Friday , 29 March 2024

Five Years On, an Iranian Diplomat’s Death Remains Shrouded in Mystery

Iranwire – In his recent, explosive interview with Saeed Leylaz, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was confronted with a name he has been trying to evade for years: that of Ghazanfar Roknabadi.

Roknabadi, an Iranian diplomat, disappeared on September 24, 2015 in a stampede during Hajj rituals in Mina, near Mecca, when close to 2,000 pilgrims were crushed to death or injured. Eyewitnesses reported having seen him alive while he was being taken to a hospital.

Saudi Arabian media called Roknabadi a “treasure-trove of secrets about the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian missiles”. It was initially denied that he had been in the country at all. But two months later, his body was delivered to Iran from Saudi Arabia, minus his heart, his lungs, his brain, his liver, his spleen and a number of other organs.

What happened to Ghazanfar Roknabadi during these two months?

Officials of the Islamic Republic and the Kingdom have not been willing to talk about it since. But on various occasions, members of Roknabadi’s family have said they do not believe the official Saudi line on his death, and believe, rather, that he was murdered.

During the interview, Zarif had called on his conversation partner to avoid “conspiracy theories” about Roknabadi’s death. Reacting to the leak, the late diplomat’s daughter Zahra Roknabadi asked him how else he could explain “why my father’s brain and heart were removed and never delivered to us”.

***

Around a year ago, shortly after I published an article on Radio Farda’s English section about the death of Roknabadi, two European sources who had earlier refused to talk about his case relented and agreed to give me their take on it.

They told me that, at time, they had been “concerned about the forced disappearance of a number of military and security officials of the Islamic Republic and the possibility of the involvement in these kidnappings by regional intelligence services opposed to the Islamic Republic.” They added that they had informed Saudi officials of their concerns.

I had intended to publish this article on the anniversary of Mina incident, on September 24. But I decided to do it now, given Zahra Roknabadi’s reaction to Zarif’s interview.

The Islamic Republic’s Men on Hajj

On September 23, 2015, agents of the Saudi intelligence service, known as Al-Istikhbarat, were more watchful than ever at a Hajj ritual called the “Disavowal of Polytheists”. More than once before, tensions between the Islamic Republic and the Saudi Kingdom had boiled over during this ritual over political slogans chanted by Shia Iranian pilgrims. The most notorious incident was “Bloody Friday” in 1987, when over 400 people, including 275 Iranians and 85 Saudis, were killed.

Sitting among the other pilgrims in 2015 during the ritual had been a number of prominent Iranians, each one whom were considered an invaluable “black box” of sensitive information. One of those present was Ali Asghar Fouladgar, a Revolutionary Guards commander and one of the first in charge of training the forces of Lebanese Hezbollah, and who had been posted in the city of Baalbek in Lebanon from 1990 to 1992 under a diplomatic cover.

 
Ali Asghar Fouladgar, a Revolutionary Guards Commander, was another high-level Iranian official killed during the 2015 Hajj rituals

Also present was Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Iran’s former ambassador to Lebanon and a favorite of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had acted as a conduit between the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian Foreign Ministry. After Hajj, he was supposed to go to Yemen with the help of Lebanese Hezbollah in order to assist the Houthis who were fighting the Saudis.

It was the warmest September in 20 years in the Arafat plain near Mecca, where the pilgrims, wearing white ihrams, were fanning themselves. At one point, Ghazanfar Roknabadi stood up, went to the microphone, and read out a statement.

 
Ghazanfar Roknabadi pictured during the Hajj ritual, one day before he disappeared

The ceremonies were aired on the same day by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), without naming Roknabadi, even though he was captured on video reading the statement. Just 24 hours later, he disappeared.

The Day of the Incident

Thursday, September 24, 2015, became the “bloodiest Hajj in history” at Mina. At 9am local time, the pilgrims gathered in their various groups and marched toward a location called Jamarat to throw stones at three great pillars representing the Devil.

On the way to Jamarat bridge, two of these groups came to a crossroads between Avenues 204 and 223, and the road became overcrowded. People were packed like sardines in the searing heat: 47 degrees Celsius at the time. Many of them fainted and fell to the ground. The ensuing panic drove more many more to trample on each other.

More 2,400 people were killed in the stampede. Many Iranian pilgrims were at the center of the disaster and 464 of them were killed, more than any other nationality that had sent pilgrims to that year’s Hajj.

Within hours of the tragedy, certain members of the Islamic Republic’s ruling establishment were looking on the event with suspicion. They feared for those important Iranian figures who were not presently answering text messages sent to their phones. The most prominent among them was Ghazanfar Roknabadi.

Some members of Iran’s Hajj Pilgrimage Organization reported that they had seen Roknabadi alive while he was being taken to an Ambulance. Zahra Roknabadi claims these witnesses later were forced to retract their testimonies “under pressure”.

