Report: Mossad thwarts Iranian plot to kill Israeli diplomat in Istanbul

Israeli agents interrogated Mansour Rassouli in his home in Iran, according to Israeli media reports • Other assassination targets reportedly included a U.S. general in Germany and a journalist in France.

(May 1, 2022 / JNS) Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has thwarted a plot to assassinate an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul, as well as a U.S. general in Germany and a Jewish journalist in France, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

Mansour Rassouli confessed to Israeli agents during an interrogation in his home in Iran that he had been tasked with the assassinations by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to veteran Israeli journalist Alon Ben-David.

The London-based Iran International reported that Rassouli is a member of the IRGC’s Quds Force’s Unit 840, which is responsible for the planning and execution of overseas operations. Citing a diplomatic source, Iran International initially reported that Rassouli had been detained in Turkey, but Israeli media reports later contradicted this version of events.

An audio clip, ostensibly a part of Rassouli’s interrogation, was released for publication on Saturday. In it, he can be heard stating his name and that of his father, before giving details of the assassination plot, stating that he had “made a mistake” and vowing to take no further steps in connection with it.

Rassouli told his interrogators he had received $150,000 from the IRGC to prepare for the mission, and that he was to receive an additional $1 million after carrying out the assassinations, according to Iran International.