Iran’s first minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) admitted to overseeing assassinations of opposition figures abroad, revealing new details about Tehran's decades-long campaign of targeted killings.
In an interview with the Tehran-based news website Didban Iran, Mohsen Rafiqdoust said he personally oversaw operations against exiled dissidents, including former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, military officials Gholam-Ali Oveissi and Shahriar Shafiq, and dissident artist Fereydoun Farrokhzad.
“The Basque separatist group in Spain carried out these assassinations for us. We paid them, and they conducted the killings on our behalf,” Rafiqdoust said.
He recounted his role in the 1991 assassination of Bakhtiar in Paris, saying he supervised Anis Naccache, a Lebanese operative who had previously attempted to kill Bakhtiar in 1980 but failed.
According to Rafiqdoust, he traveled to France to negotiate Naccache’s release, warning French officials: “If after two weeks he is not freed and one of your embassies is bombed or a plane hijacked, don’t complain.”
Naccache himself had previously said in a 2008 interview with the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency that Iran’s then Leader Ruhollah Khomeini personally approved the order to kill Bakhtiar.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Court issued his death sentence, and Khomeini endorsed it. I told the IRGC members that I had operational experience and would carry it out,” Naccache said.
The Iranian government has been implicated in multiple assassinations over the past four decades. In 1984, the Chief Commander of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces Gholam-Ali Oveissi and his brother were shot dead in Paris.
The Lebanese group Islamic Jihad, later linked to Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s leader, Imad Mughniyeh, played a role in several international terrorist operations, including the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and attacks against Israeli targets in Argentina.
Iran’s campaign of assassinations began in 1979 with the killing of Iranian Imperial Navy Captain Shahriar Shafiq in Paris and has continued for decades.
A report published in December by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center documented 862 extrajudicial executions and 124 attempted kidnappings or assassinations by the Iranian state.
The campaign has escalated in recent years. A Reuters investigation in 2024, citing court documents and statements from Western governments, reported that Iran had been involved in at least 33 assassination or kidnapping attempts since 2020.
Iran’s reach has extended to the United States. Washington has accused Tehran of orchestrating at least five assassination plots on American soil since 2020.
Journalist and activist Masih Alinejad was among those targeted, with US authorities uncovering Iranian-backed attempts to kill her through hired operatives.
In one of the most high-profile cases, Iranian security forces abducted journalist Ruhollah Zam in Iraq and transferred him to Iran, where he was executed in 2020.
Similarly, dissident Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped in the UAE and later executed in Iran in 2024.
Iran’s targets have not been limited to its own dissidents. The US Department of Justice recently disclosed details of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Donald Trump before the 2024 election.
A federal indictment in Manhattan named Farhad Shakari, a 51-year-old Iranian national, as the lead operative, along with two American accomplices.
The US government has long designated Iran as a leading state sponsor of terrorism, imposing extensive sanctions in response to its activities.
It is not only Iranian dissidents that have been the targets of Iranian plots. The head of Israel's Mossad, David Barnea, said in 2023 that in the last year, there had been 27 plots foiled targeting Israelis in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
In Israel alone during 2024, Iran-backed plots soared by 400% with 13 cases and 27 Israelis indicted.
The Director General of the UK's MI5 also recently stated that since the start of 2022 the UK has responded to 20 Iran-backed plots, presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents, directly blaming the IRGC.
"The Iranian Intelligence Services, which include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, or MOIS, direct this damaging activity," a statement earlier this month said.
"But often, rather than working directly on UK shores, they use criminal proxies to do their bidding. This helps to obfuscate their involvement, while they sit safely ensconced in Tehran."
MI5 said that Iran is targeting dissidents, media organizations and journalists reporting on the government's "violent oppression".
It also acknowledged the danger posed to Jews and Israelis abroad.
"It is also no secret that there is a long-standing pattern of targeting Jewish and Israeli people internationally by the Iranian Intelligence Services," added the statement. It is clear that these plots are a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime to stifle criticism through intimidation and fear."
