There is nothing that the Iranian regime should not lean on while trying to maintain its iron power. He would even risk killing thousands of innocents on Western soil if he could assassinate an opposition leader. I know because I was one of them.
A Belgian court on Thursday convicted an Iranian official of plotting to bomb a dissident rally outside Paris in June 2018. He sentenced Assadollah Assadi to 20 years in prison for attempted terrorist murder and collaboration with a terrorist group.
He was an intelligence agent for the Department of Homeland Security’s Department of Internal Affairs 312, which the European Union classifies as a terrorist organization, but worked undercover as a diplomat at Iran’s embassy in Vienna. Three accomplices were sentenced to 15 to 18 years. Belgium has found that the scheme has been planned and approved by Tehran.
Let it sink: Iran has attempted a terrorist attack on European soil, targeting an event with former high-ranking officials from the United States, Canada and Europe, including former Governor Bill Richardson, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former chief of US Army General Staff George Casey, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former foreign ministers of France and Italy. How can President Biden and European leaders want to deal with – and normalize – such a criminal regime?
I remember waking up almost three years ago to the news that I might have been killed the day before. My head hurt a little when I picked up my phone. I had been in deep talk with the Iranian Americans and the Canadians in the hotel lounge in the wee hours.
It was the second time I covered the annual event, organized by the exiled pro-democracy group, Iran’s National Resistance Council. The year before, I had spent hours interviewing three young people who had been imprisoned and tortured under the so-called moderate president Hassan Rouhani. Many participants had stories similar to the persecution they or their loved ones endured before fleeing the Islamic Republic. Some shared their stories with me over bottles of wine while I distracted the cute children of a couple by installing a popular game on my phone.
These children could be part of the future of a free Iran: their parents intend to return if the regime falls and help their compatriots rebuild. But they could have been killed, along with tens of thousands more, if the Belgian and German security services had not ruined Iran’s plot at the last minute.
Assadi brought a kilogram of explosives and a detonator on a commercial flight from Iran to Vienna – in fact he carried them in a diplomatic bag! – then went to Luxembourg to hand them over to an Iranian couple who had been granted political asylum in Belgium.
Police arrested the couple while driving their Mercedes in Paris on the day of the event. Another accomplice was arrested and Assadi was arrested in Germany – where authorities said his diplomatic immunity from Austria did not apply.
The target of the plot was NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi; Iran blames its opposition group for the anti-regime protests that shook the deadly mullahs.
Assadi seems to lead Tehran’s European espionage network: a detailed notebook of 289 places in 11 European countries where he made contact with alleged agents. In prison, he was visited by Reza Lotfi, a liaison between Iran’s foreign ministry and the intelligence agency.
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed for the first time that the counterattack was a “false flag” operation – but it appeared to be part of the plot. “The plan of attack was conceived in Iran’s name and under its leadership,” Jaak Raes, the head of the Belgian State Security Service, told prosecutors. “It was not a personal initiative of Assadi.”
The terrorist showed no remorse and refused to testify at his trial, claiming diplomatic immunity – but threatened the Belgian authorities that if found guilty, unidentified groups could retaliate. Zarif did not dispute the evidence either; his ministry simply claims that diplomatic immunity overturns the conviction.
You may remember Zarif’s face from the photos of him standing smiling with John Kerry, who as secretary of state helped negotiate the nuclear deal – and who in office met with Zarif several times, trying to undermine President Donald Trump’s Iranian policy.
Biden’s administration wants to meet again with this murderous man, in an attempt to reach an agreement again. Europe is eager to see this. But the Paris plot proves that this regime is not a bona fide actor. And it is capable of death and destruction, even without a nuclear weapon.
Kelly Jane Torrance is a member of the editorial board of The Post.
Twitter: @KJTorrance