REVEALED: Iranian held in Germany over bomb plot is intelligence chief in Vienna

Al-Arabia – Assadollah Assadi, the Iranian regime’s diplomat who was arrested in Germany for masterminding the bombing plot during the meeting of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Paris on June 30, is the Iranian Intelligence station chief in Vienna, sources inside the Iranian regime have revealed.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK) of Iran, quoting the sources, have shed light on a report on the integral role of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) station in Vienna on the matter.

According to the report, the station in Vienna coordinates MOIS activities in Europe. The report is based on information obtained by the sources of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside the Iranian regime.

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The report says that the intelligence station is located on the third floor of the regime’s embassy in Vienna. On the reason for choosing Austria, one former embassy official who returned to Tehran from Austria in recent years, said: “The relationship between the Austrian government and the government of Iran is very widespread, but low key”.

According to the report, Iran has many representative offices in Austria, including the embassy, Imam Ali’s Islamic Center, the representative office of the Supreme Leader, a cultural center, representative of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Iran Air airline office, the representative of OPEC and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The report quotes an Iran Air executive as saying about the intelligence station at the regime’s embassy in Vienna: “Austria has a central role for the MOIS in the European countries. The MOIS agents have no problem traveling to Austria. Iran Air also provides them with special facilities. The Iranian embassy in Vienna facilitates their activities”.

Austrian soldiers outside Iran ambassador’s residence in Vienna, on March 12, 2018. (AFP)

Asadollah Assadi

Considering the pivotal role of the station, Assadi was tasked as coordinator of the regime’s agents in Europe. The report says he was arrested on charges of plotting to bomb near the Iranian opposition gathering at Villepinte north of Paris. He was arrested in Germany and is currently facing extradition to Belgium.

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is trying to get him transferred to Austria, where he enjoys diplomatic immunity, so he can then return to Iran. According to reports from inside the regime, when Rouhani was scheduled to visit Vienna in March 2016, Assadi ordered the agents to gather all available information about the local Iranian expatriates and refugees who were protesting against the visit.

Asadollah Assadi is also in contact with the network of agents of IRGC and Quds Force in Europe, the report says. It adds that Moustafa Roudaki, the former chief of the station in Austria, returned to Iran in 2014 and then deployed to Albania in 2017 to act against members of the PMOI/MEK who had been relocated to that country.

According to official Albanian reports, a major terrorist plot against the MEK in Albania planned by intelligence officers of the clerical regime was defused in March 2018.

Iranian opposition protesters march during a rally to protest against executions in Iran, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is in France for a two-day official visit, in Paris, on Jan. 28, 2016. (AP)

Reviewing reports

The report says that stations of the Ministry of Intelligence in the regime’s embassies are affiliated to a bureau at the MOIS called Foreign Intelligence Organization and the Movements.

A section of Foreign Intelligence Organization and the Movements is based on the Foreign Ministry and is called Directorate General of Reviewing Reports. The MOIS stations in embassies work with this directorate general.

According to the report, by placing the MOIS stations in the embassies, all the regime’s capacities and facilities for the intelligence and terrorist activities of the MOIS and Quds Force in European countries are at their disposal. The regime’s embassies are required to provide the stations with all their necessary requirements.

General Directorate of Reviewing Reports is identified with code 210. This directorate’s code in the internal communication network (known as Samaneh Fajr) is 170 and for the correspondence, the code of this directorate is 210.

A copy of political reports prepared from all the meetings held at the Foreign Ministry is given to this directorate and then through this directorate, they are provided to the MOIS.

Terror operations

Foreign Intelligence Organization is one of the most important parts of the MOIS and is tasked with the regime’s espionage and terrorist activities abroad. On 8 February 2107 the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence and Movements of MOIS was promoted to the Foreign Intelligence Organization, says the report.

After the promotion, the regime has stepped up the activities of its state terrorism mechanism, resulting in a number of assassinations in Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan, and the latest one being the plot to bomb the Iranian Resistance’s annual rally in Paris by Assadollah Assadi, the head of regime’s Intelligence Stations in Europe.

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The MOIS, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry and the embassies in Europe, has carried out numerous terrorist attacks over the years including the assassination of Dr. Kazem Rajavi in Geneva, Switzerland in 1990, Ms. Zahra Rajabi’s assassination in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996, and so on.

It should be recalled that in some other terrorist operations carried out by the Quds Force in Europe, such as the assassination at the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin in September 1992 and the explosion of the Jewish Centre in the Buenos Aires, Argentina in July1994, the embassies of the regime and its diplomats have provided the logistics.