“Iran is very alone at the moment” said Barkey, an adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC.
The push for a resolution to a decades-old insurgency by the Kurdish Workers Party against the Turkish state comes as the Middle East's tectonic plates shift and global alliances are in flux as President Donald Trump cast upends US commitments.
"We have a completely changed strategic situation in the Middle East," said Barkey, "no one at the moment has any dominance in the Middle East and it's up for grabs."
"Iran, for the foreseeable will not be able to do what it used to do in the past," added Barkey.
After 15-months of direct combat and proxy warfare pitting Iran against Israel throughout the region, Tehran has come off worse.
It's main ally Hezbollah in Lebanon took a heavy toll from an Israeli ground invasion and air strikes. Most notably, Iran's oldest ally in Syria's Assad dynasty was toppled by Sunni Islamist rebels closer to Turkey, giving Ankara a new regional ward.
How Turkey benefits from peace with the PKK
The jailed leader of the PKK Abdullah Ocalan called on its members to lay down arms in an address from his island prison near Istanbul on Feb. 27.
That announcement was followed by a ceasefire days later which ended 40 years of armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland.
While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rapprochement is largely driven by domestic political considerations to create a new constitution enabling him to run for a third presidential term in 2028, Turkey stands to likely make gains in Northern Iraq, where many PKK fighters are stationed.
Turkey’s gains may be Iran’s losses.
“Both Turkey and Iran would like to influence Iraqi Kurds,” said Barkey.
The Turks and PKK making peace formally will help in those efforts to increase influence.
The relationship between Turkey and Iran Barkey characterized as complex, but one in which there are at least cordial ties and a stable border. Both Islamic nations, however, are revisionist with ideals of grandeur.
Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic last month that Iran's foreign policy of relying on militias led to more losses than gains.
Shifting tectonic plates
Recent diplomatic tensions between Tehran and Ankara represents a broader shift in the Middle East.
Add to the mix Turkey reportedly offering to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, contingent on the war ending with Russia – and Israel, striking southern Syria and attempting to increase ties with Syrian Kurds.
Israel says it part of a new policy to demilitarize southern Syria, but the new government led by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) hardline Islamist group which is close to Turkey has denounced Israel.
“The Israelis also are risking by going too far into trying to punish the Syrians, forcing the Syrians, essentially to look for allies,” said Barkey on Eye for Iran.
One ally that Damascus will not reach out to is Tehran, maintaining its anti-Islamic republic stance.
“That’s it,” said Barkey on there being zero chance that Iran could reestablish itself in Syria, while Ankara enjoys a close relationship with the new HTS leaders.
“The Syrians and HTS blame Iran for propping Assad in power all these years, that Assad would not have succeeded in staying in power this long, or even winning the civil war if it wasn't for Iranian support.”
Reports: The offer of Turkish peacekeepers in Ukraine
Turkey is not signaling support of Ukraine by offering up peacekeepers, said Barkey.
Rather it's a chance for Erdogan to appear relevant on the world stage. Iran, on the other, despite its relationship with Russia, is irrelevant.
“Before Iran was a very useful if not a direct instrument of the Russians but a useful actor on the international scene because it created so many problems for the United States and its allies,” said Barkey.
Barkey questioned Iran's ability to send ballistic missiles to Russia after significant blows by Israel to its stockpile.
Meanwhile, Russia has positioned itself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran over potential nuclear talks.
"No leader has done more for Russia than Trump, so Moscow could pressure Iran," Barkey told Eye for Iran.
"It is quite possible that the Russians will put some pressure on the Iranians, whether it's real or make believe," said Barkey.
The changing alliances, new world order and the stable unpredictability of Trump, may further destabilize the Islamic Republic while Turkey gains the upper hand in the region.
You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran with Henri Barkey, an adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, on YouTube or you can listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Castbox or any major podcast platform.