Iran and Israel trade accusations about spying

Tensions between Israel and Iran are a given, but have been in the news this week. This was because of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations, in which he warned that the new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

But Netanyahu’s speech was not the only thing that happened between the two nations. On Sunday, just hours after Netanyahu left for New York ahead of Tuesday’s UN address, Israel announced that it had arrested an Iranian spy.

The Shin Bet domestic security service said that it had arrested a Belgian citizen of Iranian origin three weeks ago. According to the detailed statement from unnamed security officials, Ali Mansouri had been carrying photographs of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. The man, in his fifties, allegedly acknowledged under questioning that he had been promised $1m to “harm Israeli and western interests”. The statement said that he had made three visits to Israel since 2012, with instructions to set up a business trading in commercial windows and fixtures in Israel that could serve as a cover for “intensive intelligence and terror activities” by the Iranian agencies. Security officials said he had entered Israel with a Belgian passport under the name of Alex Mans.

Soon after Netanyahu landed in New York, Israel Radio quoted an unnamed member of his team saying that the arrest of the agent provided further proof that Iran’s words did not match their actions, and that while pursuing a deceptive charm offensive towards America, the nation was continuing to practice terrorism across the world. Netanyahu had previously instructed his ministers to refrain from commenting on Iran and the nuclear issue ahead of his UN speech.

The Shin Bet statement said that Mansouri was arrested on 11 September as he tried to leave the country via Ben-Gurion airport. This was around three weeks before the statement was issued. Mansouri’s lawyer, Michal Okabi, told reporters: “The apocalyptic picture that the Shin Bet is painting is a lot more complicated and the attempt to claim that our client came here in order to carry out attacks in Israel is far from reality and without foundation.”

Any story relating to espionage is by necessity clouded in a level of secrecy, making it nigh on impossible for journalists to verify the facts. While some Israeli commentators have insisted that the Shin Bet’s decision making is not affected by political considerations, several have questioned the timing of the statement. Alex Fishman, military affairs reporter for Israel’s biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the Shin Bet (which is overseen by Netanyahu’s office) does not usually rush to reveal details of espionage cases. He wrote that the timing of the release was “not by chance”, adding: “Israel is trying to embarrass the Iranians to counter the successful public relations campaign that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani waged in the United States last week.”

Gad Shimron, a former Mossad intelligence official and a journalist, echoed this suspicion about the proximity of the announcement to Netanyahu’s US visit. He told Israel Radio: “When you reveal someone like this, the Shin Bet always has an interest to turn the agent into a double agent and send false messages to the Iranians or follow the agent in Europe to reveal a network.”

Even Israel Radio’s military affairs correspondent conceded that the Shin Bet had decided to publicise the case “out of a national interest – that is, the prime minister’s trip to the US and his speech at the General Assembly.”

If this is, indeed, the strategy, has it been effective? Thus far, it would not seem so. The New York Times, in its report on the subject, noted that “news of the man suspected of spying quickly became part of the campaign to cast doubt on Iranian intentions.” For the most part, it was buried within coverage of Netanyahu’s speech. Whatever the motivation, the news certainly does not seem to have swayed the debate in America.

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