BICOM

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency yesterday announced that two weeks ago it apprehended a 58-year-old man on suspicion of spying for Iran.

Ali Mansouri, who was born in Iran and lived there until 1980, later acquired Belgian citizenship, changing his name to Alex Mans. He was arrested by Shin Bet agents at Ben Gurion International Airport earlier this month on his way out of the country. It was Mansouri’s third visit to Israel within the last year, during which he apparently attempted to make connections with Tel Aviv businesspeople, posing as a Belgian businessman selling windows and roofing for shops and restaurants. Mansouri was found to have photographs in his possession of sites which are of “interest [to] Iranian intelligence,” according to the Shin Bet, including multiple pictures of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, taken from various angles.

Under interrogation, Mansouri apparently revealed that he was approached in 2012 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit, also known as the Quds Force and promised £620,000 to forge business links with Israelis and secure continued access to the country. Mansouri reportedly named Haji Mustafa from the special operations unit of the Quds Force as his primary handler and named two other individuals from the unit as having been involved in the operation. The the Quds Force is believed responsible for numerous terror attacks against Israeli targets across the world, including an attempted car bombing near the Israeli Embassy in New Dehli last year.

Haaretz quotes an official close to Netanyahu saying “At the same time as it condemns terrorism on American soil, Iran sends an agent to collect intelligence for a possible attack on a US embassy.”