{"id":233020,"date":"2021-01-12T10:39:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T15:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=233020"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:24:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:24:59","slug":"iranian-moderates-cite-independence-to-deny-responsibility-for-provocative-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/iranian-moderates-cite-independence-to-deny-responsibility-for-provocative-acts\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian \u201cModerates\u201d Cite \u201cIndependence\u201d To Deny Responsibility for Provocative Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iranian<\/a>
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (left), Iranian diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By: Alejo Vidal Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, naval forces belonging to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Practically every independent observer of this development was quick to recognize that Iranian authorities intended it as a means of securing leverage over a South Korean delegation that was already scheduled to visit Iran and discuss the possible release of seven billion dollars in Iranian oil revenues that remain frozen in accordance with US sanctions.<\/p>\n

Naturally, this week the regime set to work denying the obvious connection between the two events. Regime\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif<\/a> told the South Korean visitors that the release of the ship and its crew was a matter for Iranian courts and that the government would have no role in the outcome. This is a familiar line of argument employed by Zarif and other so-called moderate officials to deny responsibility for provocative measures while simultaneously allowing the regime to pursue the benefit of those measures and blackmail.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the supposed independence of the Iranian judiciary has been cited as a reason for government officials to avoid intervening in a wide range of politically sensitive cases. But this has not stopped those same cases from ultimately being resolved through prisoner swaps, ransom payments, and other arrangements that seemed to confirm the political intentions underlying the arrests or the charges that Iranian authorities filed in the first place.<\/p>\n

In early 2016, for instance, as the newly-signed Iran nuclear deal was going into effect, then-US President Barack Obama arranged for 21 Iranian nationals to be released from American prisons or to have criminal charges against them dropped in exchange for Iran releasing four Americans who had been detained on the basis of plainly trumped-up national security charges. In addition, Iran received 700 million dollars in cash as the first installment in repayment of a decades-old debt between the two countries.<\/p>\n

It was not long before other Iranian-American dual nationals were similarly detained in Iran, replacing those who had been set free. And this is to say nothing of those residents of other Western nations who have received the same treatment, often being accused of spying or attempting to overthrow Iran\u2019s theocratic regime, apparently based solely on the \u201cevidence\u201d of their connections to Western friends and colleagues. Presently, at least one such individual, Ahmadreza Djalali<\/a>, sits on death row in an Iranian prison, where he is believed to be at imminent risk of execution.<\/p>\n

There was likely no set objective in holding him hostage in the first place, but one presented itself this past year, and Tehran seemingly made an effort to seize upon it. The danger of Djalali\u2019s execution became especially pronounced in late November when he was abruptly transferred into solitary confinement, which often serves as a sort of staging ground for hangings. This closely coincided with the start of a criminal trial in Europe which involved a high-ranking Iranian diplomat accused of masterminding a plot to set off explosives at a rally<\/a> of Iranian expatriates just outside of Paris. Tehran had put considerable effort toward compelling the Europeans to release him, but to no avail. The threat to Djalali\u2019s life was seemingly meant to amplify these efforts since he had previously held an academic position in Belgium, where the trial of the terrorist-diplomat Assadollah Assadi<\/a> is taking place.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
Iran's diplomat & the largest terror plot in Europe. What was Assadollah Assadi's role<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>