Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said on Sunday that it helped the Cypriot authorities expose an Iranian terrorist cell that planned to attack Jews and Israelis residing in the island nation.
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"Thanks to counterterrorism efforts and the arrest of the cell by the security services in Cyprus, a lot of information had been received that led to the exposure of the threats, the methods of operation, the potential targets and the Iranian plan to kill innocent people in Cyprus and other places," it said.
In November 2023, two members of the terrorist cell were detained and have since been under investigation and legal proceedings. Cypriot media reports indicate they were also deported from the country. The investigation revealed that the cell collected intelligence on Western entities beyond Cyprus.
The cell's handler, an Iranian national, frequently employs fake passports and aliases and was reportedly involved in a plot to assassinate an Israeli citizen in Georgia last year.
This case demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the proxy approach for Iranian terrorist organizations, particularly when they reuse methods exposed previously, and despite their best attempts to cover tracks leading back to Tehran.
Since Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack, Tehran has expanded its efforts to promote terrorist activities around the world. The National Security Council issued a statement claiming that since the outbreak of the war, many Israelis have moved to stay in Cyprus, and that the Iranian presence in Turkey-controlled northern Cyprus is troubling. "The use of this area in the past and the present both for terrorist purposes and a base of operations, beyond harming Israeli and Jewish targets is a troubling issue," it said.
Earlier this morning, the Cypriot newspaper Kathimerini Cyprus reported that two Iranian citizens were detained and interrogated in Cyprus, on suspicion of planning to attack Israeli citizens living on the island.
According to the report, the two were in the early stages of gathering information about Israelis who could be potential targets. A senior official in Cyprus refused to respond to the news, claiming it was a national security matter. According to the report, the two are defined as "political refugees", and they managed to contact an activist in the Revolutionary Guards in Iran.
Last June it was reported in Cyprus that an Iranian attack against Israelis staying in Limassol had been foiled. The Mossad confirmed the reports, and the Prime Minister's office said at the time: "Israel congratulates upon the thwarting of the Iranian terrorist attack on the territory of Cyprus against Israeli targets. The State of Israel operates in a wide variety of methods everywhere to protect Jews and Israelis. It will continue to act to suppress Iranian terrorism wherever it may appear, including on the soil of Iran, the main distributor of terrorism in the world."
The attack was thwarted by close cooperation between the intelligence services of Cyprus and Mossad. According to reports, the information about the planned attack reached the Cypriot intelligence services from "foreign colleagues," including the U.S.
In 2021, the authorities in Cyprus reported that an Azerbaijani national was arrested in the capital Nicosia with a gun and a silencer in his possession. He was hired to assassinate Israeli businessmen living on the island.