A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp Quds Force is under arrest in Peru for allegedly planning to assassinate a prominent Israeli businessman in the South American country, Peruvian police revealed this weekend.
Majid Azizi, 56, was apprehended in Lima on Thursday along with two Peruvian citizens, following a sting operation carried out with the help of foreign intelligence agencies.
The three men allegedly planned to kill the Israeli entrepreneur at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Peru. The identity of the intended target was not released for security reasons.
“We had to act quickly, because today [Azizi] was set to return to Iran after forming a terrorist cell to wipe out an Israeli national,” Gen. Oscar Arriola, chief of Peruvian police, said in a press conference, adding that Azizi has been living in Peru since 1997 and holds Peruvian nationality by marriage.
Iran and its proxy Hezbollah have been operating in South America for decades. Hezbollah bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, killing 22 people and wounding 242. Two years later, the Iran-backed terrorist group was responsible for the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish cultural center, which left 85 people dead and close to 300 wounded.
