{"id":231897,"date":"2020-12-26T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=231897"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:28:28","slug":"one-year-after-irans-top-terrorist-was-killed-the-underlying-threat-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/one-year-after-irans-top-terrorist-was-killed-the-underlying-threat-persists\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year After Iran\u2019s Top Terrorist Was Killed, the Underlying Threat Persists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Javad<\/p>\n

Javad Zarif and Qassem Soleimani<\/p>\n

Last Sunday, Iran-backed militias launched their latest in a long series of attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad. Although it caused little damage and no injuries to American personnel, it was reportedly the largest single volley of rockets to be directed at the compound in a decade. The US State Department accused the Iranian regime for the escalation, and the regime\u2019s officials responded with blanket denials and bizarre accusations that the US staged attacks on its own assets in order to scapegoat the regime.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that anyone would have to make up stories about the Iranian regime\u2019s behavior in order to convince democratic nations or freedom-loving peoples that it would be worthwhile to remove that regime from the world stage.<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, that regime\u2019s destructive influence on the region has been unmistakable. It played a leading role in propping up the dictator Bashar al-Assad and prolonging the Syrian Civil War, with fatal or life-altering consequences for hundreds of thousands. While that war was still near its peak, Iran almost single-handedly instigated another civil war in Yemen through its support of the Houthi militant group, thereby sparking what has been called the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the United States Department of Defense revised its estimates to say that over 600 troops had been killed by the Iran regime\u2019s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC<\/a>), during the occupation of Iraq. That figure helps to underscore the threat that the clerical regime\u2019s influence can pose not only to the peoples of surrounding nations but also to Western assets in the region. Qassem Soleimani<\/a>, whose leadership of the IRGC\u2019s foreign special operations wing helped to secure his reputation as the world\u2019s most active state terrorist.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the drone strike that killed Soleimani, the US State Department declared that he had been plotting attacks against American assets at the time. Of course, Tehran has endeavored to keep that threat alive in his absence, even promising retaliation for the killing. The Iranian military attempted to follow through on that threat with a missile strike on Iraqi military bases that housed US troops. But none of those troops were killed and questioned have lingered about whether any further retaliation might be attempted.<\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Those activities don\u2019t only threaten Iran\u2019s immediate neighbors or the US assets in the region. They threaten European assets and European interests, as well. And the malign activities in question aren\u2019t limited to the sponsorship of Iraqi and Syrian militant groups but also include both state terrorism and terrorism-by-proxy all around the world. The threat to Europe has been uniquely visible in recent weeks, as four Iranian operatives including a high-ranking diplomat-terrorist<\/a> have been standing trial in Belgium for their plot to set off explosives at a gathering of Iranian Resistance\u2019s annual gathering<\/a> in Paris in June 2018.<\/p>\n

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Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi faces terrorism trial in Belgium court<\/div><\/div>
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