Iran conducts second "repatriation" operation abroad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has carried out another targeted operation in “repatriating” an Iranian fugitive from abroad. 

This is the second operation of its kind in the space of a month, projecting the notion that the Guards reach could grip anywhere in the world.

The operation, carried out by the operatives of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, targeted Rasul Danialzadeh, a steel tycoon closely affiliated with the younger brother of President Hassan Rouhani. 

The move is set to heighten tensions and widen the cracks between the government and hardliners as the country faces unprecedented economic pressures from the United States over its nuclear activities.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, facing crippling external pressure since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May last year, has resorted to cementing his rule internally by using the IRGC to suppress dissent while at the same time calling for corrupt officials and big names in the economy to be brought to justice.

 Earlier this year, Khamenei appointed the hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as chief of the judiciary. Raisi who ran for office in the 2017 presidential elections and lost to Rouhani, has instigated a crackdown against what he has labeled as corrupt officials, arresting and jailing dozens of officials including President Rouhani’s brother Hossein Fereidoun on bribery charges.

“With the planning and guidance of the unknown guards of the Hidden Imam, Rasul Danialzadeh one of the giant banking debtors who was accused of paying bribes in the dossier of Hossein Fereidoun ...  was returned to the country,” Tasnimnews affiliated with the IRGC quoted Gholam Hossein Esmaili, the spokesperson of the judiciary as saying on Thursday.  

The intelligence operatives in Iranian Islamic lexicon are referred to as the soldiers of the Hidden Imam, who is to spread a just rule on the earth and fight evil at the end of the world. 

Last month, Rouhani’s younger brother Hossein Fereidoun was jailed for five years on bribery charges,  also implicating Danialzadeh who fled the country shortly afterwards. 

The agents of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, which was set up in 2009 by the Supreme Leader as the rival of the government’s Ministry of Intelligence, guided the operation by transferring Danialzadeh from Germany to the United Arab Emirates and then to Iran.

Danialzadeh is charged with embezzling over 400 million dollars with the help of several powerful individuals, including Fereidoun. 

While the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC Intelligence are both members of the Intelligence Coordinating Council, a body that oversees the world of 16 intelligence agencies in the country, the rivalry between these two main intelligence bodies is palpable.

This is becoming increasingly apparent as Iran struggles under pressure from the United States. 
The IRGC, supported by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other hardliners, has taken  center-stage in dealing with external and internal threatsm including economic threats aimed at sidelining the Ministry of Intelligence.

Last month,  IRGC intelligence operatives blindfolded and abducted Ruhollah Zam, a prominent Iranian journalist-turned-activist from Baghdad and returned him to Iran. 

Zam, who edited a popular Persian news website Amadnews from France, became a staunch opponent of the Iranian establishment. The IRGC accused him of fomenting unrest during the 2017 widespread protest in the country through social media and in particular the messaging app Telegram, a popular platform in Iran. 

Before his arrest, Zam boasted that he was able to carry out his work from Paris mainly due to the intelligence he received from powerful figures in the Iranian establishment.

IRGC-affiliated media circulated videos of blindfolded Zam in a vehicle and stated that his social media circles were being analysed to identify the moles that provided him with intelligence.

The IRGC and other hardliners such as Ebrahim Raisi, the judiciary chief are currently involved in a raucous row with the government over how to deal with European countries as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the measures taken by the judiciary to target those accused of economic crimes.

Supreme Leader Khamenei, who appoints the head of the judiciary and the IRGC, believes that negotiation with the West is futile and the country instead needs to look to its immediate neighbors for trade and economic benefit.

President Rouhani and his government believe that while Tehran needs to take a tougher approach with the West and in particular the EU by reducing its commitment under the nuclear deal gradually, Tehran must not close its doors to negotiation with the west.

President Rouhani has also been involved in a recent row with the head of judiciary Raisi over what he called the judiciary’s “selective targeting” of officials on alleged corruption charges. 

“Our respected prosecutors and judges should not be scared, and do not pay attention [to] this faction or that faction and deal with these [corruption] cases with transparency and frankness.,” Rouhani said on Sunday  in a in the central city of Yazd. 

Raisi fired back by saying that he would not be distracted from his mission of “fighting corruption.”

Esmaili, the judiciary spokesman said on Iranian TV on Wednesday night that Rasul Danialzadeh has promised to cooperate with prosecutors in return for leniency.

The steel tycoon could provide further evidence about the gigantic corruption schemes that were widespread in the country which could usher in a new chapter of animosity between Rouhani and the hardliners.