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Mossad Foils Iranian Attempt to Assassinate Western, Israeli Figures

A view of residential areas in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey April 12, 2022. Picture taken April 12, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of residential areas in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey April 12, 2022. Picture taken April 12, 2022. (Reuters)
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Mossad Foils Iranian Attempt to Assassinate Western, Israeli Figures

A view of residential areas in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey April 12, 2022. Picture taken April 12, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of residential areas in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey April 12, 2022. Picture taken April 12, 2022. (Reuters)

Israeli officials revealed that the Mossad intelligence agency had recently thwarted an Iranian assassination plot against three western and Israeli figures in Turkey, Germany and France.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force had sought to assassinate an Israeli consulate employee in Turkey's Istanbul, a senior American general in Germany and a journalist in France, reported Israel's Ynet and Kan state broadcaster.

Israeli sources confirmed that the Mossad foiled the plot.

The Israeli reports confirm one by the opposition Iran International website that said Tehran had sought to assassinate an Israeli consulate employee in Istanbul.

The website, which is based in London, reported that the Quds Force was to carry out the assassination.

The assailant is part of a secret unit of the Quds Force that "plots and sets up terrorist infrastructure outside Iran" and mainly targets western and opposition figures.

The report added that the assailant was to carry out the assassinations in Istanbul, Germany and France.

He has since been arrested in Europe. He confessed to receiving 150,000 dollars to plan the assassination. He would receive a million dollars after completing the operation with the help of local drug dealers.

The report said this was not the first time Iranians attempt to assassinate Israelis around the world.

Two months ago, Kan reported that Turkish and Israeli intelligence thwarted an attempt to assassinate businessman Yair Geller in retaliation to the killing of Iranian nuclear chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020.

Iran has also been blamed for hampering attempts at normalizing relations between Turkey and Israel.

Iran has vowed to retaliate to the 2020 assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

He was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020.

Tehran has also vowed to retaliate to the killing of Fakhrizadeh that it blames on Israel.

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Anxious and Divided, Americans Vote ‘For the Future of This Nation’

Voters cast their ballots at the Park Slope Armory YCMA in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP)
Voters cast their ballots at the Park Slope Armory YCMA in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP)
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Anxious and Divided, Americans Vote ‘For the Future of This Nation’

Voters cast their ballots at the Park Slope Armory YCMA in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP)
Voters cast their ballots at the Park Slope Armory YCMA in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP)

Waiting outside polling stations across the country, American voters were a vision of orderly calm and quiet nerves.

The solemn nature of the voting process provided a contrast to the hyper-charged campaign cycle, marked by two assassination attempts on Donald Trump.

"I was thinking about the future of this nation, and frankly the free world," Brockett Within, a 65-year-old New Yorker, told AFP as he cast his vote Tuesday at a polling station in the East Village.

In Georgia, one of seven swing states that will decide the outcome of the vote, 27-year-old beauty queen Ludwidg Louizaire said she was aware of the stakes for the nation.

"I think we all can agree that no matter what happens today, history will be made," said the winner of the Miss Georgia competition this year.

"The main issue for me is the continuation of our democracy," Ken Thompson, a 66-year-old mason told AFP, at Edison Elementary school in Erie, Pennsylvania.

- 'America first' -

Around the country, voters confided in AFP about the issues that had tipped their decisions, often echoing the main talking-points of the campaign from immigration, abortion rights to the economy.

"We don't need another four more years of high inflation, gas prices, lying," Darlene Taylor, 56, told AFP in Erie, a bellwether county in Pennsylvania which is the biggest and most prized of the swing states.

Wearing a homemade T-shirt bearing the names of Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, she said her main issue was to "close the border" to migrants.

"America comes first, and (Kamala) Harris is not going to support that," added Taylor, who said she lived on disability benefits.

Liz Orlova, a 22-year-old in New York, said that abortion rights had been "at the forefront of my mind" as she voted in the East Village.

US Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump helped overturn the federal right to abortion in 2022 -- an issue Harris has pledged to tackle if elected.

"It's super messed up that across the country that particular right is being taken away from people," said Orlova.

- 'Way more people' -

Turn-out is expected to be crucial in Tuesday's vote. Democrats tend to do well among more educated and wealthier voters who cast ballots regularly, while Trump has courted more marginalized citizens who often opt out.

Both are hoping to turn out young voters in their support.

The lines outside polling stations along the east coast early suggested that many Americans had embraced calls from the candidates, celebrities and activists to carry out their duty.

"It's way, way, way more people here than the last" election, Marchelle Beason, 46, told AFP in Erie after putting on an "I voted" sticker.

Others confessed that they would simply be relieved when the blanket political adverts on television and the internet would end -- and a vote that has kept the country on edge all year will finally be decided.

"I'll be glad when it's over," Guy Mills, 62, told AFP in New York.