Foiled Iranian plot to kill rabbi in Azerbaijan part of global campaign against Jews

The Iranian regime enlisted a Georgian drug trafficker in an unsuccessful plan to murder Rabbi Shenor Segal in Azerbaijan in January, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Tehran was reportedly willing to pay $200,000 for the elimination of the Jewish rabbi. 

The Washington Post report revealed that Iran's elite Quds Force recruited drug trafficker Agil Aslanov to facilitate the assassination of Segal. The plan included an attack on a Jewish education center in Azerbaijan. Aslanov reportedly agreed to carry out the mission and recruited an Azerbaijani local to monitor the rabbi. 

Azerbaijan’s security authority, which foiled the assassination attempt, reported that Aslanov “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.” Aslanov and his accomplice were both arrested in January. 

While Segal’s name was not mentioned in the official statement, he was identified as the target in a local media report. 

Segal, who only learned about the plot from the media, argued that he still feels safe in Azerbaijan. 

“We live here peacefully. I walk on the streets here, and there is no fear,” Segal told the Washington Post. 

In February, U.S. Jewish organizations praised the Muslim-majority country of Azerbaijan for its tolerance towards its Jewish minority. 

Marcus Sheff, the CEO of IMPACT-se, an educational monitoring NGO, hailed Azerbaijan’s education system for promoting peaceful coexistence. 

"The textbooks demonstrate a clear rejection of the extreme Islamist values promoted by their near-neighbor Iran," Sheff assessed. "Instead, they promote tolerance, diversity, and a heartfelt respect for Jews and Israel, which serves as an important model for many other majority-Muslim states."

Segal is not the first rabbi to become a target in an Iranian-led assassination plot. 

In November 2024, the Israeli Rabbi Zvi Kogan was murdered in the United Arab Emirates, another country with close ties to Israel. Last month, an Emirati court issued death sentences for three Uzbek citizens who are believed to have murdered Kogan on behalf of the Iranian government. The original plan was reportedly to kidnap Kogan and transport him to Oman. However, the rabbi was eventually murdered, which was reportedly not part of the original plan. 

The Iranian regime has repeatedly targeted Israelis and Jews worldwide in its ongoing war against the Jewish nation. Some pundits believe that Tehran views Jews and Israelis abroad as softer and thereby less risky targets than launching direct attacks on Israel, which is likely to respond with strong military force. 

In October 2024, a European report revealed that the Iranian regime increasingly employs local criminal gangs to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in European countries. Many of these gangs, including Foxtrot in Sweden, are led by criminals of Middle Eastern origin.

The report revealed that Israel's foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, has been actively alerting its European counterparts, successfully thwarting most Iranian-led plots targeting Jews and Israelis. The Iranian regime has also directed efforts against Iranian dissidents living in Western countries.

Earlier this week, the Israeli National Security Council (NSC) issued a warning that the Iranian regime and terror proxies, such as Hamas, have stepped up their efforts to attack Jews and Israelis worldwide due to the conflict in Gaza. 

“The climate of hate against Israelis and Jews due to the ongoing war continues to fuel terrorist efforts, both from organized cells and individual attackers,” the NSC stated. The council urged Israeli tourists ahead of the Passover holiday to be vigilant and follow security updates during their travels abroad.