The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acts as a cover for state terrorism. The Antwerp court in Belgium announced its verdict on Thursday, February 4, on the charges of a “terrorist group.”
Assadollah Assadi and three accomplices were convicted of planning to attack an Iranian opposition rally involving senior U.S. and European statesmen in the outskirts of Paris in June 2018.
This is the first time a European court has tried an Iranian diplomat on terrorism charges. The trial comes as the direct role of Iranian government diplomats in the assassinations was clear in similar cases, including the assassinations of Dr. Kazem Rajavi, Abdolrahman Ghassemlou, Sadegh Sharafkandi, and others. But because of the European appeasement policy, they were all released.
In this way, this is the sign of serious change in the relationship between the EU and the Iranian government.
First, it shows the weakness of Iran’s leaders, who can no longer blackmail and threaten the West with terror acts.
Secondly, it was a big blow to the diplomatic apparatus of this clerical dictatorship. This blow means that diplomatic facilities can no longer provide security for Iran’s terrorists in power. Thus, the hand of the government in terrorist operations is completely closed.
The Role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Sovereignty of Iran
So, the question here is, what is the role of the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the structure of this regime if it cannot lead the state’s terror acts outside the country and provide the regime’s intelligence service a ‘diplomatic cover’ to conducts its acts of terror.
The role of the foreign ministry shows the clear purpose of this ministry. “I was in charge of representing Iran in New York at the time of the US invasion of Iraq. I was talking to American officials on the orders of the country’s top officials,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“I had the most coordination with General Soleimani—Qassem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020 in Iraq. Soleimani and I decided to review the latest developments at least once a week and make the necessary arrangements,” he added.
The weekly coordination with Soleimani confirms precisely the fact that the main task of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Islamic Republic is to facilitate the transfer of ammunition, weapons, money laundering, travel documents, and documents for spies and terrorist cells, as well as organized terrorist guidance.
Between 2015 and 2019, “seven diplomats,” including an ambassador, were expelled from Europe for involvement in terrorist plots.
Therefore, it can be said with certainty that without the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC-QF would never have been able to carry out terrorist plots outside Iran.
This was not the first overseas terror operation of the regime in European countries. Examining the dark record of the clerical dictatorship presents us with a list of terrorist acts. A review of this record of all crimes shows us that in the past, the government carried out terrorist acts with a free hand and evaded accountability. For example:
- In the assassination of Shapur Bakhtiar, Abdolrahman Ghaselmo, Sadegh Sharafkandi, Prof. Kazem Rajavi, Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi, Abdolrahman Boroumand, and Mohammad Hossein Naqdi, Iran’s diplomats were never tried. Even in the case of the assassination of Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi, the then Turkish government only expelled four regime diplomats.
- Tehran even has planned to assassinate Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian opposition coalition (NCRI), in Dortmund, Germany. This terrorist act was exposed before it was carried out. Meanwhile, two diplomats, Ali Osuli and Jalal Abbasi were expelled from Germany for their involvement in the plot.
- In another plot against Mrs. Rajavi, a hand-made cannon of Iran’s defense industry called a 320 mm folding missile was to be launched. The weapons and ammunition, which were placed in three boxes with the label of pickles in one of the containers of the ship named Kolahdooz, were discovered during an inspection by customs officials in the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Due to the dirty policy of appeasement and extortion, the regime was not only able to get rid of this terrorist incident but also brazenly made demands from the relevant country. In response to the newspaper article, the Iranian ambassador to Germany Hossein Mousavian sent a letter to the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
“It is said that a weapon was found in the port of Antwerp. The security services of these countries want to disrupt the relations between Germany and Iran in all fields in unison with the Mojahedin Organization, and now they are trying to achieve this by exchanging information,” Mousavian wrote.
We are facing a new situation in the case of the Villepinte bombing. For the first time, a diplomat was taken to court and then to prison.
The trial of this diplomat is not the trial of one person, but the trial of the integrity of the regime and, in a higher-order, the trial of the appeasement policy with a religious dictatorship. Now it’s time for the EU countries to make decisions and change their relationships with the Iranian government in all fields.
