Mossad Says They Foiled Iran Plot to Assassinate Israeli Diplomat in Turkey

Israel says plots center around Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Israel’s Mossad is claiming to have thwarted multiple assassination attempts by Iran, which officials blamed on Iran’s “senior leadership” in general and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in particular.

Mossad said that recently the IRGC tried to assassinate an Israeli diplomat at the consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. This was putatively part of a broader plot that also targeted a French journalist and a US general in Germany.

All of this is an unsourced report, which added a single IRGC member was arrested in an unnamed country. There is a lot that is unknown about what is said to have happened.

There are reasons to doubt the story, however, because it fits very conveniently into Israel’s narrative at a very opportune time. With Israel trying to undercut US negotiations with Iran, and in particular trying to keep the IRGC on the terrorism blacklist, this is a perfect moment to blame the IRGC for failed terrorism.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.