FRANCE LAUNCHES ASSAULT ON IRANIAN ESPIONAGE
▶ Paris blames spymasters for failed bomb plot and freezes assets of two
France launched a concerted assault on Iran’s overseas espionage operations yesterday, after blaming Tehran’s spymasters for a failed bomb plot on an opposition rally near Paris in June.
Paris declared Iran’s intelligence agency had launched the foiled attack and said it was freezing the accounts of two men.
One of those sanctioned, Assadollah Assadi, is an Iranian diplomat accused of masterminding the attack on the rally at Villepinte, near Paris.
The second official was Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, who was linked to Iran’s Ministry of National Intelligence, which is led by Reza Amiri-Moghadam. Mr Amiri-Moghadam has been accused of ordering the June plot by the Iranian opposition.
A German court approved the extradition of Mr Assadi on Monday on charges relating to the bomb attack.
At the time he was serving in Iran’s embassy in Vienna and was trying to return to his post after an alleged meeting with the bombers when German police swooped.
Underlying the extraordinary nature of the measures, the announcement of the sanctions was made in a joint statement by the French interior and foreign ministers yesterday.
Le Monde newspaper said Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister, warned his Iranian counterpart of retaliation in a meeting in New York last week.
“An incident of such gravity on our national territory could not go unpunished,” the statement said.
“France has taken targeted and proportionate preventive measures in the form of the adoption of national freezing measures of assets of Assadollah Assadi and Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, Iranian nationals, as well as the Directorate of Homeland Security from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.
“In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory.”
French police conducted a raid on a prominent Shiite community centre on the French north coast, acting on suspicions of terrorism activity.
Two hundred counter-terrorism officers entered the Zahra Centre in the port city of Dunkirk in the early morning hours, arresting 11 people. The centre was last raided in 2009.
Among those targeted in the action was Zahra centre founder Yahia Gouasmi, who is known for his anti-Zionist views and has well-established links to Iran.
He has been photographed with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline former Iranian president.
Others were identified as Jamel Tahiri, Bachir Gouasmi and Abdelkarim Khalid.
The centre also makes no secret of having created the Anti-Zionist Party, a political organisation that has had several leaders convicted of hate crimes in France.
Thierry Coville, research fellow and Iran expert at the French Institute of Research, told The National relations between Paris and Tehran have “been tense since the attempted attack” and that yesterday’s crackdown should be seen as
an attempt to demonstrate France was not a playground for underground intelligence activity.
The foiled bomb plot had targeted the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exiled opposition movement, which had invited high-profile backers including Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and US President Donald Trump’s lawyer.
The attack was foiled after police swooped on a car in Brussels driven by a Belgian couple formerly from Iran. A search revealed high explosives inside a toiletries bag.
German prosecutors claim Mr Assadi handed over the explosives to the couple in Luxembourg.
The opposition council, which is controlled by the blacklisted Mujahedin-e-Khalq, said Mr Assadi was head of all Iran’s intelligence stations in Europe since 2014, responsible for co-ordinating surveillance and operations against opponents of the regime.
French Defence Secretary Florence Parly joined the assault on Iran yesterday. Ms Parly met US Secretary of Defence James Mattis and warned of the dangers of Iran’s nuclear ballistic programme and its influence in the Middle East.
Bob Blackman, a British MP who attended the June 30 event at Villepinte, applauded the French action.
“It’s quite clear that action was required and is now being taken,” Mr Blackman said. “This ramps up the pressure on the regime to conform to proper standards of decency.
“It’s very difficult for them to do so. If Assadi and any others are convicted in the courts after due process, then that just demonstrates the extent to which Iranian embassies across Europe may be hiding representatives of the Republican Guards who are there fomenting terrorism.”