Two Important Events That Revealed Critical Weakness Of Iranian Regime – OpEd

On November 27, two important events became the topic of world media coverage and revealed to the eyes of the world the main Achilles heel and the fundamental weakness of the Iranian regime.

First, the trial of a senior diplomat and head of the Iranian regime’s network of intelligence agents in Europe, along with a team of terrorists he had prepared for the bombing of a 2018 Iranian opposition rally in Paris.

Second, the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program, just east of the Iranian capital Tehran, where the Iranian regime was expected to be the undisputed ruler!

Investigating these two events vividly portrays the Iranian regime’s status quo that will be key in formulating the right policy against it.

The question arises in connection with the trial of an Iranian diplomat in a court in the city of Antwerp, Belgium, and a terrorist team affiliated with him. Why has the Iranian regime chosen to sacrifice its foreign policy and diplomatic apparatus to strike its opposition? It is important to note that this is not a mere diplomat, but the regime’s entire state terror machine is on trial!

It seems that the Iranian regime, which for decades has been pursuing terrorism in Europe and taking advantage of a policy of appeasement while abusing diplomatic immunity, is now facing compulsion following of its grave political miscalculation. 

On the one hand, there is widespread and deep social dissatisfaction indicating the readiness of Iran’s society to overthrow this regime.

On the other hand, the role and presence of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as a necessary and

Influential entity and the leader of these protests, influencing international policy vis-à-vis this regime.

Moving this opposition from the Iranian regime’s reach in Iraq and their transfer to Albania has forced Tehran to plot to bomb attack targeting the movement’s 2018 rally in Paris, contrary to all international protocols and diplomacies.

The Iranian regime sought to assassinate Maryam Rajavi, President of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran, at the cost of massacring a large number of politicians and parliamentarians from around the world, as well as artists and ordinary people attending the gathering. This included children, showing the regime’s viciousness and desperation.

The regime was greedy, seeking to shoot two birds with one stone. By striking at the opposition, Tehran sought to show strength to the people inside Iran and across the globe, while lifting the morale of its forces to suppress the ongoing and future protests. Additionally, to gain a strong hand in negotiations with European governments. For this purpose, regime President Hassan Rouhani travelled to Austria and had plans to travel to the Switzerland and France to reap the fruits of this victory!

The plot of the Iranian regime, blueprinted in the Supreme National Security Council, was to use infiltrating factors to call the explosion a result of internal strife, and by sending two of its agents, Massoud Khodabandeh and Iraj Mesdaghi, to an interview with Iran International TV to cover the explosion in Villepinte near Paris.

The Iranian regime had successful terrorism operations in the past, thanks to the policy of appeasement by European countries. This time, however, was a significant miscalculation.

“In this court, not only Assadi and other terrorists, but also the Tehran regime is on trial in the Belgian court,” a piece in the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung reads regarding the trial of the Iranian regime’s diplomat.

Parallel to the November 27 trial, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, director of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons initiatives, was assassinated very close to Tehran. After Qassem Soleimani, Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of the Iranian regime’s atomic bomb program, was the second most important figure to be removed.

The assassination of Fakhrizadeh, in which the PMOI/MEK has denied any involvement, exposes the existing weaknesses and security gaps inside the Iranian regime, which had been chanting the slogan of Israel’s destruction for four decades.

A regime that kills innocent people protesting high prices, poverty, imprisonment, torture, and executions is not safe even at its highest levels, and its quest to acquire a nuclear bomb and resort to state terrorism is to cover up fundamental flaws: weakness, illegitimacy, lack of social status and futility.