{"id":171239,"date":"2021-02-05T03:11:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/dont-negotiate-with-iran-it-tried-to-kill-me-in-2018\/"},"modified":"2021-02-05T03:11:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:11:46","slug":"dont-negotiate-with-iran-it-tried-to-kill-me-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/dont-negotiate-with-iran-it-tried-to-kill-me-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"#Don\u2019t negotiate with Iran \u2014 it tried to kill me in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Don\u2019t negotiate with Iran \u2014 it tried to kill me in 2018<\/strong>”
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There\u2019s nothing the Iranian regime won\u2019t stoop to as it tries to keep its ironfisted hold on power. It would even risk murdering thousands of innocents on Western soil if it could assassinate an opposition leader. I know because I was one of them.<\/p>\n

A Belgian court Thursday convicted an Iranian official of plotting to bomb a dissident rally outside Paris in June 2018. It hit Assadollah Assadi with the maximum sentence, 20 years, for attempted terrorist murder and working with a terrorist group. <\/p>\n

He was an intelligence agent for the regime\u2019s internal-security directorate Department 312, which the European Union classifies a terrorist organization, but he worked undercover as a diplomat in Iran\u2019s embassy in Vienna. Three accomplices got sentences of 15 to 18 years. Belgium found the scheme was planned and app<\/a>roved by Tehran.<\/p>\n

Let that sink in: Iran attempted a terrorist attack on European soil, aimed at an event featuring high-profile former officials from the United States, Canada and Europe, including former Gov. Bill Richardson, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former foreign ministers of France and Italy. How can President Biden and European leaders possibly want to deal with \u2014 and normalize \u2014\u00a0such a murderous regime?<\/p>\n

I remember waking up nearly three years ago to the news<\/a> that I might have been murdered the day before. My head ached a little as I groggily grabbed my phone. I\u2019d been up into the wee hours in deep discussion with Iranian-Americans and -Canadians in the hotel lounge.<\/p>\n

It was my second time covering the annual event, organized by the exiled pro-democracy group the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The year beofre, I\u2019d spent hours interviewing three young people who\u2019d been jailed and tortured under so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani. Many attendees had similar stories of the persecution they or their loved ones endured before escaping the Islamic Republic. Some shared their tales with me over bottles of wine as I distracted one couple\u2019s cute children by installing a popular game<\/a> on my phone.<\/p>\n

Those children could be part of the future of a free Iran: Their parents plan to return if the regime falls and help their countrymen rebuild. But they might have been murdered, along with tens of thousands of others, if Belgian and German security services hadn\u2019t foiled Iran\u2019s plot at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Assadi brought a pound of explosives and a detonator on a commercial flight from Iran to Vienna \u2014\u00a0he actually carried them in a diplomatic pouch! \u2014 then drove to Luxembourg to hand them off to an Iranian couple who\u2019d been granted political asylum in Belgium. <\/p>\n

Police arrested the pair as they drove their Mercedes to Paris the day of the event. Another accomplice was arrested, and Assadi was nabbed in Germany \u2014\u00a0where authorities said his diplomatic immunity from Austria didn\u2019t apply. <\/p>\n

The plot\u2019s target was NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi; Iran blames her opposition group for anti-regime protests that have shaken the murderous mullahs.<\/p>\n

Assadi appears to lead Tehran\u2019s European espionage network: A notebook detailed 289 places in 11 European countries where he made contact with alleged agents. In prison, he was visited by Reza Lotfi, a liaison between Iran\u2019s foreign ministry and intelligence agency. <\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif first claimed the thwarted attack was a \u201cfalse flag\u201d operation \u2014 but it appears he was part of the plot. \u201cThe plan to attack was conceived on behalf of Iran and under its leadership,\u201d Jaak Raes, chief of Belgium\u2019s State Security Service, told prosecutors. \u201cIt was not a personal initiative of Assadi.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terrorist showed no remorse and refused to testify at his trial, claiming diplomatic immunity \u2014\u00a0but he threatened Belgian authorities that if he\u2019s found guilty, unidentified groups could retaliate. Zarif hasn\u2019t disputed the evidence either; his ministry simply claims diplomatic immunity makes the conviction invalid.<\/p>\n

You might remember Zarif\u2019s face from photos of him standing smiling alongside John Kerry, who as secretary of state helped negotiate the nuclear deal \u2014\u00a0and who out of office met with Zarif several times, trying to undercut President Donald Trump\u2019s Iran policy.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s administration wants to meet with this murderous man again, in an attempt to re-enter the deal. Europe is anxious to see it happen. But the Paris plot proves this regime isn\u2019t a good-faith actor. And it\u2019s capable of plenty of death and destruction even without a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Kelly Jane Torrance is a member of The Post\u2019s editorial board.<\/em><\/p>\n

Twitter<\/a>:\u00a0@KJTorrance<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Don\u2019t negotiate with Iran \u2014 it tried to kill me in 2018” There\u2019s nothing the Iranian regime won\u2019t stoop to as it tries to keep its ironfisted hold on power. It would even risk murdering thousands of innocents on Western soil if it could assassinate an opposition leader. I know because I was one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/Belgium_Iran_Diplomat_Trial.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[91993,73147,75855,72597],"class_list":["post-171239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-4-21","tag-iran-deal","tag-john-kerry","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}