IRGC Intelligence Chief Claims 20 Countries Involved In Iran Protests
The head of the Revolutionary Guard's intelligence claims secret services of about 20 countries were involved in supporting Iran's popular protests in 2022.
The head of the Revolutionary Guard's intelligence claims secret services of about 20 countries were involved in supporting Iran's popular protests in 2022.
Mohammad Kazemi, who took over from Hossein Taeb in July 2022, made the remarks in an interview format with Khamenei.ir, the website of the Supreme Leader. It was his first media appearance since his appointment to Iran's most fearsome intelligence and domestic repression outfit.
The brigadier general accused 18 countries that supported “the riots” across the country sparked after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. He named the US, the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Albania, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Norway, Bahrain, New Zealand and Israel.
Kazemi's claim of so many countries conspiring against the Islamic Republic topped even other regime hardliners who all along have attributed the protests to foreign "enemies." The conspiracy theory, as is usual in Iranian politics, first came from Khamenei and his loyal officials began repeating the accusation.
If Kazemi's claim were true, it would imply that about 20 countries want the Islamic Republic to collapse as the protests – which are somewhat still ongoing in forms of strikes and periodic gatherings – have been the boldest challenge against the clerical autocracy.
This would hugely expand the Islamic Republic’s definition of “enemies", which until now was used to refer primarily to the United States and Israel, and sometimes to their allies. Now, every entity and individual who has expressed support for the anti-regime protests is labelled an enemy.
Government forces killed more than 500 civilians and arrested more than 20,000 people until February, and more persecution and arrests continue, while Khamenei has boasted of defeating enemy plots.
The IRGC-IO commander also claimed that the intelligence agencies of Israel and the United Arab Emirates "met periodically in an Arab country" to discuss how to support the protests in Iran. In addition, he referred to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as hostile countries, which seems to contradict the regime's new foreign policy of rapprochement with Riyadh and its Persian Gulf allies.
Adding to the odd allegations, Kazemi said that by the end of the unrest, the CIA called to form a joint taskforce with Israel’s Mossad and the UK’s MI6 to “re-launch the project to assassinate Iranian scientists, especially in the nuclear, aerospace and military fields.”
He also claimed that the intelligence agencies recruited European as well as non-European nationals, including Afghans, Pakistanis, and Iraqis to collect information and documents about the unrest, adding that 40 nationals of one of the neighboring countries and Europeans were arrested in this regard.
The ban comes as Western powers seek to defuse tensions with Iran and a few weeks after Tehran released several Europeans from prison, including two French nationals. French President Emmanuel Macron held a 90-minute call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on June 10.
The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political arm of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years, often attended by high profile former US, European and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic.
In February, the NCRI attracted several thousand people to an event in central Paris, and plans its annual rally on July 1.
However, given a recent spate of mass anti-government protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman while in morality police custody, a "tense context" had developed posing "very significant security risks" to NCRI gatherings, said the document, a letter from Paris police chief Laurent Nunez.
Therefore, "this meeting, organized every year since 2008, cannot be held..." read the letter, sent to the NCRI rally's organizing committee.
In response to an inquiry, Paris police issued a statement to Reuters confirming that they had informed the committee of the decision to ban the rally as it could "generate disturbances to public order due to the geopolitical context".
"Moreover, given the terrorist risk cannot be neglected, the holding of such an event would make its security but also the security of sensitive guests extremely complex," said the statement.
A senior NCRI official condemned the decision when asked about it by Reuters, before the police confirmation.
"If French authorities take such a stance, it will represent a brazen disregard for democratic principles, caving in to the ruling religious tyranny’s blackmail and hostage-taking," Shahin Gobadi, a member of the NCRI's Foreign Affairs Committee, said.
Foreign Support For Iran Unrest
Mahsa Amini's death in custody sparked months of nationwide protests, prompting Tehran to accuse the United States, its Western allies and Israel of exploiting the unrest to try to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
Thousands of supportive rallies have been held around the world since her death September, although the nationwide unrest has subsided after Iranian security police clamped down on it.
To dampen rising tensions, the United States has been holding talks with Iran to sketch out steps that could limit the disputed Iranian nuclear program, release some detained US citizens and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad, according to Iranian and Western officials.
Abortive Plot
Nunez's letter put the July 1 NCRI rally in the context of the abortive plot led by Vienna-based Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi in October 2018 and three others.
Assadi, who French officials said was running an Iranian state intelligence network and was acting on orders from Tehran, was sentenced in Belgium to a 20-year prison term in 2021. He was exchanged in May for four Europeans held in Iran.
"This attempted attack, which underlines the operational capacities for attacking the PMOI, falls into a series of violent and lethal operations in France and Europe, in the form of assassinations and kidnappings of Iranian opposition figures," the letter said, without providing details.
"Partner countries have in this regard recently mentioned many planned violent attacks, potentially targeting Iranian opposition figures."
Nunez also said in his letter to the NCRI that given the group's rally would attract several hundred important foreign dignitaries and PMOI members coming from overseas, "securing the event would be particularly complicated".
There have been three attacks on an NCRI building in a Paris suburb since the end of May, the letter said, and these were under investigation. Two sources close to the investigation said gunshots, petrol bombs and other incendiary devices had been used to target the building. It was unclear who was responsible.
The letter said there was also an elevated risk of conflict between the NCRI and rival Iranian opposition groups at the rally, although there had been no incidents at past rallies.
Tehran has long called for a crackdown on NCRI activities in Paris, Washington and the Saudi capital Riyadh. The group, whose sources of funding and support are unclear, is regularly lambasted by Iranian state media.
