Iran plotted to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, the Shin Bet, in cooperation with the police, announced on Thursday.
Its efforts were particularly intense following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, 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 as Moti Maman, 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 Maman 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.
Israeli business in Iran
But when Maman 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.
Maman 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.
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.
Maman initially had requested one million dollars before undertaking any activities.
Two birds, one Israeli
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.
Shin Bet opaque timing
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.
In a second response, the Shin Bet noted that the Yaalon case was a year old and that this, along with the revelation that the same cell had attempted a second terror attack near Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv had been part of the process for lifting the gag order on the whole history of the terror group, including regarding Yaalon.
Further, the Shin Bet indicated that there are a much larger number of terror threats regularly being considered for publication as well as others which are never published for national security reasons.
Turkish co-operation
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.
A lawyer for Maman, Eyal Besserglick, did not deny the allegations, but maintained that his client had made a temporary faulty judgment with no real world consequences and that he should be dealt with leniently.