‘Mossad chiefs to be called before the Knesset over Cyprus fiasco’

MOSSAD top brass will be hauled before the Israeli parliament in the wake of the arrest in Cyprus of two Israelis, who now face charges of spying.

According to Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Mossad chief Efraim Halevy and his deputy Amiram Levin have been requested to appear before a Knesset subcommittee to discuss the agency’s internal affairs.

The two are expected to go before the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee with the next few days.

Halevy announced earlier this week that he was accepting the resignation of ‘Y..’, a senior Mossad official, over the Cyprus débâcle.

Top level internal Mossad inquiries over the Cyprus incident reportedly paint a picture of negligence, mistakes and overconfidence, the newspaper says.

The Cyprus affair follows bungles in Switzerland and Jordan, in which a total of six Mossad agents were arrested over the past 14 months.

Reports claim that Y headed a unit responsible for eavesdropping, wiretapping and break-ins.

Udi Argov and Ig’al Damari have been formally charged with spying against Cyprus for a foreign country and will appear before a criminal court in Larnaca on December 8 to answer the charges.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.