Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, announced on Thursday June 29, that it had successfully detained an Iranian individual who was involved in a plot to assassinate an Israeli citizen in Cyprus. The captured individual was interrogated “on Iranian soil,” which subsequently led to the apprehension of other suspects by the security forces of Cyprus.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency said Thursday it had “apprehended” an Iranian plotting to kill an Israeli in Cyprus, with his interrogation “on Iranian soil” leading to arrests by Cypriot security forces.
Cypriot authorities have declined to comment on the matter, but local media, citing unnamed sources, reported a foiled plan to attack Israeli or Jewish targets by suspects operating from a breakaway statelet, recognized only by Turkey, in the north of the divided Mediterranean island.
The Mossad said an Iranian man named Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu was “apprehended” in “a counter-terrorist operation on Iranian soil”.
In his interrogation, according to the Israeli agency, he confessed to having “received detailed instructions and weapons from senior Revolutionary Guards personnel in Iran” regarding an Israeli businessman he was to assassinate in Cyprus.
A video distributed by the Mossad, which could not be verified by AFP, shows a man said to be Abbasalilu detailing his arrival in Cyprus and preparing to kill an Israeli with the help of “Pakistanis” there.
The man then recalls being ordered by his Iranian handlers to return to Iran since the Cypriot police was on his tail.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
