Germany Claims Regime Employing State Terrorism To Eliminate Opposition

The group said on Tuesday that one of their members, identified as Ali Mostashari, was killed and more than a hundred others injured, with some hospitalized in critical condition after police raided the camp using tear gas and pepper spray. The group alleged that the attack was instigated by the Iranian regime.

Albanian authorities denied any loss of life or injuries, claiming that the incident happened due to the group’s refusal to cooperate with the police. 

“This morning around 1,000 Albanian policemen attacked Ashraf in a criminal and suppressive onslaught,” the group said in a statement, adding: “They broke many doors, closets, and equipment and attacked the residents with tear gas and pepper spray. Many computers were broken or taken away.”

The MEK claimed that the actions by the Albanian police are “reminiscent of the criminal attacks by forces of Nouri al-Maliki (former prime minister of Iraq) on the original Camp Ashraf in Iraq between 2009 and 2015.” 

According to Albanian local media, the raid was carried out following a decision by the country’s organization of Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) at Ashraf 3 and Ashraf 4 camps in Manzë town, in the city of Durrës, where the group has been in exile since 2014, settling in Albania for humanitarian purposes. 

Albania’s police said it had suspicions that there may be people in the premises involved in cyberattacks against Tirana as well as criminal “acts of larger dimensions.” 

The country’s Ministry of the Interior defended the raid, calling it a 'check' and saying that it complied with state laws.

The suspected perpetrators of the cyberattacks, who are being interrogated following their apprehension, are believed to be infiltrators of the Islamic Republic regime, Albanian Daily News reported. According to the news website, leaders of the camp had reported on several occasions that they suspected regime infiltrators among them. 

The police also said that the operation followed a request by the organization for permits to hold an event inside the camp on July 1 as a measure to prevent any risks. The Tuesday incident came a day after Reuters reported that France banned an upcoming MEK rally over the risk of an attack. 

In September 2022, Albania severed its relations with the Islamic Republic and expelled all Iranian diplomats and embassy staff following an investigation into a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the country’s infrastructure in July. "This extreme response...is fully proportionate to the gravity and risk of the cyberattack that threatened to paralyze public services, erase digital systems and hack into state records, steal government intranet electronic communication and stir chaos and insecurity in the country," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said at the time. 

The attack happened around the time of a conference held by the MEK. In early August, cybersecurity firm Mandiant expressed “moderate confidence” the attackers were acting in support of Tehran’s efforts to disrupt the MEK conference, which had to be cancelled as well due to a terror threat.

In its report, the company said that several factors reveal that the attack was carried out by pro-Iran hackers, including the timing, the content of a social media channel used to claim responsibility, and similarities in software code used with malware long used to target Farsi and Arabic speakers.

The July 2022 conference by the dissident group, titled The Free Iran World Summit, was canceled following warnings from local authorities of a possible terrorist threat. Several US lawmakers were also among the invitees.

MEK, a revolutionary organization with a Marxist-Islamist ideology emerged before the Iranian revolution in 1979 and for a time supported the new Islamist government in Tehran. But soon the ruling clerics decided they would not tolerate leftists and other organizations remaining active and launched bloody repression. MEK was exiled and many found refuge in Iraq under Saddam Hussein who helped them continue their fight against the government in Tehran.

Haalvsh website, which covers the events in Sistan-Baluchestan province, reported on Tuesday that a number of staff at Makki Mosque where Abdolhamid conducts his controversial anti-regime sermons, are now trying to play down the conspiracy to show the suspect as a spy.

“On Monday, some officials from the ministry of intelligence came to the seminary and the administrative deputy of the complex handed over the arrested person to the security officers,” the website reported.

On Monday, security guards at the mosque arrested a man in the guise of a religious student who wanted to assassinate the Sunni leader.

“The suspect, who is a Baluch and a resident of Delgan region in Sistan and Baluchistan province, has been sleeping and worshiping in the mosque for a long time in the dress of a student of religious studies,” explained the Baluch website.

The report also claimed the suspect admitted he had been attending the mosque for some time to poison Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

"This type of poison works through tactile contact and does not have an immediate effect," the hitman told Haalvsh sources.

According to the report, the suspect admitted that he received a salary of 150 million rials per week since the beginning of his operation.

In recent months, Abdolhamid has been under pressure by Iranian security to end his weekly protests and critical sermons on Fridays.

Mohammad Reza Tajik wrote his article in the reformist Etemad newspaper in a cryptic language filled with phrases from religious books in a way that would presumably save him from a punitive reaction by the government. 

Tajik, an open-minded intellectual, became too cautious and evasive following his arrest and imprisonment after the disputed presidential election in 2009 that re-instated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term. 

