{"id":234905,"date":"2021-02-12T09:41:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=234905"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:12:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:12:26","slug":"iranian-intelligence-ministers-statement-unwittingly-invites-international-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/iranian-intelligence-ministers-statement-unwittingly-invites-international-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Intelligence Minister\u2019s Statement Unwittingly Invites International Scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alavi-iran-nuclear-12022021\"<\/p>\n

Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi recently delivered remarks to state media in which he admitted that if it was \u201cpushed\u201d by Western adversaries, the Iranian regime might actively pursue the development of a nuclear weapon. It was a remarkable departure from the regime\u2019s longstanding but highly suspect position that its nuclear program<\/a> is exclusively peaceful. But it was not the only remarkable disclosure that Alavi made on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In the same interview, Alavi identified a number of recent films and television series as having been produced by the Intelligence Ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven my experience in the ministry, we entered activities related to creating films and series to educate the public, protect the public against espionage, and achieve intelligence goals,\u201d Alavi said. \u201cThe movies Rubah (The Fox), Majerayeh Nimrouz (The Nimrouz Affair), Cyanur (Cyanide), Emkan-e Mina, Ruz-e Sefr (Day Zero), Shabi ke Mah Kamel Shod (The Night of the Full Moon), and the TV series Puzzle, The Dream that was Interpreted in Reverse, Saregh-e Ruh (The Soul Thief), and Khaneyeh Amn (Safehouse) were the result of this collaboration with our dear friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way, he acknowledged a level of media penetration by the regime\u2019s propaganda which had long been denied in previous public statements. Together with the acknowledgment of latent nuclear weapons ambitions, this goes a long way toward verifying opposition narratives about both the nature and the function of Tehran\u2019s propaganda infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>) has issued many reports over the years describing the Intelligence Ministry\u2019s propaganda operations in detail. Among those descriptions are accounts of the recent proliferation of state-produced films and television programs like those Alavi identified by name. More specifically, the NCRI found that this proliferation centered on the growing conflict between the Iranian regime and the organized opposition movement, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That conflict has been especially apparent to close observers of Iranian affairs since the beginning of 2018 when the Iranian regime found itself in the midst of a nationwide anti-government uprising<\/a> that featured a socially diverse array of communities spanning well over 100 cities and towns. While that movement was still in full swing, the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, delivered a speech in which he begrudgingly admitted that the rapid spread and widespread coordination of the protests could only have been accomplished with the help of the MEK.<\/p>\n

Khamenei\u2019s speech undermined decades of propaganda which portrayed the MEK as an ineffectual group with little popular support, which had been largely destroyed by the regime\u2019s crackdowns. Although authorities have never fully acknowledged it, the MEK was the target of a mass extermination<\/a> campaign in the summer of 1988, with \u201cdeath commissions\u201d executing political prisoners throughout the country on the basis of known or suspected ties to the group.<\/p>\n

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To Stop Executions in Iran Permanently, World Should Hold Mullahs to Account for 1988 Massacre<\/div><\/div>
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