An Iranian diplomat is currently being detained because of his possible involvement in a bomb plot in France. Assadollah Assadi was believed to be supporting the bombing of an Iran opposition rally, and has been detained in Germany with charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
He is suspected to have contracted a couple in Belgium to attack an annual meeting of anti-Iran manifestation in a city near Paris. According to his prosecutors and German police officers, he met with the couple in Luxembourg and provided them with the explosives himself. The couple of Iranian descendence was also detained near Belgium, with police officers finding powerful explosives in their car.
Assadi had reportedly been working as an Iranian ambassador in Vienna. However, he was also secretly involved in the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which has the mission statement of working in “the intensive observation and combatting of opposition groups inside and outside of Iran.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly been against these actions from Iran, stating that the actions could end up disrupting the economic relation and oil exports from the country. When referring to this latest potential act of terrorism, he stated: “Just this past week there were Iranians arrested in Europe who were preparing to conduct a terror plot in Paris, France. We have seen this malign behavior in Europe.” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was quick to respond to the allegations and stated that they were a ploy to hurt Iran’s image and reputation with foreign countries.
Iran’s foreign minister also attempted to deny the fact that the attack was being planned by the Iranian government. He tweeted:
How convenient: just as we embark on a presidential visit to Europe, an alleged Iranian operation and its ‘plotters’ arrested. Iran unequivocally condemns all violence and terror anywhere, and is ready to work with all concerned to uncover what is a sinister false flag ploy.”
The opposition group, called Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), is one that has constantly been hated by the Iranian administrations and the members of it’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The planned event was one that featured many high-profile U.S. politicians, such as President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. They released a statement after the potential terrorists’ capture, saying: “The conspiracy of the terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran to attack the grand gathering of the Iranian resistance in Villepinte, Paris, was foiled. The mullahs’ regime’s terrorists in Belgium, helped by the regime’s diplomat terrorists, had designed for the attack.”
The MEK themselves used to be considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the E.U. , yet they were removed from official lists after they became an unarmed organization. Tehran continues to consider them as such, and as one of their most important enemies and forces to go against. It is believed to have between 5,000 and 13,000 members, and it’s an Iranian group that was later extradited from their country by the Iranian administration. During the 1970s, the group engaged in some violent public acts against the U.S., as it killed six American citizens in Iran and heavily supported the capturing of the Iranian embassy.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
