Israel breaks up another Iran spy ring, security services say

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces have broken up a suspected spy ring inside Israel that was working on behalf of Iranian intelligence - the latest such espionage group in weeks to be announced, the Shin Bet and police said on Thursday.

In the new incident, an Israeli couple from the town of Lod near Tel Aviv were arrested for gathering intelligence about national infrastructure and security sites including the Mossad spy agency headquarters, as well as surveillance of a female academic, the Shin Bet security service and the police said.

The ring was part of efforts by Iran to recruit people who had originated in the Caucasus region, they said.    

"These incidents join a series of thwarted attempts, that have been revealed in recent weeks, in which Israeli citizens were arrested for working on behalf of Iranian intelligence agents and performed specific missions on their behalf," a Shin Bet source said. 

The investigation showed that one of the couple was tasked with tracking an academic target at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) think tank, whom the Iranians wanted to be physically harmed, a joint statement by the police and Shin Bet added.  

The suspect was separately asked by the Iranians to look for an assassin for a separate mission. Another person, whose origin was Azerbaijan, was also recruited by one of the couple for specific tasks, the statement said.

The INSS said it was thankful the security services had prevented a planned attack on one of its employees.

"While the INSS is an independent research institute, not part of Israel's defence establishment, it is the country’s leading security research institute, and as such, Iran seeks to harm its people," INSS director, reserve major general Tamir Hayman, added. 

The prosecutor's office of Israel's central district will serve a severe indictment against the suspects on Thursday, the statement said.

Iran's foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment. 

Israel's security forces said earlier this month they had broken up two separate spy rings on behalf of Iran in Jerusalem and the north of Israel.

Israel has a history of intelligence operations in Iran, allegedly including the assassination in July of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas in a Tehran state guesthouse. Israel has made no claim of responsibility for that killing. 



(Reporting by Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem, additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Editing by William Maclean)