Iranian Ex-Diplomat Connects Diplomats to Terrorism

Mohammad Reza Heydari was an Iranian counselor of 20 years. In January 2010, he resigned from his position as an Iranian embassy councilor in Oslo and within a month he was given political asylum by Norway.

Heydari defected because he was not the regular type-cast for Iranian diplomats: Wounded in the Iran/Iraq war, he was promoted to “war-hero” status which facilitated his career as a diplomat. He became aware of his outsider standing early on noticing during his compulsory diplomat course that “most of my classmates were IRGC (Sepah) officers“.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is an exclusive branch of Iran’s military which is “intended to protect the country’s Islamic system” and has subsequently developed into a “multibillion-dollar business empire“. The IRGC together with its elite Quds force and Hezbollah operatives are associated with numerous terrorist cells and activities all over the world as a “deterrence and retaliatory force, nested within a strategy designed to protect the regime from external threats“.

According to Heydari, the connection between the IRGC and the Iranian diplomats is simple: “whatever the Sepah did, we were there to support them” in an agenda that was meant to “transfer crisis from inside Iran to foreign countries“. This three-way connection between the Iranian Diplomats, IRGC Operatives and IRGC/Hezbollah/Quds Terrorists is worrying on many levels and although Iranian diplomats support the IRGC agenda without getting visibly involved, the nature of their support usually includes breaking numerous international/local/diplomatic laws and norms.

That doesn’t mean that all Iranian diplomats are wolves in sheep clothing and many might not (or even want to) fully understand the repercussions of their involvement in such terrorist activities. But it is safe to say that all Iranian diplomats know of the connection and some are very active. And some, like Heydari, understood the connection well enough to bravely go against the flow and blow the whistle on ex-compatriots which led to numerous threats on his own life and his family members’ lives. Two more Iranian diplomats defected later in 2010 – Hossein Alizadeh in Helsinki and Farzad Farhangian in Brussels.

Until then, it is our duty to highlight cases of diplomats enlisted in terrorist activities outside of Iran’s borders – an effort meant to enlighten hosting governments of Iranian foreign diplomats to a very shady side of Iranian “diplomacy”.

 

About me…

Following allegations of vote-rigging in the June 2009 elections in Iran in which Ahmadinejad was reported to have won a whopping 62% of the votes, many disillusioned Iranians hit the streets in protest. Within weeks, high profile protesters including politicians, actors, clerics etc… found themselves arrested and either thrown in jails or unde house arrest.

Subduing the protests required numerous incidents of state-managed violence, subversion and censorship under the direct command of Khamenei himself and within a few weeks, the protesters had dispersed and Ahmadinejad was on his way to infamously shatter Iran’s economy by mismanaging Iran’s foreign relations in general and the Nuclear crisis in particular.

Subsequently, on January 7^th 2010, an Iranian diplomat by the name of Mohammad Reza Heydari resigned from his job as Iranian consul in Oslo and within a month, he was granted political asylum by the Norwegian immigration authorities. At the time of his defection, he tried to convince other Iranian diplomats to do the same but he found himself alone against the full weight of the pressure and threats by Tehran.

The protests in Iran were, at the time, “background noise” with little or no interest for me. I had not even heard of Heydari’s defection until sometime in August 2010 when I read an article “Ex-Diplomat Releases Revealing Statement on Iranian Regime” in which he gave details of the involvement of diplomats in breaching diplomatic etiquette and immunity under the guidance of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Iranian Intelligence.

I believe that Heydari was telling the truth and it suddenly became clear to me that there existed a vicious triangle between the IRGC, Hezbollah and Iranian diplomats with the sole purpose of “exporting the revolution” from Tehran to the world through the use of terrorism. This triangle is unique in that it is sponsored and directed from Tehran and that its immediate goal is to kill civilians who just happen to be at the wrong place, on the wrong side and at the wrong time.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I wish there would be more brave people like Heydari and more than this, I believe that this vicious triangle should be shattered at its critical point – Iranian diplomats.

Diplomats are meant to deal in diplomacy, not in terror. By supporting terrorism, they are not only breaking the law, they are living proof that state-governed terrorism has rules of its own (anything goes).

Yes, I know that there are much more suspicions than facts – The natures of diplomatic immunity and terrorism are based on secrecy…the cases that surface are only the tip of this iceberg and even when they do surface, it takes time and effort to catch the culprits and send them to jail.

And Yes, I know that Iran is not the only country to abuse diplomatic immunity – But there is something dangerous about the system that Tehran manages, a system whose immediate purpose

To Heydari – please don’t give up…your testimony will save lives.

To my critics – please be civil and enlighten us with facts, news and points of view.

To my supporters – please share :).