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The 2024 Austrian Verfassungsschutzbericht (Constitution Protection Report) provides a stark and detailed analysis of the Iranian regime’s intelligence operations and influence strategies in Europe, with specific reference to Austria. The document outlines how the Iranian regime, through an elaborate and well-funded network of intelligence agencies, proxy actors, and institutional cover, pursues its interests abroad with a mix of soft and hard power — including terrorism, espionage, and ideological infiltration.
The report makes it clear that Iranian regime intelligence services operate in Austria with a singular goal: “to promote the interests of their state and shield the regime from potential threats.” This includes the surveillance and suppression of political dissidents, human rights groups, media organizations, and minority communities. Iranian operatives are tasked with identifying critical voices and seeking ways to silence them.
Over the past decades, Iran regime’s intelligence community has undergone several transformations, but three core institutions dominate its structure:
1. VAJA (Ministry of Intelligence – MOIS)
Formed from the remnants of the Shah’s notorious SAVAK, VAJA is tasked with “comprehensive surveillance and targeted persecution of enemies of the Islamic Republic, both domestically and abroad.” Initially focused on eliminating internal opposition, VAJA has since evolved into a globally operating agency.
#Iran News:
Germany Moves to Close Iranian Consulates, Calls for EU to Designate #IRGC as Terrorist Organizationhttps://t.co/pifmteiakj— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 31, 2024
2. IRGC-IO (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Intelligence Organization)
IRGC-IO is “directly embedded in the ideology of the Islamic Revolution” and answers directly to the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It plays a dominant role in domestic repression and is linked to foreign operations, including the kidnapping of regime opponents abroad who were later executed in Iran.
3. IRGC-Quds Force
This elite unit is tasked with extraterritorial operations and commando missions. The report notes that state-sponsored terrorist missions are often planned by VAJA but executed by the Quds Force.
Despite internal rivalries and overlaps that sometimes reduce their efficiency, these agencies work in concert to advance the regime’s goals and maintain its grip on power.
#Iran News: German Coalition Vows to Counter Regime’s Nuclear Escalation and Terror Threatshttps://t.co/bfaMUbA5rV
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 10, 2025
Vienna: A Hub for Iran Regime’s Espionage in Europe
The Iranian regime embassy in Vienna is described as one of the largest in Europe and plays a central role in espionage and influence operations:
“The Iranian embassy in Vienna acts as a hub for intelligence activities in Europe. Officers are disguised under diplomatic cover, using their immunity to evade prosecution.”
A particularly notable example cited is the foiled terrorist plot of June 30, 2018, where a Vienna-based diplomat from VAJA orchestrated an attempted bombing against the Iranian Resistance’s Free Iran rally near Paris. He used a network of agents across Europe to carry out the plan. This case underscores “the threat posed by Iranian intelligence and the strategic role Vienna plays.”
Exporting Repression: 45 Years of Violence
For over four decades, Iranian regime intelligence and its proxies have orchestrated a global campaign of intimidation, violence, and murder: “Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, Iranian services or their commissioned proxies have monitored, threatened, abducted, injured, and killed individuals seen as threats to the regime.”
And so #Tehran was determined to eliminate its own alternative on European soil, even if that meant to kill hundreds of Western leaders and legislators. 8/9 pic.twitter.com/3bMHOzrZqm
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 6, 2022
The Iranian regime uses religious and cultural institutions in Europe to promote its totalitarian ideology. These institutions — particularly Shiite centers — serve as soft-power tools while doubling as platforms for propaganda, espionage, and ideological indoctrination.
“Iran uses religious cover to justify a totalitarian system incompatible with a pluralistic society.”
The Islamic Center of Hamburg (IZH) was banned by German authorities in July 2024 for “spreading Islamist ideology, supporting Hezbollah terrorists, and promoting aggressive antisemitism.” Similar organizations exist in Austria, which the report warns are used to incite hatred against regime enemies and conduct intelligence operations.
Proxy Warfare and Criminal Partnerships
Where direct state involvement is too risky, the Iranian regime turns to proxies. The Austrian report states:
“Proxy actors now implement violent attacks abroad, increasingly replacing direct operations by Iranian services.”
These include organized crime groups, drug cartels, terror militias, and even individual criminals or gang members. By using intermediaries, Iran can maintain plausible deniability and conceal its hand in violence.
#Iran News: Finnish Intelligence Identifies Clerical Regime as Espionage Threat, Warns of Criminal Proxy Operationshttps://t.co/7mhjHNTWlz
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 30, 2025
Intelligence operations are also conducted through apparently civilian institutions such as airline offices, cultural centers, banks, or press agencies — all instrumentalized to gather information and influence targets in line with Tehran’s ideological objectives.
Nuclear Ambitions and Military Expansion
One of the most alarming assessments in the report concerns Iran regime’s nuclear and military capabilities:
“Iran aims for comprehensive armament to solidify regional dominance and immunity. Its nuclear weapons program is far advanced.”
With an existing arsenal of ballistic missiles, Iran’s regime is positioned to deploy nuclear warheads over long distances. All diplomatic and sanction-based efforts to stop this progress have failed. Since the 2010s, Iranian regime’s arms shipments have fueled regional conflicts, especially in Syria and Palestine, and contributed to the formation of a so-called “Axis of Resistance” aimed at encircling Israel.
U.S. House Resolution 176 Calls for EU to Designate Iran's IRGC as a Terrorist Organizationhttps://t.co/yWl3yFadfL
— Firouz Mahvi (@FirouzMahvi) March 1, 2025
Industrial Espionage and Technology Theft
Iranian regime intelligence actively targets Western technologies and dual-use goods, often using front companies and shell corporations tied to the Revolutionary Guards’ economic empire. These networks enable Iran to acquire components for WMDs and high-tech military equipment.
“Western military technology from war zones — such as captured Israeli or U.S. drones — is disassembled, studied, and replicated.”
Research institutes and academic centers are also targeted for their expertise, which Iran’s regime seeks to exploit for its own military-industrial development.
Hamburg Senate Warns of #Iranian Espionage and Threats Against #MEK Amid Rising Tensionshttps://t.co/eVlsj8CtK3 pic.twitter.com/G3UuGMCgaA
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 10, 2024
A Strategic and Ideological Threat to Europe
The 2024 Austrian Verfassungsschutzbericht paints a damning picture of the Iranian regime, which is not only an ideological theocracy at odds with democratic values, but also a global actor in repression, terrorism, and espionage. Its activities in Austria — and Europe more broadly — demonstrate a long-term, calculated effort to silence dissent, destabilize opposition, and project power beyond its borders.
Iran regime’s use of diplomacy as cover, its proxy strategy, its religious infiltration, and its ambition to become a nuclear power present a multidimensional threat that European governments can no longer afford to ignore.
“All efforts to prevent Iran’s armament through sanctions or agreements have so far proven ineffective.”
The regime’s actions call for vigilance, policy reorientation, and collective action to counter the threats it poses to European security and democratic institutions.