet published the disclosure on
Thursday, two days after it published the attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate
former defense minister Moshe Yaalon.
In addition, it was unclear if there was any coordination
between Iran and Hezbollah regarding the various plots or a delineation of who
would target who.
Questioned about the timing, the Shin Bet initially
responded that the cases were published based on when the indictments were
being filed and when the relevant courts lifted the gag order relating to them.
The Jerusalem Post noted that the Shin Bet and law
enforcement have significant control over the timing of filing indictments and
requesting lifting gag orders, and as such the initial answer did not really
answer the question. The Post is still waiting for further clarifications.
Questioned about whether Turkish authorities are cooperating
with Israel against its citizens involved in the plot - which it has sometimes
in the past - the Shin Bet had not yet responded.
Issues of cooperation between Israel and Turkish authorities
are extremely sensitive, though Ankara has publicized some such cooperation in
the past when Iran tried to kill Jews inside Turkey, and the Mossad helped
Turkish authorities thwart the plot.
