Two Iranian Citizens Arrested in Argentina for Using Fake Israeli Passports

Argentina has arrested two Iranian citizens for using fake Israeli passports to enter the country, and according to some reports, their case has been referred to the counter-terrorism unit. On Sunday, March 17, media outlets in Argentina reported that the two Iranian citizens arrived in Buenos Aires from Spain the previous week. The newspaper 'Clarin', which was also echoed in Israeli media, stated that the two Iranians held passports with Israeli names 'Nathaniel Toldano' and 'Rivka Toldano'. The national ID and passport numbers of two Israeli citizens named David and Brigitte Asoulin, who are French residents of Israel, were used in the fake passports of the Iranian couple. However, the woman's name and her Israeli nationality were misspelled twice in Hebrew in the letter 'R'. On the first day of their arrival, Argentine police informed Israel of this matter and emphasized that their fingerprints did not match those in the international archives. Following information transferred from Israel to Argentina, security agents arrested the Iranian couple at their hotel. The Iranian man introduced himself as a photographer and the Iranian woman as an architect. Argentine media reported the 27-year-old man's name as 'Sajad Esmaeili Nasrani' and the 30-year-old woman's name as 'Mansoureh Sabzeali', from Mashhad. While some reports indicated that the couple had been released and left Argentina, other reports stated that their case was referred to the counter-terrorism unit under the title of 'national security'. The newspaper 'Israel Hayom' reported that local and security officials in Argentina do not rule out that the two were on a sabotage mission or monitoring targets for future assassinations. The photographer's camera was also confiscated based on this suspicion. Although these reports do not answer the question of why they used fake Israeli passports if they were on a sabotage mission against Israel, Israeli media noted that their entry into Argentina coincided with the 27th anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. In the bombing of a car bomb on March 17, 1992, 29 people were killed and about 250 were injured; most of the casualties were Argentine citizens, and several Israeli embassy staff were also killed and injured. Although two years later, in a more devastating explosion at the Argentine Jewish community center, the country's institutions and Interpol pointed the finger at the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran has not been accused of involvement in the Israeli embassy bombing. Nevertheless, Israeli officials have always insisted that Iran was behind both explosions. Some reports at the time claimed that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran, had claimed responsibility for the bombing. This is not the first time that Iranians have used fake Israeli passports to reach countries that do not easily grant visas to Iranians; five months ago, three Iranians were arrested for entering Bulgaria with fake Israeli passports. It seems that in recent years, some Iranians have thought that having an Israeli passport facilitates access to other countries and that security officials in countries around the world do not impose strict scrutiny on holders of Israeli passports, leading them to forge passports from this country. Israelis acknowledge that human traffickers and forgers of foreign passports have a strong interest in forging Israeli passports, which stems from the credibility of this passport and the reputation of Israeli security agencies in the eyes of global security institutions. However, due to the escalating enmity between the governments of Tehran and Jerusalem and Israel's constant concern, as well as Interpol's worry about the possibility of attacks on Israeli targets worldwide, Iranian attempts to use fake Israeli passports may now face more severe accusations of attempting to carry out terrorist acts against Israel instead of relatively lighter charges of forgery. In this context, the Twitter account of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, humorously commented on the misspelling in the fake passport of the arrested Iranian woman in Argentina, jokingly suggesting that perhaps their passport is real and from the country 'Iskhael'.