Israel on Tuesday lowered its advanced travel warning for Istanbul, returning it to level 3 or medium for the whole of Turkey, as it reached its highest level for the country’s largest city because of threats from Iran against Israeli citizens. was on the level.
The National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau said in a statement that the travel alert was reduced due to arrests and counter-terrorism operations against Iranian-backed operatives.
Under a Level 3 warning, Israelis are advised to avoid all non-essential travel to Turkey.
The elevated travel warning, which called on citizens to avoid traveling to Istanbul for any reason, was in effect from 13 June.
“This is a return to the situation we knew several weeks ago,” Yossi Adler, senior director of intelligence at the National Security Council, told a briefing to Israeli diplomatic journalists.
The NSC warned that Iran’s motivation to carry out the attacks remains high, and assesses that “there are efforts to build infrastructure on the one hand and to identify potential Israeli and Jewish targets on the other.” “
Israelis are being asked to avoid making public details of upcoming trips to Turkey and photographs while in the country; Refrain from wearing any clothing that may indicate that they are from Israel; And giving personal details to strangers and making unnecessary contact should be avoided.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (composite/ap)
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish security forces for thwarting Iran’s attempts to attack Israeli travelers.
“Our activities were successful, and succeeded in protecting human life,” Bennett said. “We will gradually return to normalcy.”
According to senior Israeli officials, critical intelligence had indicated that Iran was trying to carry out attacks against Israeli tourists in the country in order to avenge the numerous killings and attacks on Iranian military and nuclear targets, which the Jewish state has known. has been held responsible for.
Adler underlined that recent reports in the Israeli media that the warning remained because of unspecified bureaucracy, despite the decision to lift it, were unfounded.
“We didn’t rush to remove it because we treated the area like a mine,” he explained. “We had to do a comprehensive and thorough investigation before people started moving into that area.”
According to Adler the threat was “significant, immediate and widespread”.
Officials in both countries indicated recently that they were seeking to lift restrictions in time for the summer travel season.
Adler expressed satisfaction over Israel’s response to the warning, saying there had been a significant reduction in the number of Israelis wanting to go to Istanbul.
Adler said Turkish security forces had arrested several suspects in recent weeks, including Turkish citizens.
Israeli officials have indicated that while the recent arrest of Iranian agents accused of conspiring against Israel has reduced the threat level, Turkey is still not completely safe for Israeli tourists, and it is known that Not whether the elements of the warning will persist.
On Sunday, the government said it expected to be able to change the directive soon so that Israel could travel to the popular destination “without fear”.
During a visit to Ankara last Thursday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Israel was looking to raise a warning that threatened to sabotage the fragile resumption of diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey.
Turkish authorities arrested an alleged Iranian cell that sought to target Israelis in Istanbul on June 23, 2022. (screen capture/CNN Turkey)
a senior security officer Hebrew media briefing on Friday The Mossad and local counterparts thwarted three Iranian attacks targeting Israeli civilians in Istanbul in recent days.
The security official said Mossad intelligence led Turkish officials to 10 members of an Iranian cell who were allegedly planning the abduction and murder of a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey and his wife. The official said 10 were arrested on Thursday.
Hebrew reports said Israel’s Mossad spy agency hired private planes to bring the couple and others back to Istanbul in Istanbul. The name of the diplomat has not yet been released.
According to the official, Mossad managed to foil two other plots against Israelis in Istanbul in recent days, with tourists fleeing the country at the “last possible second”.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, denied Jerusalem’s warnings of a Tehran-directed conspiracy in Turkey, calling the claims “baseless” and part of a “premeditated scenario to destroy relations between the two Muslim countries”.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman responded on Twitter: “For several weeks now, Iranian terrorist groups have been trying to kill innocent Israelis on Turkish soil at the behest of the terrorist government of Iran.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards mourners around the coffin of Colonel Syed Khodai during a funeral procession at Imam Hussein Square in the capital Tehran on May 24, 2022. (Atta Canare/AFP)
Iran and Israel have engaged in shadow warfare for years, but tensions have risen after high-profile incidents with Tehran blaming Israel.
The Islamic Republic claimed that Israel was responsible for the killing of Revolutionary Guards Colonel Hassan Sayyed Khodai in Tehran on May 22. The killing of Khodai was the most high-profile killing inside Iran since the November 2020 assassination of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Last week, Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which also handles operations outside the country, announced it was replacing the head of its intelligence unit, Hossein Tayeb, who held the position for more than a decade.
taeb again and again Nominated The Hebrew media has been reported as the man behind the planned attacks on Israelis in Turkey.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Guard Commander Major General Hossein Salami appointed General Mohammad Kazemi to head the intelligence unit.
