Turkey's national intelligence organization, MIT, thwarted an Iranian assassination attempt on a prominent Israeli businessman living in the country, the Turkish media reported Friday.
According to the Daily Sabah report, the cell was made up of at least nine Iranian operatives, and intended to target Yair Geller, an Israeli-Turkish businessman living in Istanbul and who owns an aerospace tech firm in the country.
The Daily Sabah reported that the planned assassination was meant to avenge the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian nuclear program, who was killed in November 2020 in an attack which Tehran attributes to Israel.
MIT shared the information of the planned hit with the Mossad, the report said, adding that both agencies believe that in addition to avenging Fakhrizadeh, Geller's assassination was also intended to sabotage recent efforts to mend Israeli-Turkish relations.
Geller himself was reportedly transferred to a safe house in Turkey, and was offered an asylum in Tel Aviv - an offer the Israeli businessman reportedly declined.
The members of the Iranian cell were unaware that Geller had been transferred to a safe house and continued their operations, including occasional visits to the area where the offices of Geller’s company are located.
According to Sabah, MIT arrested eight out of the nine cell members, including the cell’s leader in Turkey, an Iranian citizen identified as Moshtagh Bighouz.
The ninth member was identified as Iranian intelligence officer Yasin Taheremamkendi, who reportedly led the cell from Iran.
The report of the attempted hit comes days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would be hosting President Isaac Herzog as early as late February - the first such visit since relations between the two countries soured in 2018 over riots on the Gaza border.