Iran Denies Claims It Targets Israeli Businesspeople in Cyprus

Earlier last week, Cypriot media outlet Philenews reported that an Azeri national had been arrested in Nicosia after police discovered a pistol with a silencer in his car. According to the report, the man was suspected of being involved in assassination plots against "Israelis with business activity in Cyprus".

The Iranian Embassy in Cyprus on Monday dismissed claims made by Tel Aviv that Tehran was plotting "terror attacks" against Israeli businesspeople in the country, describing the allegations as "baseless".

"This regime is always making such a baseless allegation against the Islamic Republic of Iran", the Iranian Embassy said in an emailed statement in response to an inquiry by Reuters.

The Iranian response comes shortly after Israel accused Tehran of plotting what Tel Aviv described as "terror attacks" against Israeli businesspeople in Cyprus.

The accusations followed a report by Cypriot media that Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Teddy Sagi had become a target of an assassination attempt. Cypriot news outlet Philenews reported earlier last week that police had arrested an Azeri national in whose car police found a gun with a silencer. The man was reportedly an assassin tasked with targeting "Israelis with business activity in Cyprus".

However, a spokesman for Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, when accusing Iran of "terror attacks", denied that Sagi was the target of the reported attack. According to some reports, the Israeli-Cypriot billionaire might have become the victim of an attack connected to a business dispute.

Earlier, when addressing the UN General Assembly, Bennett asserted that Iran had "spread its carnage and destruction around the Middle East", once again labelling the Islamic Republic's President Ebrahim Raisi "the butcher of Tehran".