Reuters Report
Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), has been in Iran along with several other senior members and leaders of Palestinian militant groups since last week, culminating in the arrival of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Monday.
The groups, both designated terrorist outfits by the European Union, the US, the UK, Canada, Israel, and several other countries, have been receiving financial support from the Islamic Republic, presumably for wreaking havoc in Israel, or what the regime calls “resistance.”
Nakhalah, who has met with several senior Iranian officials since last week, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, expressed gratitude for the Islamic Republic’s support during his Sunday meeting with President Ebrahim Raisi, without elaborating on the amount of support.
According to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in April, Iran is the “driving force” of a recent multi-front escalation with Israelis through its proxies across the region, funding Hamas – that rules the Gaza Strip -- with $100 million annually with additional funding worth tens of millions of dollars going to the second largest terror group in the Palestinian enclave, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Galant said the regime also provides Hezbollah in Lebanon with $700 million a year, as well as “knowledge and strategic weaponry” such as precision-guided munitions.
The groups regularly send leaders or delegations to Iran to ask for more money than their annual allowance, and usually the tensions heighten around the time of such trips either as complaisance to the Islamic Republic or a gimmick to justify further funding.
Alireza Nourizadeh, a regional analyst, told Iran International that the regime is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create chaos in Israel, as it views it as its most important enemy. He claimed that the regime is using the social divide in Israel as an opportunity to increase tensions, noting that the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have created such an opportunity.
Earlier in the day, five Palestinians were killed as heavy clashes broke out between gunmen and Israeli troops in the city of Jenin. An Israeli helicopter gunship carried out strikes in order for seven wounded Israeli soldiers to be evacuated from the battle zone after their vehicle was hit by an explosive device.
Claiming that Palestinians have never been closer to defeating Israel, Iran’s president said during the meeting with Nakhalah that "With Jihad and resistance, we will approach victory against the occupying Zionist regime day by day."
Raisi reiterated the Islamic Republic's support for “the oppressed Palestinian nation and their just cause," which he said, "remains the cause of all Muslims."
Jaber Rajabi, political analyst and activist, told Iran International that although the Islamic Republic seeks to portray itself as sympathetic to the Palestinians and championing their cause, it never supports Palestinians who seek peace and stability, such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, and only supports warmongers.
Rajabi said that the Islamic Republic is not committed to what he describes as the Palestinian cause, noting that the regime views the Palestinian issue as a bargaining chip. Among the few cards that Iran's regime can play in the international arena is by fomenting unrest in Israel, he claimed, adding that the regime believes it can only progress if there is a crisis. And since the détente with Saudi Arabia, Iran has to reduce the level of tensions in the Persian Gulf, so it has to create chaos in Israel.
According to him, the Islamic Republic is against the two-state solution, the only strategy that can reconcile the opposing sides in Israel, and therefore it would not support the Palestinian groups that favor this option, which is also backed by most of the Palestinian civilians.
He added that since Khamenei announced that the West Bank should be armed, the regime is making the best use of tensions there, most notably via the Islamic Jihad group. He is also of the opinion that the reason Nakhalah and Haniyeh are both in Iran is that the regime wants to resolve the differences between the two group so they can unite against Israel, considering the fact that in recent tensions with Israel, Hamas did not engage and the Islamic Jihad was the only group firing missiles towards Israeli cities.
Confidential letters published by the group Uprising till Overthrow revealed that the regime officials are aware their support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine may lead to criminal cases against Tehran for its involvement in the war.
Referring to the annulment of at least five agreements between Iran and Ukraine over the issue, the documents pointed out that Kiev has also sanctioned a large number of Iranian officials and also rejected calls for negotiations by the Islamic Republic.
The point that comes across in the hacked letters by General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the foreign ministry sent to the president’s office is that they know very little about the military cooperation with Moscow, suggesting that it is handled by the Revolutionary Guards, most probably with the approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Rolling with the punches, the organizations offered a number of suggestions to compensate for the “loss of dignity” by making demands from the Russian government.
In the documents, the General Staff asked the government not to deny Iran’s involvement in the war and its supply of drones to Moscow because the European and other Western countries are evidently sure about the military support.
Among the ways to dampen the effects of Iran’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is holding talks with Kyiv officials to keep the channel of interaction open between the two countries.
The correspondence with the president’s office shows the regime’s concerns over the Ukrainian government downgrading relations with the Islamic Republic, calling for planning for such a scenario through preparing the regime’s embassy in Moldova to handle consular matters.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the diplomatic missions of the regime in European countries should become more active so that they can be aware of the possible plans of European countries for any possible legal action against Iran, implying that they are aware that regime officials can be prosecuted for their involvement in the war.
Noting that 37 countries have filed lawsuits against Russia at the International Criminal Court, the ministry said that such a lawsuit can also be filed against the Islamic Republic.
The hacktivist group ‘Uprising till Overthrow -- affiliated with the Albania-based opposition Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) group -- produced documents in May showing that it breached 120 servers of the presidential office, getting access to internal communications, meetings minutes, President Ebrahim Raisi’s online conference platforms and about 1,300 computers inside the offices. The MEK-affiliated group has been releasing the documents on its social media accounts.
Iran has repeatedly denied sending armed drones to Russia after Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022, claiming that any shipments occurred before the war.
However, Russia has used hundreds of Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian targets, with Kyiv reporting more supplies in December as Moscow’s stocks were used up.
Western powers have strongly objected to Iran's decision to arm Russia with Kamikaze drones, and possibly other weapons and ammunition.