An international terror cell was arrested based on information supplied by Israel’s elite spy agency, preventing major casualties at an anti-regime Iranian rally.
By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The Mossad supplied European spy agencies with vital intelligence last month that headed off an Iranian-led plot to bomb a Free Iran rally on June 30 just outside of Paris that was attended by 25,000 people, Hebrew media reported Thursday.
Authorities in Belgium, France and Germany worked together with the Mossad to track the suspects before swooping in on Saturday, July 1, to make the arrests. One alleged accomplice was caught in France, two Belgians of Iranian origin were stopped by the police in their car in Brussels, and a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat who is believed to be their leader was taken in Bavaria.
The Belgians are a husband and wife team who are alleged to have been on their way to the rally when stopped with 500 grams of the homemade explosive TATP and a detonation device in their possession.
The Iranian who allegedly commissioned their services and supplied the murder weapons was identified in the Saudi Arabian-based Arab News as Assadollah Assadi, 46, a third counsellor at his country’s embassy in Vienna whose job is “to spy on opposition groups inside and outside Iran.” He was remanded on charges of conspiracy to murder, according to the report. So far, his diplomatic status has been revoked by Austria, and he may soon be extradited to Belgium to stand trial.
Many high-ranking political figures came to France to join the mass show of support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is the umbrella organization of exiled groups opposed to the Islamic regime. They included Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, several British MPs, former New York City mayor and attorney to President Donald Trump Rudolph Giuliani, former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, as well as others.
Iran’s foreign minister immediately denied the allegations against their consular official after his arrest, insisting that the alleged plot was a set-up to embarrass his country. He tweeted that Iran “is ready to work with all concerned to uncover what is a sinister false flag ploy.”
Iran considers the NCRI a terrorist organization.
At a July 4 reception in honor of American Independence Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the attack when expressing amazement at continuing European efforts to keep up a relationship with Iran.
“This Iranian terror plot was planned on European soil in the same week that the European leaders are supposed to meet the president of Iran about circumventing the sanctions on Iran. Stop funding the very regime that is sponsoring terrorism against you and against so many others. Stop appeasing Iran,” he pleaded.