On February 4, a court in Belgium is expected to announce its verdict about Iran’s incarcerated diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi who attempted to bomb the opposition rally in 2018 in France. A statement by 20 former European Ministers in this regard urged Europe to take a firm stance against Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism.
The signatories of this statement urged the President of the European Commission, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the President of the European Parliament, and the leaders of EU member states to take concrete actions against the Iranian regime’s state-sponsored terrorism.
They particularly urged the EU leaders to designate the regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “Javad Zarif must be held accountable for his diplomat’s proven role in plotting to blow up a peaceful rally in Villepinte, France,” read the statement in part.
The European dignitaries demanded that “the activities of Iran’s embassies, religious and cultural centers need to be scrutinized and the diplomatic relations with Iran need to be downgraded and return to normal diplomatic relations be subject to Iran packing-up its terrorist apparatus in Europe and giving assurances that it will never engage in terrorism in Europe again.”
The regime has long used its diplomatic missions to carry out terrorist plots in Europe. The Iranian regime’s diplomat-terrorist in 1990 gunned down Professor Kazem Rajavi in Switzerland, where he was acting as the Iranian Resistance’s representative.
Twenty-eight years later, in June 2018, the regime in Tehran used another diplomat terrorist, Assadi, in an attempt to bomb the Resistance’s gathering in the heart of Europe. If this bomb plot was not thwarted, thousands of supporters of the Iranian opposition and hundreds of European personalities and citizens could have died.
In this regard, the former Ministers’ statement underlines that “Europe’s lack of proper action has emboldened the Iranian authorities in pursuit of their malign activities including terrorism in Europe, convincing them that they have impunity and whatever they do in Europe.”
They underlined that “Europe has its own share of responsibility about the current situation.”
Of course, the regime’s terrorist activities, particularly Assadi’s role in pursuing Tehran’s mandates, are not limited to the Paris bomb plot.
The German Federal Criminal Court (BKA) is now investigating Assadi’s activities on a German Attorney General’s mission, according to Deutsche Welle persian. When Assadi was arrested on July 1, 2018, in Germany, the authorities found two notebooks, one green and the other black, that contained a lot of information. The black notebook was filled with instructions and plans about the 2018 bomb plot.
The green notebook revealed Assadi’s travels to 11 countries in Europe, presumably as a diplomat, and meeting with some Iranians.
Based on this notebook, Assadi had at least 289 visits to different countries. One hundred forty-four of these visits were to Germany. In this notebook, he had kept some receipts of giving large sums of money, as much as 5,000 euros to Iranians or to the regime’s agents in Europe.
On January 22, Mr. Javad Dabiran, the deputy director of the Iranian Resistance’s representative office in Germany, told Al-Arabiya: “The Iranian Resistance has specific information of the Iranian regime’s sleeper cells across Europe, which were commanded by Assadi. The Iranian regime’s MOIS has a network of agents in Europe supported by the regime’s embassies that misuse their diplomatic facilities. Assadollah Assadi was at the head of the Iranian regime’s intelligence network in Europe.”
Dabiran added that “40% and specifically 144 out of 289 meetings of Assadi with his agents were held in Germany. This implies two things. First, a large part of [the regime’s] network is located in Germany, and Germany is the scene of the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities.”
This newly published information indicates Assadi was acting as the head of Iran’s network of terrorism and espionage in Europe while maintaining his diplomatic status as the third secretary of the regime’s embassy in Vienna.
In other words, Assadi’s case is just the tip of an iceberg. Although he was arrested and awaits his verdict, the network he led is largely untouched, and certainly, the regime has replaced Assadi with someone else.
This network continues to be a serious threat to the EU’s security. Assadi’s trial could be a starting point for the EU countries to end the regime’s terrorism in Europe.
Assadi’s trial is historic, since he is Iran’s first diplomat on duty to be held accountable for terrorism. In other words, this is the trial of the entire regime, not just Assadi. Based on the prosecutor’s indictment, Assadi was acting on the orders of the regime’s officials, and this operation was not his personal initiative. In a nutshell, by condemning Assadi and his three co-conspirators, the EU leaders could set a precedent. Tehran’s regime is also afraid of this latter fact, as Zarif’s spokesperson has repeatedly said that Assadi’s condemnation and the trial is “a dangerous precedent.”
Assadi’s trial and condemnation is also a momentum for the European leaders to set the record straight and end the regime’s decades of rampant terrorism and espionage in Europe.
The EU leaders should take concrete actions. They should close the regime’s embassies and so-called cultural centers and expel its agents from Europe. This regime understands nothing but firmness, and now EU leaders can once and for all end the mullahs’ terrorism.