Iran: ‘Intelligence Agencies Incapable Of Thwarting Terror plots,’ Says Coordination Council

Iranian authorities should be held accountable for their inability to deal with the terrorist threat inside the country, the Green Movement’s highest decision-making body said on Monday.

The statement by the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope comes at a time when the country’s intelligence apparatus and law enforcement units seem increasingly incapable of thwarting a series of deadly terrorist attacks, including bomb blasts and shootings.

The most recent attack took place on Monday morning when motorcyclists fired shots at a group of soldiers in the city of Khorramabad in Lorestan province, killing an army officer and injuring a soldier.

In another attack, Sunni cleric Molavi Mostafa Jangi Zehi, the leader of Friday prayers in the southeastern town of Rask in Sistan-Baluchestan province, was killed late on 20 January while on the road.

A recent report by the Foreign Policy journal suggested that agents working for Israel’s spy agency Mossad had posed as CIA operatives while attempting to recruit members of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jundallah to launch attacks against Iran. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist bombings and assassinations in the province, which have claimed many civilian lives.

On 11 January 2012, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a scientist affiliated with the nuclear programme, was murdered in broad daylight when two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to his car. Roshan was the fifth scientist with nuclear connections to be killed since 2007; a sixth scientist, Fereydoon Abbasi, survived a 2010 terror attack and was later appointed as the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation.

The Coordination Council said the terrorist operations against the country revealed a lack of security for “nuclear researchers and experts as well as [ordinary] citizens.”

“Carrying out such crimes against humanity and resorting to acts of terrorism, regardless of who the perpetrators are, go against moral principles, human rights and are unjustifiable,” the Council stated, while calling on the Iranian government and the international community to find the culprits behind the incidents.

The Coordination Council said Iran’s intelligence agencies had an obligation to provide the Iranian public with explanations and evidence about the attacks, which it said had led to much restlessness amongst the population.

“Instead of attempts to crack down on dissidents and those critical of the current situation as well as to terrorise opponents, they are in charge of guaranteeing the safety of citizens irrespective of their belief, gender, religion, race, language and culture.”

Following the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshani on 11 January, a group of more than 230 Iranian opposition activists issued a statement condemning the attack, while at the same time accusing the country’s security agencies of being too preoccupied with supressing political rivals rather than ensuring the safety of Iranian citizens.

“Iran’s intelligence forces, which have directed all their efforts at suppressing domestic adversaries and stifling the voice of protesters and the media, have proven incapable of dealing with these [security] threats,” the activists said. “Regime officials, especially the Intelligence Minister, must be held accountable for the slackness shown in protecting the lives of Iranian experts and researchers.”