By James Mackenzie
JERUSALEM, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including the prime minister.
A statement said the person was a businessman with connections in Turkey who had attended at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.
The arrest took place last month, according to a joint statement by Shin Bet and the Israeli police.
The incident highlights an intelligence war running alongside the escalating conflict on Israel’s border with southern Lebanon.
Last week, Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official, who was subsequently identified as the former army Chief of Staff and Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
The announcement of the arrest came a day after Hezbollah was hit for a second day running by a sophisticated attack that detonated communications equipment remotely.
Blasts in handheld radios killed at least 20 people and wounding more than 450. A day earlier, hundreds of Hezbollah pager devices exploded simultaneously, killing 12 people including two children and injuring thousands.
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Israel has not commented directly on those attacks, but multiple security sources have said Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible.
Israel has a long history of intelligence operations in Iran, allegedly including the assassination in July of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a Tehran state guesthouse.
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Shin Bet said the latest arrest showed the efforts Iran was making to recruit Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist missions in Israel, including by using individuals with criminal backgrounds.
According to the Shin Bet statement, the plot went back to April this year when the Israeli, who has not been identified, agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.
After being told by representatives that the businessman, identified only as Adi, could not leave Iran, the Israeli man was smuggled into Iran from eastern Turkey, where he met Adi and others, including a man identified as an Iranian security official, the statement said.
The Iranians proposed that he carry out tasks for Iran including transferring money or a gun, photographing crowded places or threatening other Israeli civilians operating on behalf of Iran who did not carry out the requested missions.
He returned to Israel but went back to Iran for a second time in August, smuggled in a truck, the statement said.
On the second visit, it said Iranian officials asked him to carry out terrorist attacks for Iran and made proposals for assassinating Netanyahu or Gallant or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar as well as other operations.
The Israeli man asked for a payment of $1 million, but Iranian officials refused the request, saying however they would remain in touch and paying him 5,000 euros ($5,570.50) for joining the meetings.
(Reporting by James MackenzieEditing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff)
