Israeli pensioner arrested over Iran-backed plot to assassinate Netanyahu, security service says

An Israeli man has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a plot to assassinate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other senior officials after being recruited by Iran, Israel’s internal security service has said.

The suspect – who was arrested in August – is a 73-year-old businessman with links to Turkey who had been smuggled into Iran for two meetings to discuss assassinating either Mr Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, it was alleged in a joint statement from the Israeli police and Shin Bet.

The allegations date back to April, when when the Israeli man – named as Moti Maman – agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.

After being told by representatives that the Iranian 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 claimed. It is unclear why Adi could not leave Iran.

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.

After returning to Israel, Mr Maman was allegedly smuggled back into Iran in a vehicle in August. During this visit, Iranian officials asked him to carry out terrorist attacks for Iran and made proposals for assassinating Mr Netanyahu, Mr Gallant or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, as well as other operations.

The Israeli man is alleged to have asked for a payment of $1m before carrying out the tasks but Iranian officials refused the request, saying instead that they would remain in touch and paying him €5,000 for joining the meetings.

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Mr Maman was indicted on Thursday. Eyal Besserglick, Mr Mamman’s lawyer, said his client made an “error of judgement” and is cooperating with Israel’s intelligence agencies.

“It can already be said that this is a person who has greatly assisted the security services of the state of Israel, whose children serve in the security forces,” Mr Besserglick added.

Shin Bet claimed the plot was seen by the Iranian officials as revenge for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, after which their efforts intensified. Israel was widely viewed as responsible for that attack, which came a day after Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut.

Shin Bet claimed 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.

The allegations of the assassination plot come just days after Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official, who was subsequently identified as the former army chief and defence minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Mr Gallant declared his country was entering a “new phase of war” on Israel’s northern border on Wednesday, as Hezbollah was struck by the second attack in two days which caused thousands of walkie-talkies and pagers used by the group to explode.

At least 20 people were killed and 450 injured by the detonations on Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, just a day after 12 people died and nearly 3,000 were wounded by pager explosions in an unprecedented attack that Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.

Israel has not commented directly on those attacks but multiple security sources have said Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible.

Additional reporting by Reuters