Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is personally involved in the government’s terrorism, human rights violation, and propaganda. He plays the role of intermediate for his hostage-taker government and justifies his superiors’ harrowing crimes.
After 41 years, the world has seemingly grasped that domestic suppression and export of terrorism are the bread and butter of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. All Iranian officials are involved in human rights violations and terror activities in some way or another.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the foremost responsible for ensuring these egregious paths through its foreign division Quds Force and Basij paramilitary forces. In this respect, any ties with this entity is tantamount to approving the government’s terrorist and oppressive policies.
However, when it comes to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, no one can downplay his personal involvement in terror plots. Two foiled terror plots against Iranian dissidents in Albania and France, orchestrated by Tehran’s embassies, seriously questioned the nature of Iran’s diplomatic mission on European soil.
Late last month, an unprecedented trial began in Belgium involving a high-ranking Iranian diplomat and three accomplices. Zarif’s “diplomat,” Assadollah Assadi, stands accused of smuggling a bomb into Europe while traveling on a diplomatic passport, to bomb the Free Iran Rally of the Iranian opposition in Paris.
According to Belgian prosecutors, Assadi was not acting on his own but undertook the operation on orders from the highest levels in Tehran. Moreover, on November 27 and December 3, Assadi refused to attend the Antwerp Court based on Zarif’s order.
“Instructions reached Assadi via the Foreign Ministry. Zarif was aware of the plot. And direct involvement would come as little surprise given Zarif’s public affection for the IRGC and [the eliminated Qods Force commander Qassem] Soleimani,” explained Bruce McColm, the Director for Institute for Democratic Strategies, in an article for Townhall.
Furthermore, back in April 2019, Zarif was welcomed as an honored guest at the IRGC headquarters. Zarif is on record as saying he held weekly meetings with Soleimani to coordinate policy.
On the other hand, Zarif is known as the “propaganda minister” due to his role in justifying the government’s human rights violations inside the country and portraying a lovely image of Tehran’s aggressive actions beyond its borders. In 2019, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Zarif due to his role in the Iranian government’s malign activities.
While Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed Iran’s judiciary is independent and “any meddling in the issuance or execution of judicial rulings is unacceptable,” Zarif recently signaled other countries that Tehran is ready for a ‘prison swap.’ He professed his country’s readiness for prisoner exchanges involving Western nationals who have been taken hostage in the Islamic Republic in recent years.
The event showed Zarif’s role as a broker and negotiator for the hostage-taker government of Iran. Zarif’s comment once again proved that Iranian officials see terrorism and warmongering as leverage for ‘diplomatic relationship.’ As they constantly pursue making a nuclear bomb to blackmail the international community and receive political and economic concessions, dissidents believe.
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“Diplomatic chiefs in the Iranian regime are petty international peddlers of the regime’s terrorism. That is why Zarif should be shunned, the regime’s agents expelled, and the regime’s embassies, which provide strategic and tactical logistical support to the regime’s terrorists, must be shut down once and for all,” McColm concluded.
