Three Iranians suspected of preparing attacks in Turkey against Israeli nationals have been arrested and imprisoned in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Friday (July 22nd). They were arrested on July 14 as part of the second part of an operation to thwart attacks targeting Israelis in Turkey, the private Turkish channel NTV reported.
The three men (Iranians) were imprisoned Thursday in Turkey, bringing to seven the number of Iranian nationals prosecuted for the same facts since the end of June, added the chain.
The Jewish state had called on its nationals in mid-June to leave Turkey immediately because of a “real and immediate danger” of Iranian attacks. But Israel announced at the end of June that it had lowered the threat level for its nationals in Istanbul. “The lives of Israeli citizens have been saved in recent weeks thanks to diplomatic and security cooperation between Israel and Turkey,” said Yair Lapid, who was then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the end of June in Ankara, where he met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
After years of tension, Turkey and Israel have deepened their relationship in recent months. Iran and Israel have been waging a shadow war for years, but tensions have risen following a series of high-profile incidents that Tehran has blamed on Israel.
As a reminder, Israel, which considers Iran its number one enemy, opposes a relaunch of the 2015 international agreement on Iranian nuclear power – supposed to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring the atomic bomb in exchange for lifting of sanctions suffocating its economy – from which the United States withdrew in 2018. Considered by experts to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, Israel fears, among other things, that this agreement will make it possible to replenish the coffers of Iran which could thus increase, according to Israeli officials, its aid to regional allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah or the Palestinian Hamas, enemies of the Jewish state.
