Repeated Claims by Islamic Republic Officials: ‘Rogue Groups’ Behind Operations on European Soil

Following Kamal Kharazi, head of Iran’s Foreign Policy Strategic Council, a former ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Germany also acknowledged that Europe possesses documents on the Islamic Republic’s involvement in sabotage operations that cannot be easily denied.

Ali Majedi, former ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Germany, in response to recent statements by European officials regarding the Islamic Republic’s attempts to carry out assassinations, bombings, and attacks against Iranian government opponents in various European countries, spoke of the possible role of “rogue groups” in this matter and added that Europe possesses “documents” demonstrating the Islamic Republic’s involvement in these incidents.

Majedi’s remarks were met with a response from Iran’s Foreign Ministry. The ministry stated in a statement that the phrase “so-called rogue operations” in Majedi’s remarks “did not refer to any specific case and represents a general concern about some possibilities.”

Majedi’s comments are significant because earlier, Kamal Kharazi, Iran’s former foreign minister, in an interview with France 24 television network and in response to a question about Iranian government operations in France and Denmark, had said that groups might attempt to damage Iran-Europe relations; “even within Iran.”

Kharazi is currently the head of the Foreign Policy Strategic Council, whose members are selected by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic.

The remarks by Majedi and before him Kharazi indicate that some Islamic Republic officials, while accepting the principle of accusations regarding the Ministry of Intelligence’s attempts to carry out operations on the soil of European countries, are attempting to attribute them to “rogue forces.”

In political discourse, “rogue” refers to individuals or groups that may not have official positions, titles, or assignments but possess considerable power. Islamic Republic officials have in various cases attributed incidents occurring in Iran to these groups; from serial killings and the attack on Tehran University campus to the sending of missile shipments to Europe in 1996.

These groups have also been involved in other cases such as attacks on political ceremonies, preventing certain political figures from speaking due to disagreements with Ayatollah Khamenei, or attacks on embassies.

However, to date, there has been little news about how Iran’s judicial or security apparatus has dealt with members of these groups. Groups whose common factor is emphasis on obedience to the Islamic Republic’s leader.

The former Iranian ambassador to Germany, who stepped down from his position after the implementation of a law prohibiting the employment of retirees, told ISNA that “with two or three mistakes,” European trust in Iran was lost, and he identified those responsible as people who “believe that by carrying out certain operations or rogue actions, the country’s national interests can be secured.”

Majedi had added that when “rogue operations” exist within Iran, can we “deny that examples of such incidents are occurring outside the country as well?”

In the fall of this year, Iran newspaper, affiliated with the government, in its editorial, referring to the accusation that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence attempted to carry out operations in Denmark, wrote that if there was a connection, it would “definitely have been without the knowledge of senior officials of the country” and “the root of these rogue behaviors must be burned.” Iran newspaper also referred to “past experience with the serial killings case,” which in the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial writer showed that “rogue forces do things whose smoke blows in the eyes of the government and officials.”

The European Union, on January 8, placed the Deputy Director of Security Affairs at Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and two of his colleagues on its sanctions list.

The Islamic Republic is accused of having a role in several political assassinations, attempted bombings, and attempted attacks on political opponents in several different European countries in recent years.

The killing of Ali Motamad (who is said to have been Mohammad Reza Kolahi, the perpetrator of the Haft Tir bombing in 1981 at the Islamic Republic Party office) in the fall of 2015, followed by the killing of Ahmad Nissi, a leader of the group known as the “Ahwazi Liberation Movement,” in the fall of 2017 in the Netherlands, an attempted bombing at a Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization conference in Paris in the summer of this year, and finally an attempt to assassinate Habib Jobbar, a leader of the group known as the “Ahwazi Liberation Movement,” in the fall of this year are among the Islamic Republic’s actions that led to sanctions on part of the Ministry of Intelligence in Europe.

In recent months, an Iranian diplomat has been expelled from France and two other diplomats from the Netherlands over these same accusations.

Assadollah Assadi, a staff member of Iran’s embassy in Austria, was arrested by the German government on suspicion of involvement in an attempted bombing at a Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization conference and was later extradited to Belgium.

Previously, a court in Germany agreed to the extradition of Assadi and rejected his “diplomatic immunity,” since Assadi at the time of his arrest “was during a few-day vacation outside the host country, Austria.”

The Austrian government also shortly after Assadi’s arrest, asked the Iranian government to waive his diplomatic immunity.

In addition, in recent months, Albania expelled two Iranian diplomats and in Germany as well, a person said to have been an Iranian spy in the country’s military was arrested.

Source: Voice of America