Mossad helps foil Iranian terror cell planning attacks on Israelis in Greece

The Mossad helped Greece crack an Iranian terror cell, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday night.

The spy agency said that it had assisted Greece with analyzing and taking apart Iran’s operating procedures to solve the puzzle of the underlying crime and method of operation of the terror organization involved.

“This is another example of Iran trying to use terror against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas,” said the clandestine agency.

Further, Mossad helped identify the connection between the local terror cell in Greece and Iran’s broader global terror operations.

According to the intelligence agency, “along with our intelligence partners, we will act in our role without rest to thwart Iran’s intentions to cause harm throughout the world.”

Earlier Tuesday, Greek police disrupted what they called a foreign terrorist network operating within the country and arrested two foreign nationals.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen sent out a statement on Tuesday evening thanking Greek authorities for their cooperation in the thwarting of the Iranian terror cell, adding that terrorism “is a common enemy and the fight against it is our top priority.

“The Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran exports terror across the Middle East and the entire world…only a firm hand against the Iranian regime will stop its terror activities,” the foreign minister wrote on Twitter.

Terrorists planned an attack on Jewish synagogue in Athens

The terrorists planned to strike a target of “high symbolic value”: A Jewish synagogue, which also functions as a restaurant, located in the center of Athens, Greek media reported.

According to Greek media reports, the terrorists were two Pakistani nationals, with a third operative suspected of being located in Iran. The Iran-based operative had reportedly urged them to carry out the attack and said they would be paid.

According to a report in the Greek daily Kathimerini, the terrorists planned to attack with a gas cylinder explosive, being unable to find firearms.

According to Greek media reports cited by KAN, the terrorists also planned on kidnapping some of the targets.

When have Pakistani nationals been involved in attempted terror attacks against Jews in the region?

This is not the first time Pakistani nationals have been caught in an attempted attack on Jewish targets in the region.

Greek media referred to 2021, when Pakistanis were arrested in Cyprus in a planned attack on an Israeli, with reference to businessman Teddy Sagi.

The same reports also noted that in 2022, Pakistani nationals were involved in an attempted attack on an Israeli in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was unclear if Greek media was referring to the September 2022 joint Turkey-Mossad operation which saved a large number of Israeli tourists’ lives.

In that incident, Iran planned to kidnap several Israeli tourists along with diplomats in Istanbul, including the former ambassador and his wife, and already had all operatives and logistical aspects of the operation in place – with some Israelis being spirited away just moments before a hit team would have been bearing down on them.

Turkish intelligence and local police arrested close to ten suspects, including sharpshooters and local collaborators, at the Sol Hotel and three other rented apartments in the Istanbul area.

Iranian intelligence assets and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps operatives impersonated students, businessmen and tourists in order to entrap the Israelis.

Turkey said that the Mossad located the targeted Israelis and flew them to Israel in private planes.

While the Mossad had noted the dangers and given Turkey time initially to handle the issue alone, ultimately counterintelligence operations were carried out in cooperation between the Mossad and Turkish authorities, whom then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett praised.

“The operational efforts with the Turkish security forces have borne fruit,” Bennett said in a press briefing. “In recent days, in a joint Israeli-Turkish effort, we thwarted a number of terrorist attempts, and numerous terrorists were arrested on Turkish ground.”

Seemingly right after the success of Mossad and Turkish intelligence efforts at saving Israelis in Turkey, Iran dismissed the powerful chief of IRGC intelligence, Hossein Taeb, Iran’s state TV reported on Thursday.

The station gave no further details about the dismissal of Taeb who had a long reign as IRGC intelligence chief dating back to 2009.

Following this, the Greek Foreign Ministry reportedly placed members of the Pakistani community suspected of radical activity under surveillance all over the country, which is what enabled Greek police to catch wind of this planned attack, Kathimerini reported.

Greece was included on a list of countries with travel warnings issued by the National Security Council ahead of Passover, a major Israeli vacation holiday.

According to the National Security Council report, the main generator of global terrorism, especially facing Israelis abroad, is Iran, with the report saying they expect Iran to continue “to work to promote damage to Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.”

Countries at a higher risk of experiencing potential Iranian attacks include the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bahrain and Cyprus, according to the National Security Council.

Source: Jerusalem Post