Nicosia's cooperation with Tel Aviv on security issues seems to be even closer and this was shown by the revelation of a joint operation between Mossad and the Cyprus Intelligence Service that thwarted a terrorist operation, which according to Cypriot reports was masterminded by Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contacted the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Christodoulides, by telephone this afternoon and thanked him for the close cooperation between the intelligence services of the two countries.
During their telephone conversation, the two leaders, after consultation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, agreed to expedite the holding of the Cyprus-Greece-Israel Trilateral Leaders' Meeting to be held in July in Cyprus, during which they will discuss - among other issues - Defence, Security and Energy.
Meanwhile, according to the Cyprus Press, new revelations are coming to light regarding the joint operation carried out by the Mossad and the Cypriot National Security Service, during which an Iranian terrorist attack against Israeli and Jewish targets in the Republic of Cyprus was prevented. According to a Mossad statement today, the mastermind of the planned operation inside Iran to prevent the strike in Cyprus was abducted.
Specifically, Mossad announced today that before the CPS was alerted to the Iranian terrorist network operating on the island, it had arrested Yousef Siakhabazi Abasalilou, a Revolutionary Guards officer, who Mossad agents located in Iran, abducted and then interrogated, managing to obtain information on how the terrorist network would operate in Cyprus.
"In the context of an extremely daring operation that unfolded within Iranian territory, Mossad managed to arrest the mastermind of the terrorist network, who, during his interrogation, admitted in detail to the terrorist plan, which led to the dismantling of the terrorist network in Cyprus," said today's Israeli intelligence statement.
Subsequently, and after collecting the necessary evidence, Mossad informed the CPS and the competent Cypriot authorities, who then "arrested most of the network members who were on the island", the statement adds. Israeli state television broadcast a video on Thursday afternoon in which the now arrested Yousef Shiahabazi Abasalilou, now in custody, names as the person who recruited him the Revolutionary Guards' official Hassan Shustarizade, who is in Iran.
According to Abasalilou, on the instructions of his recruiter, he entered Cyprus from the occupied territories via Turkey in order to coordinate with a group of Pakistanis residing on the island who had previously been involved in armed activities. Then, carrying out the orders of his Iranian recruiter, Abasalilou carried out preparatory acts of reconnaissance of the territory, in the course of which he photographed the place of residence of the would-be victim. In the taped excerpt of his testimony to Mossad officials, Abasalilou states that he followed the daily itinerary of the would-be victim, informing Hassan Sustarizade who was in Iran via the Whatsapp application.
As Yousef Siahabazi Abasalilou allegedly states in the video released by the Mossad, his recruiter's initial order was to execute the victim "when he found that the course of his daily movements would allow it". "I was also given the pistol to use in the execution. I asked where the silencer was, but my recruiter told me there was no silencer," Abasalilou said in front of the camera.
After Abasalilou sent via Whatsapp to his recruiter in Iran photos of the prospective victim's house and various other points of his daily route from his place of work to his residence and vice versa, he was notified that the Cypriot authorities have located him. His recruiter ordered him to leave Cyprus immediately, after dismantling the pistol in his possession, making sure that the parts of the pistol disappeared. Abasalilou managed to flee Cyprus by plane via the illegal airport of Tympou in the occupied territories and after landing in Istanbul, he returned by plane to Iran. After returning to Iran, Mossad agents tracked him down, kidnapped him, interrogated him and he is now in custody at an unknown location, Israeli state television said in an extensive report on its main newscast. Last Sunday, the newspaper 'Phileleftheros' published information, citing well-informed sources, that the CPS, in cooperation with the Mossad and 'another secret service of another Western country', managed to dismantle a network of agents belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who intended to carry out a terrorist attack 'against Israeli or Jewish targets located on the island'. The news was reported on the same day by the Israeli state media, following a statement by the private office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he congratulated the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus for their cooperation with the Mossad.
Since Monday, the Jewish Community of Cyprus has started an online campaign to collect donations in order to raise the total amount of 126,000 euros needed for the purchase and installation of advanced security equipment for the protection of targets of Jewish religious interest in Cyprus. In the text accompanying the online campaign to collect financial donations, the Jewish Community of Cyprus states that this initiative was taken following information about the prevention of an Iranian terrorist attack on the island.
