There is nothing that the Iranian regime will not bow to while trying to maintain its iron power. He would even risk killing thousands of innocents on Western soil if he could assassinate an opposition leader. I know because I was one of them.
A Belgian court on Thursday convicted an Iranian official of plotting to bomb a dissident rally outside Paris in June 2018. He hit Assadollah Assadi with the maximum sentence, 20 years, for attempted terrorist murder and working with a terrorist group.
He was an intelligence agent in the 312th department of the regime’s internal security directorate, which the European Union classifies as a terrorist organization, but secretly worked as a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Vienna. Three accomplices were sentenced to 15 to 18 years. Belgium discovered that the scheme was planned and approved by Tehran.
Let this sink in: Iran attempted a terrorist attack on European soil, aimed at an event with senior officials from the United States, Canada and Europe, including former Governor Bill Richardson, the former director of the United States. ‘FBI Louis Freeh, former U.S. Army chief General George Casey, former mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former foreign ministers of France and Italy. How can President Biden and European leaders deal with and normalize such a murderous regime?
I remember waking up almost three years ago with the news that I might have been murdered the day before. It hurt my head a bit as I picked up the phone unhappily. He had been up in the wee hours in a deep discussion with Iranian-Americans and Canadians in the hotel lounge.
It was my second time dealing with the annual event, organized by the exiled pro-democracy group, the National Resistance Council of Iran. The year before, he had spent hours interviewing three young men who had been imprisoned and tortured under so-called moderate president Hassan Rouhani. Many attendees had similar stories of the persecution they or their loved ones suffered before escaping the Islamic Republic. Some shared their stories with me with bottles of wine while distracting the friendly children of a couple by installing a popular game on the phone.
These children could be part of the future of a free Iran: their parents plan to return if the regime falls and help their compatriots rebuild. But they could have been killed, along with tens of thousands more, if the Belgian and German security services had not thwarted the Iranian plot at the last minute.
Assadi carried a pound of explosives and a detonator on a commercial flight from Iran to Vienna: he was actually carrying them in a diplomatic bag. – He then went to Luxembourg to hand them over to an Iranian couple who had been granted political asylum in Belgium.
Police arrested the couple while driving their Mercedes in Paris on the day of the event. Another accomplice was arrested and Assadi was captured in Germany, where authorities said his Austrian diplomatic immunity did not apply.
The target of the plot was NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi; Iran blames its opposition group for the anti-regime protests that have shaken the murderous mullahs.
Assadi appears to lead Tehran’s European espionage network: a notebook detailing 289 places in 11 European countries where he contacted alleged agents. In prison, he received a visit from Reza Lotfi, a liaison between the foreign ministry and Iran’s intelligence agency.
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed for the first time that the thwarted attack was a “false flag” operation, but it appears to have been part of the plot. “The plan of attack was conceived in the name of Iran and under its leadership,” Jaak Raes, head of the Belgian State Security Service, told prosecutors. “It was not a personal initiative of Assadi.”
The terrorist showed no remorse and refused to testify at trial, alleging diplomatic immunity, but threatened Belgian authorities that if found guilty, unidentified groups could retaliate. Zarif has not disputed the tests either; his ministry simply states that diplomatic immunity invalidates the conviction.
You may remember Zarif’s face from the photos of him smiling alongside John Kerry, who as Secretary of State helped negotiate the nuclear deal, and who out of office met with several Zarif sometimes, trying to undermine President Donald Trump’s Iranian policy.
The Biden administration wants to reunite with this killer man, in an attempt to re-enter the deal. Europe is eager to see it happen. But the Paris plot shows that this regime is not a good faith actor. And it is capable of dying and destroying even without a nuclear weapon.
Kelly Jane Torrance is a member of the editorial board of The Post.
Twitter: @KJTorrance