Iran's assassinations of exile opposition leaders

Iran's assassinations of exile opposition leaders
August 11, 2021, 1:37 pm

Zara saleh

For more than 40 years Iran's assassinations and terrorist activities abroad have become the main strategy of dealing with Iranian activists and political opposition leaders. Tens of assassinations have been carried out by the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force and the Ministry of Intelligence but also conducted by proxy groups such Hezbollah, Al-Hashed Al-Shaabi, and other agents affiliated with the Iranian intelligence. More than 360 assassinations abroad have been carried out by the Iranian regime according to the American State Department. Most of these political murders were took place across Europe and in different countries such as the US, India, Iraq, and United Arab Emirates.

Last Saturday, the Iranian opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party accused Iranian agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of assassinating Musa Babakhani who was a member of the Central Committee of the party. Babakhani was kidnapped and found dead in an Erbil hotel in the Kurdistan region with the marks of torture. The Kurdistan Democratic Party was banned like other Kurdish and opposition parties since so-called Iran's "Islamic Revolution" in 1979.

Iranian regime began to target the Kurdish leaders and activists inside Iran and abroad through hundreds of assassinations as a political approach against its opposition. The Iranian regime has started a series of assassinations against the Iranian Kurdish leaders. Despite he was holding negotiations with the Iranian officials, Dr. Abdelrahman Qassemlou the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was killed by Iranian agents in Vienna, Austria in 1989 with the other three leaders of the Kurdish party. The same scenario has happened to the general secretary of KDP-Iran Sadegh Sharafkandi.

He was assassinated at Mykonos restaurant in Berlin in 1992 when he was in negotiations with the Iranian government envoys. Such scenarios had happened to tens of Iranian opposition leaders in various capitals of Europe. The West’s appeasement approach with no serious acts against Tehran has encouraged the Iranian regime to carry out such brutal methods of elimination. By conducting such methods of assassinations towards its opposition, Iran is trying in a brutal manner to send a message that even abroad they are not safe, and their agents can reach them with no red lines.

The recent assassination of the Kurdish leader Babakhani was another target of terror episode while Tehran officially had a meeting with the President of Kurdistan region Nechirvan Barzani. The Iranian message was also to the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) that can be understood as an obvious warning regarding the KRG relations with the US. Added to that, Iran is trying to warn the Biden administration how they have a huge influence not only Shia part of Iraq but in the Kurdistan region as well when they need it. However, the Iranian regime's long history and decades of assassinations and terror attacks should be taken into consideration by the US and Europe and must be stopped. thelevant

by: Zara Saleh thelevant