{"id":231289,"date":"2020-12-16T17:45:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T17:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=231289"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:29:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:29:53","slug":"political-executions-terror-plots-demand-new-approach-to-iran-and-its-foreign-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/political-executions-terror-plots-demand-new-approach-to-iran-and-its-foreign-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Executions, Terror Plots Demand New Approach To Iran and Its Foreign Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (left), Iranian diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iranian-European relations encountered a new setback on Saturday when the Islamic Republic executed a journalist who had been living as a refugee in France before being lured to Iraq and then kidnaped and send to Iran. Ruhollah Zam<\/a> was reportedly subjected to torture as a means of securing a forced confession, which in turn led to his conviction on the charge of \u201cspreading corruption on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zam\u2019s death sentence was carried out promptly after being upheld by the regime\u2019s Supreme Court. The speed of that process was likely an indicator of Iranian regime\u2019s sensitivity regarding international scrutiny of high-profile cases. That sensitivity is presumably elevated at the present historic moment, as Tehran may be feeling especially vulnerable in the wake of the January 2018 uprising<\/a> and a similar nationwide protest movement in November 2019<\/a>. Various public statements from Iranian officials demonstrate persistent anxiety about the prospect of widespread unrest emerging once again.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> responding to that execution, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>) described the Iranian regime as being \u201cengulfed by deadly domestic and international crises\u201d and using political violence \u201cto create an atmosphere of terror, to intimidate its internal factions, and to thwart the eruption of popular uprisings.\u201d The crises in question include growing international awareness of a wide range of malign activities, which pose an ongoing threat not only to the Iranian people but also to the regime\u2019s declared \u201cenemies\u201d in the Western world.<\/p>\n

About two weeks prior to Zam\u2019s execution, this latter category of threat became more prominent with the start of a terrorism trial in Belgium. Among the four defendants in that case is Assadollah Assadi<\/a>, a professional Iranian diplomat who was serving as the third counsellor at the embassy in Vienna when he was caught smuggling explosives into Europe and handing them off to an Iranian-Belgian couple with instructions to carry them to the French venue hosting a major rally of Iranian diplomats.<\/p>\n

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Free Iran 2018 Gathering - 30 June 2018 - Villepinte, Paris<\/div><\/div>
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