Iranian Diplomat Sentenced To Prison For Failed Paris Terror Attack

Today, a Belgian federal court sentenced Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to 20 years in prison on charges of masterminding an attempted terror attack while stationed at the Embassy of Iran in Vienna. In 2018, Assadi plotted an attack against civilians at a conference of Iranian dissidents in Paris that was also attended by numerous government officials, including representatives of the United States. Assadi was found guilty alongside three other Iranians for their roles in organizing the attempted attack, which was foiled by European security authorities.

Assadi is believed to have been part of a vast network of Iranian intelligence agents staged across Europe to gather information on Tehran’s adversaries and expand Iran’s abilities to suppress opposition to the regime. He is one of many agents operating under diplomatic cover for the Islamic Republic of Iran to engage in covert intelligence operations as a part of the regime’s global terror campaign.

Commenting on today’s news, the Chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said, “Today’s sentencing of Assadollah Assadi illustrates how the Iranian regime exploits its diplomatic postings to foment terrorism around the world. Assadi not only plotted to bomb an Iranian dissident rally in France, but also smuggled explosives aboard a commercial aircraft, travelling from Tehran to Vienna, to carry out his mission. A government that behaves in this manner is not deserving of sanctions relief.” 

Similar plots of aggression by Iranian agents have occurred worldwide. UANI’s report, Iran’s Malign Intelligence Activities, tracks the regime’s history of using the West as a launching pad for assassination campaigns of dissidents and disruptors. UANI also maintains an analytic profile of Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi. 

In March 2017, it was reported that the Quds Force intelligence agents in Germany hired a Pakistani student known as Syed Mustafa H. to gather information on pro-Israeli individuals and institutions. In October 2018, Denmark’s intelligence service Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (PET) accused an “Iranian intelligence agency” of plotting to assassinate an exiled leader of an Iranian-Arab separatist group on Danish soil in the previous month. In September 2020, US intelligence reports alleged that Iran is plotting to assassinate the American ambassador to South Africa in retaliation for the January U.S. drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

Historically, Iran’s primary intelligence agencies, the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), have participated in assassinations and terror attacks, both domestically and internationally, and facilitated repression of religious and political dissenters. The complex interplay between Iran’s two main intelligence branches is one of the key bureaucratic and political power struggles in Iran today. Despite the ongoing power struggle between the IRGC and MOIS, Iran’s intelligence apparatus shows no signs of curtailing its malign domestic, regional and international conduct in furtherance of preserving and expanding the Islamic Revolution at home and abroad. 

To read UANI’s resource, Iran’s Malign Intelligence Activities, please click here.

To read UANI’s profile, Hojatoleslam Mahmoud Alavi: Intelligence Minister of Iran, please click here. 

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