Mossad Says It Arrested Operative In Iran Before Cyprus Job

Israel says its intelligence agents in Iran succeeded in capturing the suspect behind an IRGC-planned attack on its nationals in Cyprus.

Mossad identified the suspect as Yousef Shahabazi Abbasalilo, who received “detailed instructions and weapons from senior Revolutionary Guard officials” to conduct the terror attack, thwarted a few days ago.

It also released a video showing the mastermind of the attack being interrogated. As part of the questioning, Abbasalilo confessed and revealed detailed plans.

Cypriot security forces dismantled the plot's infrastructure based on the information.

“We’ll get to every person that advances terrorism against Jews and Israelis all over the world, including on Iranian soil,” a senior Mossad official said.

Last year, Mossad captured a senior IRGC official on Iranian soil and interrogated him about weapons shipments to Iran's proxies.

The man introducing himself as Yadollah Khedmati, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Logistics, said he regretted his involvement in shipping weapons to Iran’s proxy groups in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen and urged other IRGC officials to avoid engagement in such activities.

This is the third time evidence emerges of Israeli agents detaining an IRGC operative inside Iran and taping confessions. A short audio recording was published by Israeli media in May last year with a photo of a man introduced as Iranian national Mansour Rasouli, 52.

In the audio recording, Rasouli said he was sent to Turkey by the IRGC to establish an operational network to assassinate an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul, a Germany-based US general, and a journalist in France.