Israel confirmed on Sunday night that it had prevented a terrorist attack organised by Iran targeting Israelis and Jews in Cyprus.
Jerusalem warned that it would continue to fight "Iranian terrorism wherever it rears its head," including Iran itself.
"The State of Israel uses a wide range of methods everywhere to defend Jews and Israelis and will continue to act to root out the Iranian threat wherever it rears its head, including Iran, the world's main instigator of terrorism," the prime minister's office said in a statement, praising the deterrence of the attack.
Earlier on Sunday, Cypriot media reported that local security services had thwarted an attack on Israeli targets planned by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. According to Philenews, the planned attack was prevented by Cypriot intelligence services, in cooperation with other foreign agencies, including Israeli and American ones. Sources told Israeli media that Israel's spy agency Mossad helped Cyprus to break the Iranian terrorist cell.
Cypriot media also reported that the suspects suspected of planning the attack had used the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island as a base and had been under the surveillance of Cypriot intelligence services for several months. According to the Israeli media, the possible targets of the attack may have been a Chabad house or a kosher restaurant.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday praised the "prevention of an Iranian attack on Israeli targets in Cyprus".
Earlier, the Kan channel, affiliated with Israeli public broadcaster, reported that "authorities in Cyprus prevented an attack by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Israelis on the island." He stressed that "a cell linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was planning to attack Israeli targets and Jewish civilians in Cyprus".
The channel said that "the Cypriot authorities prevented the attack, in cooperation with American and Israeli intelligence agencies."
Cyprus is of strategic interest to Israel as the latter is preparing for war with Iran and Hezbollah on Cypriot territory, deepening cooperation between the two countries and curbing Islamist influence in the Eastern Mediterranean.