In any case, at least one eyewitness, by the name of Hosseini Borazjani, an employee of the Hajj Pilgrimage Organization, has testified that at 13:20 on the day of the incident he saw Ghazanfar Roknabadi alive. According to his account, Roknabadi had been in the first row of Iranian pilgrims on Avenue 204 but had only sustained a leg injury, and was taken into an ambulance on a stretcher.

Zahra Roknabadi says that Borazjani had wanted to join her father in the ambulance, but “they did not let him…although they had room. Then they closed the door to the ambulance and departed. This was the last time my father was seen.”

“He Was Never Here!”

Four days after Roknabadi disappeared, another development made officials of the Islamic Republic all the more worried. Saudi Arabian news agencies carried the line that Roknabadi’s name could not be found among those of the pilgrims who had entered the country.
 

 
Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned TV network, cited “Saudi sources” as saying Roknabadi had not entered the country under his real name

This claim was immediately denied by Marzieh Afkham, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, who announced: “Saudi government officials are in possession of accurate passport information about all pilgrims, including him.” She said the Saudi media reports were compelled by “spite and other motives”.

A number of Islamic Republic officials later tried to elaborate on the meaning of “spite and other motives”. Morteza Agha Tehrani, an MP, expressed his fear that Israelis had Roknabadi in their hands and Roknabadi’s sister supported his hypothesis. For weeks afterwards, regional media continued to speculate as to whether Israel had had a role in Roknabadi’s disappearance, together with the Saudi intelligence service.

Khamenei’s Threat of a “Harsh Response”

Six days after Roknabadi vanished, there was still no sign of him. Saudi officials ignored queries by Iran while the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir accused Iran of trying to exploit Mina incident for political purposes. Saudi officials also said that many people had been buried without identification, and as such a number of bodies could not be delivered back to Iran.

Around this time, Ayatollah Khamenei involved himself. In a speech on September 30, 2015, the Supreme Leader threatened Saudi Arabia with a “forceful and harsh response”. “In this matter,” he said, “the Saudi government is not carrying out its duties and in some areas, it is causing mischief as well.”

A French source well-versed in Middle Eastern affairs told me: “We received the news about the disappearance of Iran’s former ambassador to Lebanon and a few other high-level Iranians.

“Roknabadi had very good relations with Lebanese Hezbollah. Political connections aside, he had developed a personal friendship with Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including its secretary general. There was the possibility that tensions in Lebanon would rise, and Shia groups would take ‘revenge’ on the Sunnis. Lebanese Christian groups had conveyed their concerns to us [about this] and the threat by the Supreme Leader showed us the situation was more serious than we thought.”

The Europeans still saw no reason to mediate, but wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened. “When the French government enquired,” this source said, “French intelligence services said the possibility that foreign espionage services had been involved in Roknabadi’s disappearance was not out of the question. Possibly, both the Israelis and the Saudis were eager to have him, but nobody could be sure that they had actually kidnapped Roknabadi.”

An unofficial query by European diplomats received a cold and formal response Saudi Arabia: “They [Saudi officials] told us that Iran wanted to exploit the situation politically but hundreds had been killed in the Mina disaster, and Tehran had to be patient.”

But the officials of the Islamic Republic were rapidly losing patience. This “black box” of the Islamic Republic filled with intelligence about the region had disappeared and, it he was being interrogated, every hour would have meant irreparable security and intelligence damage to the Islamic Republic.

Who Was Roknabadi and What Did He Knew?

Ghazanfar Roknabadi was born in 1966 in the holy city of Qom. At the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution he was too young to join the first generation of the diplomats of the Islamic Republic. But as soon as he did join the Foreign Ministry, he quickly set about becoming one of the most trusted spokesmen of the regime in the Arab world.

He was a graduate of Tehran’s Imam Sadegh University, a center for educating forces loyal to the Islamic Republic regime. He joined the Foreign Ministry shortly after his graduation and his first assignment was a six-month mission in Egypt in 1992. Then in early 1994, he was sent to Lebanon as a “political expert” and spent four and a half years in that country.

During that time, Roknabadi cemented his reputation as a reliable security asset who firmly believed in what the Islamic Republic still calls the “Axis of Resistance” against the “Zionist occupation”. As a result of his close relations with Hezbollah, and his help supplying them with weapons, in 2001 the United Kingdom rejected his visa application as a political expert. From that year on, Roknabadi’s name became known to many worldwide counter-intelligence services.
 

 
Roknabadi next to Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Lebanese Hezbollah

After efforts to assign Roknabadi to Europe failed, he was sent to Syria as a chargé d’affaires in 2002. According to Zahra Roknabadi, his father’s mission in Syria was focused on establishing relations with Islamic groups among Palestinians and in other countries.

