Iranian operatives, members of the cells that hunted and had planned to harm Israelis in Istanbul, detailed the structure of their terrorist network and implicated Iran in the process of their interrogations in Turkey.
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The information they provided incriminated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence apparatus and its commander, Hossein Taib. His exposure, along with his failure to carry out attacks and the arrest of his operatives, greatly embarrassed the Iranians and led to the decision last week to dismiss Taib and appoint Mohammad Kazemi as his replacement. Behind the scenes, the Iranian leadership waged a power battle, which included a demand to dismantle the intelligence apparatus over its failures to prevent the assassinations of senior Iranians. However, the belief is that under Kazemi the apparatus will continue to operate and attempt to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets across the globe.
The terrorists' interrogation in Turkey revealed that three separate cells operated in Istanbul, all under Iranian orders. The cells operated parallel to but completely compartmentalized from one another, each receiving directives directly from Tehran.
The first cell planned to abduct and murder the Israeli ambassador and his wife. Members of the cell told their interrogators that they had already started tracking the two before their arrest. Contrary to the reports in Turkey, the two were not put on a private plane and whisked away to Israel.
The second cell followed a group of Israelis in the city's Beyoğlu district. Some of the Israelis were warned and left Turkey immediately, others moved to hotels with better security and were closely guarded by Turkish security forces.
The third cell, which consisted of Iranian and Turkish operatives, searched for targets at Istanbul's main tourist attractions. Its members were arrested during raids on their safehouse and other places across the city.
Iran's mistakes
The thrust of the information that helped prevent the attacks came from Israel, while other information came from fieldwork and interrogating the terrorists themselves. Senior officials said the public warnings and reports that came out around a week prior to the arrests in Istanbul, led the terrorists' handlers in Tehran to "make serious mistakes" that disrupted the intended attacks.
The arrested suspects will soon face legal proceedings and indictments in Turkey. In Israel, officials intend to use the information from their interrogations for an international campaign presenting Iran as a terrorist state whose agents perpetrate acts of terror across the globe.
With that, Israeli officials are pessimistic about the campaign's odds of success. According to one official, "The main objective of Western countries is to return to the nuclear deal, and they won't let any background noise bother them along the way."
Israeli officials say the intelligence and operational cooperation with the Turks was the best thing to emerge from the entire event. They say the Turks were attentive from the outset and "did everything" to prevent the attacks – from allocating hundreds of police officers and intelligence agents and other resources, to permitting Israeli agents to operate on Turkish soil. Indeed, news outlets in Turkey reported that Mossad agents participated in the operation on the ground.
This cooperation exposes the relationship between the Mossad and its Turkish counterpart, MIT. The relationship was maintained even throughout the deep diplomatic crisis between the countries, and has helped foil ISIS terrorist attacks in Turkey and plans to target Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
