By Pooya Stone
In a statement on September 28, the Saudi State Security announced that it managed to disband a terrorist cell linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to the statement, security forces arrested ten individuals who had received training by the IRGC in Iran.
Saudi authorities have also discovered large quantities of weapons and explosives hidden in a house and on a farm. Security forces seized “electrical components used in the making of explosives such as capacitors, transformers and resistors, gunpowder, chemicals, Kalashnikov rifles, guns, sniper rifle, live ammunition, machine guns, blades, military clothes, and wireless communication devices,” reported al-Arabiya.
Previously, Bahraini authorities declared that they managed to foil a terrorist attack backed by the ayatollahs in early 2020. On September 20, the Ministry of Interior Kingdom stated the IRGC was behind the attack. According to the ministry’s investigations, a new group called the “Qassem Soleimani Brigade” had planned to attack several public and security structures in Bahrain.
Who Was Qasem Soleimani, the Head of Iran’s IRGC Qods Force Terror Group?
On September 24, German officials imposed a ban on the sale of model aircraft engines to Iran after a shipment ended up in drones used by the Houthis in Yemen to sophisticated drones and cruise missiles in attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities Aramco on September 14, 2019.
Notably, two weeks after the attack, Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) U.S. Representative Office revealed details proving that high-ranking Iranian officials had ordered the strike. Detailed planning began after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s initial approval of this operation and the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) referred a plan to Khamenei for final approval. Khamenei ordered IRGC Major General Rashid and Brigadier General Hajizadeh to begin the operational implementation of the plan, the NCRI statement explains.
On the other hand, for decades, Iranian authorities are funding extremist groups across the Middle East such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah, and Houthi rebels in Yemen. These groups have acted as arms of the IRGC’s Quds Force in the regions and across the globe to create chaos in these mentioned countries and prevent political stability.
“It’s hard to find a conflict or terror group in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints all over it,” said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017-18) Nikki Haley said back in December 2017.
In this context, Iran-backed Hezbollah has taken hostage the fate of the Lebanese people and paved the path for the ayatollahs’ meddling in this country. The group has stockpiled a large amount of weapons and ammunition in different areas around the country in order to carry out orders from Tehran.
“Our goal, which we have no choice but to adopt due to our ideological beliefs, is the project of the Islamic State of Lebanon… Not as a separate Islamic Republic but as a part of a ‘Great Islamic Republic,’ ruled by the Vali-e Faqih [former Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah] Khomeini,” said Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in 1982.
Also, Iran-backed militias in Iraq have frequently announced their loyalty to Khamenei. On September 15, 2011, Iranian state-run TV aired a video showing Hadi al-Ameri, then minister of transportation in Iraq and head of the Badr Corps kissed Khamenei’s hand showing his allegiance to him and the Iranian government’s projects in Iraq.
Forces under the command of al-Ameri and other Iran-linked politicians in Iraq are the source of instability and insecurity in this country. “Iran-backed militias fostered sectarian and violence by providing training and equipment to the Shiite militia organizations by mid-2006. I can tell you there is no question that they were doing this. I firmly believe that Iran bears responsibility because their training and equipping of the Iraqi militia groups was the major factor in sustaining the sectarian violence that swept Iraq in 2006 and 2007. And to me that makes Iran directly responsible for the death of hundreds of coalition forces and thousands of Iraqis,” said Gen. George Casey, Commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq (2004-07), in June 2018.
Back in January 2007, the NCRI held simultaneous press conferences in Paris, London, and Berlin revealing the identities of tens of thousands of Iraqi officials with strong ties to Iran. The document consisted of the names, specifications, monthly salaries, addresses, and personal codes of around 32,000 politicians and military personnel literally implementing Iran’s policies in Iraq.
All these facts obviously underscore the imperative of adopting a firm policy against the Iranian government’s malign behavior. As Iranian authorities suppress any opposition voice at home, they severely jeopardize the peace and stability in the region and across the globe.
For 40 years, the ayatollahs have extended their terror attacks from Tehran to Buenos Aires, Mecca, Baghdad, Benghazi, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Washington DC. Now, that is the time for the international community to hold them accountable and spare them on respecting human rights and international law. The world must prevent the Iranian government to obtain even a single bullet, which will shot against either peaceful protesters inside Iran or innocent people in other countries.