During the 33-day war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, Roknabadi proved he was not only a diplomat but an effective security operative, who coordinated many operations from inside Syria. “He played an important role in saving the fabric of Lebanon from this invasion,” General Ghasem Soleimani, the former commander of the expeditionary Quds Force, later said.
 

 
Roknabadi speaking with Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas. Also present are Manouchehr Mottaki, a former foreign minister (second from right) and Ebrahim Raeesi, the current Chief Justice of Iran (far left)

After this war many recognized Roknabadi as a key player on behalf of Iran in the region. In 2010 he returned to Lebanon, this time as the ambassador.

To be an ambassador of the Islamic Republic in certain parts of the Middle East requires the approval of a constellation of different parties, including the Iranian security forces, the office of the Supreme Leader, the Supreme National Security Council and, most importantly, the IRGC’s Quds Force. Roknabadi was trusted utterly by the higher echelons of the Islamic Republic, and he also socialized with Ayatollah Khamenei’s inner circle.

After Roknabadi went missing, the Iranian media emphasized that “These days, Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a sensitive proxy war in Syria, Iraq and, up to a point, Lebanon and Yemen”. They also and wrote that in such circumstances, the Foreign Ministry “should not have allowed Iran’s former ambassador, who carries invaluable information with him, to leave the country without warning. Roknabadi was the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon from 2010 to 2014, and this means that he could have been carrying very important information for countries hostile to Lebanese Hezbollah.”

This information, of course, would have included details about Hezbollah’s missiles, where these missiles were concealed, the hideout of Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s routes for smuggling money and weapons, and other closely-guarded secrets. In sum, Roknabadi was a golden target.

A Failed Assassination in Lebanon

Ghazanfar Roknabadi’s bodyguards were all members of Hezbollah. Their leader was an individual by the name of Rezvan Fars, known by the pseudonym Haj Reza, who could speak Persian as well as he did Arabic. He had received his personal security training from the Quds Force and had close relations with Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military commander and the number two in its leadership, who was assassinated in 2008 in Syria.
 

 
Reza Fars, known as Haj Reza, was killed in 2013 suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut

On November 19, 2013, the Iranian embassy in Beirut was attacked by two suicide bombers from a group linked to Al-Qaeda. The plan was that the first bomber would blow himself up in front of the entrance to the embassy, and a car loaded with explosives would then enter the embassy and detonate. After the first explosion, however, Rezvan Fars attacked the car as it was coming towards the entrance, causing the bomb to go off prematurely.

The explosion killed Rezvan Fars, as well as Ebrahim Ansari, the Iranian cultural attaché in Lebanon, and the wife of an Iranian diplomat, but Roknabadi was miraculously saved. “Shahid Ansari was in the embassy’s courtyard,” says Zahra Roknabadi. “A little before the explosion, while my father was getting in the car he, received an important phone call that he needed to answer in his office, so he went back. At this time the first explosion happened, and Mr. Ansari was martyred.”
 

 
The suicide bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut in 2013 killed 26 and injured 150 but Roknabadi survived the attack

According to Roknabadi’s wife, this was not the first time he had survived an assassination attempt. Kuwaiti sources reported that in the summer of the same year, Roknabadi had escaped a separate suicide bomb attack near a mosque in Beirut’s predominately Shia suburb of Dahieh.

Roknabadi and Zarif’s Foreign Ministry

When Mohammad Javad Zarif first took up the mantle of foreign minister, certain Foreign Ministry staffers, chief among them its Arab and African affairs division, who were closer to the Quds Force and Soleimani, were displeased with the appointment. Zarif, for his part, refused to play along with them.

One of Zarif’s main detractors was Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the deputy foreign minister for Arab and African Affairs. The other was Ghazanfar Roknabadi. The moment Zarif took over,the decision was made to recall Roknabadi from Lebanon – but Amir-Abdollahian, who had been forced on the new foreign minister, refused to back down and renewed Roknabadi’s ambassadorship for another year.
 

 
Roknabadi and his Hezbollah bodyguards during a visit by Foreign Minister Zarif to southern Lebanon

Ultimately, he returned to Iran in 2014. The war in Yemen was escalating and there was talk about sending him there instead. “He had been very effective during the war between Lebanon and Israel, so he thought that he would be very useful in Yemen and pushed a lot to go there,” Roknabadi’s wife has since said.

A European source I spoke with believes that the downgrading of Roknabadi’s role came as a result of the nuclear negotiations, and Iran’s apparent attempts to get closer to the West. “Zarif always tried to say the ministry under his command,” they said, “and that he was in control of everything. People like Roknabadi, with their undiplomatic record in regional wars, were not compatible with this posture. But I can accept that he was going to be assigned to Yemen. A war was going on there and still is, and we cannot fault Zarif for this.”

