Israel's national intelligence agency, the Mossad, tipped off authorities in France last month about an imminent Iranian terrorist attack on French soil, the agency revealed Thursday.
The affair was first reported by Israel Hayom some two weeks ago, without naming the Mossad as the source which provided the life-saving intelligence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during an American Independence Day celebration on July 4, said in a speech that Iran had planned to bomb a rally of anti-Iranian regime dissidents in Paris, but also did not mention Israel's role in thwarting the plot.
The Iranian terrorist attack on French soil "wasn't thwarted by chance," Netanyahu said at the time, hinting that Israel had a role in preventing it.
Meanwhile, intelligence experts told Israel Hayom that Iran has set up terrorist and intelligence infrastructure across Europe with the aim of assassinating exiled Iranian dissidents and moderate Arab leaders, particularly those whose countries rival Iran in the Persian Gulf.
According to both Israeli and foreign intelligence experts, the vast Iranian infrastructure was set up to serve the Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite black-ops arm, the Quds Force.
One foreign intelligence official said that a prominent Arab leader had canceled a visit to Europe following solid information suggesting that an Iranian terrorist cell was planning to assassinate him.
As stated, the Mossad delivered the critical intelligence to its counterpart agencies in Germany, Belgium, Austria and France, which all launched a joint manhunt for the suspected terrorists.
The cell, headed by an Iranian diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, also consisted of two Belgian nationals and an alleged accomplice in France. They planned to bomb a June 30 conference organized by an Iranian dissident group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran.
About 25,000 people attended the rally in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.
The Belgian nationals, a husband and wife identified as Amir S. and Nasimeh N., were charged earlier this month with their role in the plot.
The couple, described by Belgian prosecutors as being "of Iranian origin," carried 500 grams (about a pound) of the volatile explosive TATP along with a detonation device when an elite police squad stopped them in a residential district of Brussels.
