TEHRAN – A number of individuals in Iran, receiving funds and training out of Europe, were arrested by intelligence forces before they could carry out the terrorist operations they had been instructed to conduct, which included the bombing of Tehran’s vast metro station, the killing of police and security forces, and the murder of random civilians.
Their arrest was announced through an IRIB report on Friday. By Saturday evening, Iran’s intelligence ministry stated it had detained three more individuals belonging to the same terrorist cell.
The terrorists received training from a Sweden-based individual named Sam Radpour. He was personally in contact with the arrested men and also runs a public Instagram account where he teaches young people how to use knives and guns against security forces during potential unrest. On his page, he introduces himself as a “NATO military officer”.
“We need individuals for regime change [in Iran],” Radpour stated in a soundbite featured in the IRIB report.
Radpour was in contact with the son of the toppled Iranian Shah when he instructed the detainees. He also appears to have links to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) Terrorist Organization, which is based in Europe and has killed at least 17,000 Iranians in terrorist attacks since the 1980s.
Radpour is not completely unknown to the Iranian people. In a video that went viral months ago, a journalist is heard asking Radpour about the 17,000 Iranians the MEK has killed, as he walked toward a conference held by the terrorist group in Europe.
“What about the 17,000 people that you killed?” the journalist asks Radpour. “There are more!” he answers with a wide smile on his face.
He also supports terrorist groups such as al-Ahvazieh, according to the IRIB report. Headquartered in Denmark and the Netherlands, al-Ahvazieh has claimed responsibility for several assassinations, attacks against energy infrastructure, and civilian “soft targets,” including a deadly terrorist attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, on September 22, 2018.
Radpour’s contact with the detained individuals occurred at the order of Mossad, the IRIB report explained, adding that Israel had hoped to instigate unrest in Iran during the 12-day war in June.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Iranian people twice during the war, telling them he wanted them to be “free” and “prosperous,” and asking them to take to the streets to topple the Iranian government. Iranians responded to his videos, shared on X, YouTube, and Instagram, mostly with profanities. Approximately 1,100 Iranians, mostly civilians, were killed during the war in Israeli attacks on residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, police stations, military sites, nuclear facilities, and one prison in Tehran.
The detainees have confessed that Radpour transferred weapons to Iran via his “friends” in the country. The arms were to be stashed within a shipment of sweets and transported to Iran for use against police stations, ordinary people, and the capital’s subway system. Tehran’s subway system, packed with commuters, transports millions of passengers every day.
The operation failed as the terrorist elements were arrested and the weapons seized by Iranian intelligence agents.
The latest arrests have also reignited debate regarding Europe’s blatant support and sheltering of terrorist and separatist groups. Iranian officials have, on numerous occasions, stated that European states are complicit in the terror assaults against the Iranian people. Leaders in Europe have never addressed their reasons for sheltering factions that have the blood of the Iranian people on their hands. Meanwhile, they have turned the screw on Iran and sanctioned the country, claiming that Tehran has sold Russia drones for use in the Ukraine war, thereby undermining European security.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
