There is nothing the Iranian regime does not want to bow to while trying to keep its iron grip on power. It would even run the risk of killing thousands of innocents on Western soil if it could kill an opposition leader. I know, because I was one of them.
A Belgian court on Thursday found an Iranian official guilty of plotting to bomb a dissident outside Paris in June 2018. It hit Assadollah Assadi with the maximum sentence, 20 years, for attempted terrorist murder and for collaborating with a terrorist group.
He was an information agent for the department’s Internal Security Directorate Department 312, which the European Union classifies as a terrorist organization, but he worked as a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Vienna. Three accomplices received sentences ranging from 15 to 18 years. Belgium has found that the scheme has been planned and approved by Tehran.
Let it sink in: Iran has attempted a terrorist attack on European soil, targeting an event with high-ranking officials from the United States, Canada and Europe, including former Gov. Bill Richardson, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff. of Staff General George Casey, former mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former foreign ministers of France and Italy. How could President Biden and European leaders possibly want to deal with – and normalize – such a murderous regime?
I remember waking up almost three years ago to the news that I might have been killed the day before. My head ached a little when I roughly grabbed my phone. I was up deep in a deep conversation with Iranian Americans and Canadians in the hotel room.
This was my second time at the annual meeting, organized by the banned pro-democracy group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The year before, I had spent hours interviewing three young people who had been jailed and tortured under the so-called moderate president Hassan Rouhani. Many participants had similar stories about the persecution they or their loved ones endured before escaping from the Islamic Republic. Some shared their stories with me about bottles of wine while I distracted one couple’s cute kids by installing a popular game on my phone.
Those children could be part of the future of a free Iran: their parents plan to return if the regime falls and help their compatriots rebuild. But they might have been killed along with tens of thousands of other people if the Belgian and German security services had not thwarted Iran’s conspiracy at the last minute.
Assadi brought a pound of explosives and an igniter on a commercial flight from Iran to Vienna – he actually carried it in a diplomatic bag! – then drove to Luxembourg to give them to an Iranian couple who had been granted political asylum in Belgium.
Police arrested the couple when they drove their Mercedes to Paris on the day of the incident. Another ally was arrested and Assadi was arrested in Germany – where authorities said his diplomatic immunity against Austria did not apply.
The target was NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi; Iran blames its opposition group for protests against the government that shook the murderous mullahs.
Assadi appears to be leading the European espionage network in Tehran: a notebook containing 289 locations in 11 European countries where he had made contact with suspected agents. In prison, he was visited by Reza Lotfi, a liaison between Iran’s foreign ministry and intelligence agency.
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claims for the first time that the foiled attack was a false flag – but it turns out he was part of the conspiracy. “The plan to attack was devised on behalf of Iran and under his leadership,” Jaak Raes, head of the Belgian state security service, told prosecutors. “It was not a personal initiative of Assadi.”
The terrorist showed no remorse and during his trial refused to testify and claim diplomatic immunity – but he threatened the Belgian authorities that unidentified groups could retaliate if convicted. Zarif also does not dispute the evidence; his ministry merely claims that diplomatic immunity invalidates the conviction.
You can remember Zarif’s face from photos of him smiling next to John Kerry, who as Secretary of State helped negotiate the nuclear deal – and who met with Zarif several times to try to undermine President Donald Trump’s Iran policy.
Biden’s administration wants to meet with this murderous man again in an attempt to re-enter into the agreement. Europe is anxious to see this happen. But the plot in Paris proves that this regime is not a gullible actor. And it is capable of much death and destruction, even without a nuclear weapon.
Kelly Jane Torrance is a member of the editorial staff of The Post.
Twitter: @KJTorrance