By Pejman Amiri
The U.S. Congress's recent bill of
sanctions on Iran mainly cites the Iranian regime's terrorist activities
throughout the Middle East.
The recently released Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 by
the U.S. State Department says:
Iran continued
its terrorist-related activity in 2016, including support for Hizballah,
Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Syria, Iraq, and
throughout the Middle East. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps‑Qods
Force (IRGC-QF) to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for
intelligence operations, and create instability in the Middle East. Iran has
acknowledged the involvement of the IRGC-QF in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria
and the IRGC-QF is Iran's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting
terrorists abroad.
The report is strong; however, it does not
mention anything on the Iranian regime's terrorist
activities in Europe.
Iran's promotion of its brand of Shi'ite
Islam, linked with its terrorist-related activities across the Middle East, has
been obvious for decades, but such activities in Europe have largely managed to
fly under the radar. The Iranian regime is advancing its presence and
resources considerably in Europe, especially in the Balkans.
In 2016, the Iranian regime's Balkans-centered efforts came
under scrutiny when an Iranian cleric in Kosovo was charged with financing
terrorism and money-laundering through a nominally non-governmental
organization he operated. Kosovar authorities claimed that Hasan Azari
Bejandi, charged on July 26, 2016, ran five Shi'ite organizations with links to
Tehran.
The umbrella group for the Iranian regime
in Europe, including Kosovo, appears to be affiliated with the Al-Mustafa
International University, headed by Ayatollah Alireza Aarafi, a member of
Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and a Friday Prayers
leader in the holy city of Qom. The university claims that Bejandi is its
representative in Kosovo. Al-Mustafa International University is owned and run by Iranian supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Last week, non-government organizations
and the German media warned the government about the activities of
Al-Mustafa-linked organizations in the country. The federal family
minister in Germany, Katarina Barley, was alerted about an
Al-Mustafa workshop in Germany funded, wrongly, by her ministry, under the
guise of a workshop of the Islamic Community of the Shiite Communes of Germany
(IGS). The minister called the event off.
It demonstrates that Iran's effort to
exert influence over the Balkan peninsula and its governments poses a grave
security threat.
On March 9, the news media in the Balkans
reported that American security agencies saw expanding activities from Iranian
intelligence services over the Balkan area.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
has compiled a report on increased activities of
Iranian intelligence services in Bosnia and Herzegovina, containing around 650
names of members, mostly from Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Ministry
of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
The report actually covers 15 years of
Iranian intelligence agents' activities and is mainly based on information
gathered by the Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
First on the list of Iranian
intelligence agents is Hassan Jawad, deputy minister of intelligence in Tehran,
according to the report.
During the Bosnian war of the 1990s, Jawad
was the IRGC chief for southeastern Europe and then became head of the
Department of Central Asia and the Caucasus, according to OSA.
Jawad is also a member of the
Iranian-Bosnian Friendship Association Board of Directors, but in reality, he
is focused on intelligence work and was a key player in recruiting.
Iran began extending its malign
influence in Bosnia back in 1990 as communism collapsed in Yugoslavia.
The mullahs dispatched spies with cash to Sarajevo to grease politicians'
palms, advocate radicalism, and recruit and train terrorists.
During the past three decades, Iran has
launched consulates in the Balkans for espionage and other covert activities.
The presence of Iranian intelligence agents in Bosnia in Herzegovina has
sharply increased since the beginning of 2012, along with the activities of
Iranian officials and diplomats. In particular, Iranian spies were seen
visiting the jihadist colony at Gornja Maoča in northeastern
Bosnia, which, despite occasional police raids, has operated for years as a
more or less open training camp for jihad-minded radicals.
Albania is another Balkan country Iran has
targeted in its attempt to create what Reza Shafa, an Iran expert, has
called "a foothold in the European
continent." As in Bosnia, the attempted Iranian infiltration of
Albania followed the pattern of setting up "charities" and
"cultural organizations" that serve as front organizations for the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence.
Despite such efforts, however, Iran draws little sympathy in either elite
circles or among the general population. Last year, Albania's government
and parliament were in unanimous agreement to allow a large number of members
of Iran's democratic opposition group, the MEK, to settle in Albania.
Iran's techniques in training, equipping,
and recruiting terrorists across the Balkans through the IRGC is well known.
After the U.S. sanctions against the IRGC, in order to have a safer
world, the next step for the civilized world is to join the U.S. sanctions to
make them work to evict all the elements of IRGC from its targeted countries in
the Middle East and Europe.
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