ATHENS: Two young Pakistanis of Iranian origin have been arrested by Greek police over planned anti-Semitic attacks in central Athens, as Israel accused Tehran of being behind the plot.
Israel said it was a fresh attempt by Iran “to promote terror against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad.”
“After the investigation of the suspects in Greece, Mossad helped untangle the intelligence of the network, it’s operational methods and ties to Iran,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said referring to Israel’s national intelligence agency.
“As part of the investigation, it emerged that the infrastructure in Greece was part of a broad Iranian network, operated from Iran toward many countries,” the statement said.
Greek police spokeswoman Konstantina Dimoglidou said the “mastermind” of the cell is “a Pakistani who lives outside Europe.”
A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the person lived in Iran.
“After coordinated actions by the Greek police and the National Intelligence Service, a terrorist network was dismantled which, from abroad, was planning strikes against carefully selected targets on Greek territory,” a police statement said.
Police said the network had “already chosen the target of the attack” and were planning how to execute it.
Greece’s Jewish community numbers around 5,000. The government has good relations with Israel, including a number of security and military agreements.
The Greek police source said the two Pakistanis of Iranian origin were aged 27 and 29 and were planning attacks on areas frequented by Israelis in central Athens.
The source said the men were targeting a building which houses a synagogue and a Jewish restaurant.
The mobile phones of the two arrested men had allowed investigators to capture conversations, videos and sketches of the places targeted, according to the same source.
The country has not been the target of any terrorist attacks in recent years.
Greek police said the suspects were trying to undermine state security and its “international relations.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Greece’s under-fire prime minister announced elections would be held on May 21, as popular anger seethes over last month’s train tragedy that killed 57 people.
PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose four-year term is to end in July, is seeking re-election on pledges of safety improvements after the nation’s worst rail disaster and strengthening the economy.
His government has also pledged to tighten security and prevent illegal migration by sealing its frontier with help from the EU’s border agency Frontex.
Greece arrests 2 Pakistanis for planning anti-Semitic attacks
https://arab.news/6s9rb
Greece arrests 2 Pakistanis for planning anti-Semitic attacks
- The arrested men were targeting a building which houses a synagogue and a Jewish restaurant
- Israel said it was a fresh attempt by Iran ‘to promote terror against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad’
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