Tajik argued that the massive wave of emigration out of Iran is the people’s reaction to ongoing social and political chaos and the resulting despair that has overwhelmed the Iranian society. Multiple crises have brought the Islamic government to the brink of a downfall. 

He quoted Iranian philosopher Javad Tabatabaei as saying that European visitors to Iran in the late 19th century and early 20th century attributed Iran's political collapse in that period to the wave of emigration out of the country.

Both then and now, a majority of Iranians who leave the country for good are either well-educated experts who find the government too repressive and backward and prefer to move to developed countries, or wealthy Iranians who believe the country's long-standing and worsening political and economic crises will endanger their capital and investments in Iran.

This process drained Iran of its human and financial resources, Tabatabaei quoted European visitors as saying. At the same time, the migrations make the country's situation even worse, by decimating human capital and leaving very little if any motivation for the rest of the elite to stay in the country. 

Tajik wrote in his article, that the only thing the government can do to stop this destructive trend is to surrender to essential changes that have been part of the demands by protesters and by politicians since last year, such as former President Hassan Rouhani. However, Iranian observers have said over and over that the regime finds it hard to undermine its authority and succumb to reform. 

According to Tajik, recent opinion polls conducted in Iran show that an increasing number of the well-educated elites are considering emigrating as their last resort. He added that Iranians have been among the first five nations taking part in the US immigration lottery. As a result of the wave of migrations, Iran's population is expected to fall by 16 percent which could translate into a 27-percent decline in talented workforce and a 19-percent decline in the number of people in their 20s and 30s. 

Other reports in Iran say the age of emigrants has dropped so much that even high school adolescents are among those who put pressure on their families to leave the country for good. Reports indicate that young Iranians are taking English classes more seriously than their other lessons, hoping to facilitate their relocation to countries such as Canada, which is currently the number one destination because of the relative ease in obtaining visas. Some reports say many of those who are considering emigration do not plan to return to Iran. 

There have been many complaints in recent months about the emigration of medical staff from Iran. On the other hand there are many websites that offer guidance for doctors and nurses who wish to leave Iran. 

Tajik noted that most of those who leave Iran wish to go to countries that the government has been branding as "enemies." This is a bitter irony, he said. It is also sad for Iranians who think they have wasted their money and other resources on training a workforce that is now going to leave the country for good. 

This, in other words, marks a defeat for the Islamic Republic’s ideologically designed educational system. The outcome of the policies that have led the country to this stage is nothing but a defeat, about which Tajik wisely did not elaborate any further. 

A report exclusively obtained by i24NEWS identified two civilian companies in Tehran that manufacture components for the Shahed drone and are allegedly operated by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In its report, ALMA intelligence claimed that both companies changed their names periodically, perhaps so that they would not be targeted by the sanctions imposed by the West on Iran.

These manufacturing companies included Shakad Sanat Asmari also called Chekad Sanat Faraz Asia.

The company manufactures parts for the Iranian aviation industry and its former CEO Ehsan Rahat Varnosfadrani is the company's chief scientist.

The second company in charge of the Shahed 136 drone was Saad Sazeh Faraz Sharif or Daria Fanawar Burhan Sharif, the report claimed.

Ehsan Imaninejad is the CEO of the company, which specializes in communication, optical, and electronic circuits.

ALMA's research head Tal Beeri said the Shehad 136 drone poses a specific threat to the world.

Most people only became aware of drone warfare from the war in Ukraine, but they have been used before, such as in an Iranian attack last November on an Israeli billionaire's ship in the Gulf of Oman, said Beeri.

Ukraine says its air force has shot down more than 500 Iranian drones so far, figures confirmed by Western intelligence.

Iran’s supply of drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine has been condemned by the US and its NATO allies and met with sanctions by the US, European Union and other states.

In a meeting with the Iraqi president in Baghdad, foreign policy advisor to the supreme leader, Kamal Kharrazi, also acknowledged the contribution made by Iraq "to bridge the gap between Tehran and Riyadh.”

Alongside meetings with government officials, Kharrazi, who travelled to Iraq as the head of a delegation on Monday, also met with with Iraqi cleric and politician Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim who is the head of the National Wisdom Movement.

Kharrazi’s trip to Iraq comes after a senior Iraqi official confirmed that his country has acquired a sanctions waiver from the US to pay $2.7 billion of its debt for gas and electricity to Iran.

The Iraqi foreign ministry source said that the funds will be transferred through the Commercial Bank of Iraq and confirmed that the money will be used for Iranian pilgrims' expenses and foodstuffs imported by Iran.