Europe
Needs To Respond to the Threat of Iranian Terrorism
By Ali Safavi, Foreign
Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance
of Iran
The Iranian regime’s support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the ongoing development of Iranian ballistic missiles have raised serious questions about European outreach.
Last
week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called attention to the Tehran
regime’s
foiled terrorist plot in Europe targeting the National Council of
Resistance of Iran.
In late
June, Belgian authorities apprehended two individuals of Iranian extraction who
had reportedly been provided 500 grams of the explosive TATP by a regime
diplomat, Asadollah Assadi.
A member
of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Assadi had
operated under the cover of a diplomatic post to the Iranian embassy in Vienna.
He was detained by German authorities and is awaiting extradition to Belgium.
Iranian
regime officials are trying to have him transferred back to Austria instead,
where he could claim diplomatic immunity and flee back to Iran.
In
raising the issue, Pompeo sought to illustrate the broader security threat
posed by Iran’s fundamentalist regime. “We have seen this malign behavior in
Europe,” he said of the terror plot to blow up the “Free Iran 2018 – The
Alternative” gathering on June 30, 2018, in Paris. Attended by tens of
thousands of people, and hundreds of politicians and dignitaries from around
the globe, including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, the rally near Paris
featured the NCRI’s President-elect, Maryam
Rajavi, as keynote speaker.
When
asked about the incident during a special briefing, a senior State Department
official reiterated Pompeo’s point that the plot was but one example of a
larger pattern of behavior emanating from Tehran.
Recent
conversations between the State Department and key Arab allies of the United
States have focused on Iran’s use of its embassies in the planning of terror
attacks, and how it can be effectively deprived of the resources to continue
such operations.
Saudi
Arabia and the UAE, the leading political and economic adversaries of the
terrorist regime ruling Iran, may have important roles to play in the US effort
to exert ever-greater pressure on the clerical regime by enforcing what Mike
Pompeo promised would be the “strongest sanctions in history.”
But it is
perplexing to think that the US should have to look so far afield for ways to
confront and disrupt Iran’s foreign operations when those operations continue
to target its closest, long-standing allies.
Some
European officials have seen fit in recent days to acknowledge the situation
that Pompeo underscored in his visit to the UAE last week. A spokesperson for
the Belgian judiciary said, for instance, “Practically all employees of Iranian
embassies are part of the Iranian Secret Service.”
And yet
European governments as a whole remain notably hesitant to acknowledge Iran’s
ongoing commitment to international terrorism, much less take any serious
action to confront it. This is a betrayal of core Western principles, and it
must change quickly and decisively.
The
impulse to appease Tehran and pursue economic deals remains alive and well, as
European signatories to the flawed 2015 nuclear deal struggle to preserve
business opportunities in the wake of the American withdrawal. Whatever the
differences between the US and EU, the Iranian regime’s support of Syrian
dictator Bashar al-Assad and the ongoing development of Iranian ballistic missiles have raised serious
questions about European outreach.
The news
of the Paris terror plot should resolve any questions once and for all.
Outreach and appeasement have no place in dealing with a regime that remains
committed to such tactics.
The
regime’s terror plot might have killed untold numbers among the more than
100,000 attendees of the June 30 rally in Paris. The NCRI has called for urgent
action to guarantee that neither Assadollah Assadi nor any other diplomat
involved in the plot be allowed to flee to Iran and thus escape justice.
The NCRI
has also urged the nations of Europe to acknowledge the underlying threat and
respond with the “closure of [the] regime’s embassies and representative
offices, and the expulsion of terrorist diplomats” wherever they may be
stationed.
It is
time for the West to offer a concrete plan of action addressing Tehran’s malign
behavior and security threats, specifically its terrorist activities in Europe.
One thing
is certain: Despite whatever hope the Europeans maintained for future trade
deals and access to Iranian oil markets, is not worth the attendant risk of
putting European nationals in the line of fire of Iran’s Ministry of
Intelligence or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
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