An official from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has written an op-ed on Townhall regarding Iranian diplomat terrorist Assadollah Assadi and Tehran’s terrorism strategy in dozens of countries that still have an Iranian embassy.
Dr. Ali Safavi wrote that, after 41 years, an Iranian diplomat will finally stand trial for his terrorist actions in Europe, which is an important first step to convincing foreign governments to close the embassies and expel the ambassadors in order to protect their country and others from Iranian attacks. After all, he said, these embassies cannot escape that they are run by terrorists for the purpose of committing terror.
“Who can oppose [the harmonious vision of diplomatic values represented by the Vienna Convention]? Well, the rogue regime of Iran, of course. Ironically, it was in Vienna that the regime decided to express its deep-seated contempt for the Vienna Convention by stationing there one of its most notorious terrorist masterminds, Assadollah Assadi,” he added.
Assadi used his “diplomatic pouch” to deliver 500 grams of TATP explosives from Tehran’s airport to Austria in June 2018, before setting off on a journey across the continent to hand-deliver the bomb to a sleeper cell in Belgium, who would detonate it at the Free Iran rally in Paris, endangering the over 100,000 people in attendance.
“The regime knew the consequences: thousands dead and injured, including many high-profile former U.S. and European officials who spoke at the “Free Iran” gathering as well as innocent men, women, and children participating in the rally. In fact, it had threatened the organizers, supporters of the main opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), months earlier,” Safavi explained.
The Iranian government made these threats following the December 2017 uprising in Iran, with supreme leader Ali Khamenei saying the MEK would face consequences for their organizing of the protests.
The plot was foiled by German, Belgian, and French law enforcement agencies, with Assadi’s hired terrorists being arrested shortly after the drop-off and Assadi being arrested in Germany the following day.
Assadi will go on trial for terrorism on November 27, but this is far from the first time that an Iranian diplomat has been involved in terrorism in Europe. Safavi cites:
- a car bomb plot in Albania in March 2018
- the murder of Kurdish opponents in Vienna in 1989
- the assassination of diplomat Dr. Kazem Rajavi near Geneva in 1990
- the bombing at the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin in 1992
- the murder of NCRI representative Mohammad Hossein Naghdi in Rome in 1993
“Since the Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015, the mullahs have clearly escalated their terrorist plots in Europe, forcing even the feckless Europeans to expel at least seven ‘diplomats’…Tehran’s embassies have become nerve centers for its terrorism,” Safavi wrote.
“Many have argued for these embassies’ closure and the expulsion of Iranian agents to prevent more European deaths. Europe, whose citizens have been most affected, should lead the charge and forge a united front with the U.S. to enact a firmer policy that addresses Tehran’s terrorism. The sooner it realizes this the more lives it can save,” he concluded.
