Israeli Agency Says It Nabbed Iranian Agent Responsible for Cypriot Plot
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, said Thursday it had nabbed the Iranian responsible for a foiled Cyprus attack in Iran and brought him to Israel for interrogation.
The Mossad, which does not typically speak publicly, said its agents had seized Yousef Shahbazi Abbasalilo on Iranian soil and brought him to Israel for interrogation. They did not provide details of the operation.
In recent years, Israeli agents have repeatedly entered Iran on clandestine missions as part of the two countries’ regional shadow war. Reports also say Iranian agents have previously planned to target Israelis in Cyprus, Georgia, and Turkey.
The Thursday reports from Israel said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had tasked Abbasalilo with traveling to northern Cyprus, meeting a locally based cell, crossing into southern Cyprus, and killing Israeli business people.
The operation seemed designed to use the division of Cyprus into two enemy countries. A 1974 war separated the island into a predominantly Turkish Cypriot zone in the north and a primarily Greek Cypriot zone in the south.
In a video statement, the Mossad released Thursday, Abbasalilo says he followed a target for assassination but then aborted the mission and fled back to Iran when his handlers told him the Cypriot police were after him.
On Sunday, the Cypriot media said the country’s security forces had arrested a cell that planned to kill Israelis.
