Police and Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, said in a statement: “The thwarting of Iran’s efforts to recruit Israelis continues.”
Jerusalem: Israeli police said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli couple on suspicion of spying for Iran, barely a week after two groups allegedly working for Tehran were detained.
“The foiling of Iran’s attempts to recruit Israelis continues,” police and Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, said in a statement.
The two Israelis, a couple residing in the central city of Lod, had been involved in gathering intelligence on “national infrastructures, security sites and tracking a female academic,” the statement claimed.
“Rafael and Lala Goliev. Residents of Lod were arrested after they carried out tasks on behalf of an Iranian cell that recruits Israelis from the Caucasus countries in Israel.”
Police charged that the couple were recruited by Elshan (Elhan) Agayev, an Azerbaijani national acting on behalf of Iranian officials. It was unclear if Agayev is based in Israel.
They maintained the Golievs had carried out surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites-including the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and of an academic employed at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies.
Thursday’s announcement comes just more than a week after Israeli security services announced they uncovered two other suspected spy rings.
On October 22, Israeli police announced the arrest of seven Palestinians from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem suspected of planning attacks for Iran.
On October 21, police announced the arrest of seven Israeli citizens from the city of Haifa on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of spy missions on Iran’s orders.
Last week, two other Israelis were indicted for various offenses after they allegedly were contacted by Iranian agents and recruited to conduct spy missions.
In September, an Israeli named Mordechai Maman from the coastal city of Ashkelon was arrested on suspicion Iran had recruited him to plot the assassination of top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
