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Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In a brazen display of defiance, the Iranian regime recently aired an interview with its convicted diplomat-terrorist Asadollah Assadi<\/a>, who had been imprisoned in Belgium for orchestrating a foiled bomb plot in Paris in 2018. This interview, broadcasted on state TV\u2019s network 2<\/a> and moderated by Ali Rezvani<\/a>, a notorious interrogator and intelligence operative posing as a media activist, sought to mock Western governments that succumbed to Tehran\u2019s extortion tactics by releasing Assadi in exchange for a Belgian hostage.<\/p>\n In the interview, Assadi bluntly acknowledges that the regime and its president, Ebrahim Raisi, took measures to take a Belgian hostage for a prisoner swap. He said:<\/p>\n \u201cThe government of Ayatollah Dr. Raisi ordered efforts to find Belgian intelligence traces in Iran. They discovered that a Belgian national was engaged in espionage in our country and arrested him. The Ministry of Intelligence arrested him, and the case found its proper course. He had adopted a cover identity as an aid worker. Apparently, he was also a relative of the Belgian Prime Minister. The Belgians came to the negotiating table, wanting to exchange prisoners. However, with the prudence of Mr. Risis and the efforts of our intelligence and counter-intelligence systems, they turned the situation around. This was truly a significant achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n During the staged interview, Assadi portrayed himself as a victim of international politics, claiming that his arrest and conviction were part of a Belgian ploy to free their own so-called spy from Iranian custody. “They falsely claimed that they found a bomb in my car, which caused my family to be shocked and surprised,” Assadi stated, in an attempt to depict his innocence. He asserted that his mission was purely diplomatic and that his arrest was a violation of international law.<\/p>\n Assadi’s narrative aligns seamlessly with the regime’s strategy of painting Western nations as the real perpetrators of injustice. He referred to the case of Ahmadreza Djalali<\/a>, a Swedish-Iranian academic sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges, a tactic commonly used by the regime to leverage international negotiations.<\/p>\n THREAD — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
For more than four decades, the clerical regime in #Iran<\/a> has consistently blackmailed other nations and considered #extremism<\/a> as "leverage". 1\/9https:\/\/t.co\/ieaaOkZb6y<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/W9u5BJHXqs<\/a><\/p>\n