Iranian terror plots send a message to opposition abroad
Under scrutiny. The conference room of the Zahra Centre, the headquarters of a Shia association in northern France, after it was raided by 200 policemen, on October 2. (AFP) There was a time Iran systematically assassinated Iranian opposition members in Europe. Some of the more prominent assassinations of the 1980s and early 1990s were: Shahriar Shafiq, the shah’s nephew; General Gholam-Ali Oveissi; former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar; regime critic Reza Mazlouman in France; Iranian Kurdish opposition leaders in Austria and Germany and Kazem Rajavi, representative of the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MEK) to the United Nations in Switzerland. The practice of assassinating opponents abroad ended in the 1990s when the regime in Tehran tried to gain respectability and international acceptance. There are signs, however, that Iran is turning the clock back to the bad old days. The first ominous sign appeared in July when the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service confirm...