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Iranian Intelligence Claims Arrest Of Many Regime Opponents


Iran -- The Ministry of Intelligence and National Security, logo, undated
Iran -- The Ministry of Intelligence and National Security, logo, undated

Director-General of Intelligence Ministry’s Office in East Azarbaijan province, northwest Iran, says sixty individuals, who had contacts with the dissident group Mojahedin Khalq Organizations (MKO), have been arrested in the past year.

The intelligence official introduced as Qodtrat Diyalameh said on Wednesday, April 24, that the MKO members taking advantage of the recent economic and social problems in the country, expanded their activities during last Iranian year (March 21, 2017-March 20, 2018).

"MKO members were looking for weapons and ammunition to disturb the security in the province, before being captured," Diyalameh maintained. He also said another fifty members of the MKO were also identified and "restrained."

Fars news (FNA), affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), reported on Wednesday, "Diyalameh accused foreign intelligence services of employing the capacity of the exiled Iranian dissident groups, including royalists, leftists (communists), separatists, and MKO, to interfere in Iran…affairs."

Avoiding any elaboration on the manner of cooperation between the dissidents and foreign intelligence services, Diyalameh claimed, "The ominous triangle of the U.S., West, and Israel, financially supported by Saudi Arabia, is responsible for holding gatherings, coordination, and training of these hostile groups."

Without presenting any evidence, Diyalameh went further by maintaining that the "principal task of the dissidents" is "creating division between the camps that dominate the Islamic Republic's governing system," depicting the regime as inefficient, as well as promoting non-Islamic culture and anti-religion movements.

However, he stopped short of saying how the "exiled dissident groups" could create division or trigger disputes among the Islamic Republic's ruling class.

The anonymous intelligence official’s claims went beyond Iranian opposition groups as he was quoted saying that Takfiri (the term used by the Islamic Republic for ultraconservative Sunni militant groups) terrorists who were being moved by human traffickers in East Azerbaijan were also arrested”.

Earlier on April 17, Diyalameh's counterpart in the province of Kurdistan, western Iran, had also reported that twenty teams affiliated with "Takfiri" groups had been identified and arrested across the region.

Furthermore, on April 19, Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi had also announced that Iran discovered the identity of 290 “CIA agents” both in Iran and in other countries and dismantled dozens of terror cells.

Mahmoud Alavi also claimed that Iranian intelligence agents have identified and arrested "tens of spies" serving at "sensitive centers" of the country, over the last Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2018 – March 20, 2019).

Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic officials in charge of intelligence affairs have always refused to go into the details of what they describe as their "impressive achievements."

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