The French source I cited earlier says that he disagrees with the most extravagant conspiracy theory about Roknabadi’s death in 2015 – that the Mina incident was staged to kidnap him – but he does believe that in the circumstances, another scenario is possible.

“When somebody at Roknabadi’s sensitive level enters Saudi Arabia, there can be no doubt that all eyes will be on him. One can imagine that Saudi security forces took advantage of the incident and, on the spur of the moment, decided to transfer him from the hospital to someplace else.”

Of course, there is no evidence to support such a hypothesis. But, this source says, “We tried to warn Saudi Arabia that an action of this nature could lead to a huge conflagration. Of course, as I said, they rejected the theory and fortunately, things never got out of hand.”

From Disappearance to the Delivery of the Body

We return, now, to Mina. After early reports by the Saudi media claimed Roknabadi had not entered Saudi Arabia under his own name, the Iranian Foreign Ministry printed a picture of his passport showing his exit stamp. The date of exit on the passport was registered as August 30, 2015.

The stamp next to his visa also indicated that he had entered Saudi Arabia on the same day; i.e., that he had been in Saudi Arabia for 25 days before he disappeared.

“Why did the Foreign Ministry send this high-level official, who had survived the embassy bombing of the embassy and assassination attempts, on Hajj without warning, or a diplomatic passport?” asked Iranian media after Roknabadi vanished. The more relevant question, though, was perhaps what he had been doing there three weeks before the ceremonies began.

The diplomat’s brother, Morteza Roknabadi, has said Roknabadi was warned against going for Hajj but he had answered that for him, that going to Saudi Arabia was like going into “the trenches” and he had to participate as part of an international think-tank affiliated with the Supreme Leader. It is not clear exactly what sort of mission would compel a comparison with “the trenches”.

But furthermore, Ghazanfar Roknabadi was not alone. General Ali Asghar Fouladgar, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Office of Strategic Studies, and number of other senior military and security figures had travelled from the Islamic Republic to Saudi Arabia before the 2015 ceremonies began.

A few weeks after the incident, Saudi Arabia announced that it had buried some of the victims of the stampede and as a result, it could not deliver them back to Iran. Roknabadi’s name was still not on the list of those who were killed, and the Islamic Republic insisted that it wanted all bodies returned to Iran.

A Body Minus Organs

In November 2015, the Saudi authorities finally announced that Roknabadi’s corpse had been identified. According to his family, his was the only body returned to Iran that was missing the liver, the brain, the spleen and other organs. His brother Morteza believes he had been alive long after the incident at Mina, but he had been injected with drugs to make him confess: “Seventy percent of his body was intact. I could not believe his body was so well-preserved.

“According to our calculations, my brother had been buried for 55 days, and he should have turned to dust in that time. Many corpses were exhumed from that graveyard and I saw with my own eyes that not much remained of them. But the body of Martyr Roknabadi was the most well-preserved among the nearly 500 who had been martyred.

“I spoke with security experts and they believed the most likely scenario was that he had been kidnapped, and injected [with drugs] to make him confess, and that was why they removed his brain. They also said it was most likely he had been martyred with a lethal injection; traces of the poison remain in the body, hence why they removed the other organs. In other words, they wanted to wipe out their fingerprints.”

According to the Iranian Young Journalists Club news agency, Roknabadi’s body had been identified by the Saudis based on what he was carrying at the time of his death, including an ID card. This in turn makes it harder to believe he had not been identified from the very beginning.
 

 
Roknabadi was carrying an ID card when he died, it later emerged

None of the sources I spoke to were willing to venture a guess as to how exactly Roknabadi met his death. Iran and Saudi Arabia broke diplomatic relations shortly afterwards following the execution of Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by the Saudis and the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The silence of both countries has helped to keep the case dormant ever since. Nevertheless, the questions remain.

Why Roknabadi, who, according to eyewitnesses, was alive when he was placed in the ambulance? Why the denial of his presence in the by Saudi Arabia, and why the bizarre treatment of his body? If Roknabadi had indeed been interrogated, what for – and how much of any information he divulged was later used to harm the interests of the Islamic Republic?

Did this incident have anything to do with the decision by the whole Gulf Cooperation Council, even Oman, to designate Lebanese Hezbollah a terrorist organization – a decision that was endorsed by the Arab League? What was Roknabadi doing in Saudi three weeks before Hajj? And why has even the Islamic Republic refused to pursue claims by Roknabadi’s family that he was killed deliberately?

Perhaps here, a statement issued by Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi on October 14, 2015, about Mina disaster might shed a little light on why these questions remain open: “There is evidence that we cannot disclose to the media.”

With half an eye, no doubt, on the silence of both the Iranian and Saudi governments, my two European sources tried to answer my persistent questioning by telling me, in their own way: “Let sleeping dogs lie.”

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