The last Friday of November this year has become truly black for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On this day, November 27, two news events took place that brought Iran to the epicenter of international public attention.
On November 27, a long-planned trial began in Antwerp (Belgium), which was supposed to play an extremely negative role for Iran's image in the world.
Yes, that's right - no more and no less.
On November 27, 2020, a high-ranking Iranian diplomat, an employee of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, 48-year-old Assadollah Assadi, appeared before the Antwerp court.
He is accused of conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack - an explosion at a rally of the Iranian opposition in Villepinte near Paris, which was supposed to take place in June 2018.
Courthouse in Antwerp, where the trial of Iranian diplomat Assadi is taking place
Reuters
© Johanna Geron
The Belgian prosecutor's office accused the Iranian diplomat of using diplomatic immunity to bring a bomb from Iran to Vienna, a little more than a pound of TATR explosives and a detonator.
Diplomatic status allowed Assadi to avoid being searched at the airport, so he didn't even bother and worry too much: he dropped the bomb in the baggage of an Austrian Airlines flight.
Upon arrival in Vienna, unaware of the ongoing surveillance, he rented a car and drove from the Austrian capital to Luxembourg.
There, at the Pizza Hut pizzeria, dressed in a "typical tourist" (straw hat, camera around his neck), he met with an Iranian-Belgian couple and handed over explosives and a detonator along with instructions.
Later in the correspondence, the explosive device was discussed as a game console.
A married couple, 40-year-old Amir Saadouni and 36-year-old Nassime Naami, who were citizens of Belgium, received it as (don't laugh) oppositionists of the Iranian regime and dissidents.
French and Belgian officials believe all three Iranians are Iranian intelligence agents.
The fourth participant in the operation, 57-year-old Mehrdad Arefani, is also the accused - as an accomplice of Assadi.
All four of them were charged with attempting to commit a terrorist attack, and if guilty is proved, the Iranian diplomat faces up to 20 years in prison.
On the first day of the trial, the Antwerp court was attacked by the world's media.
Think about it: for the first time in history, in the dock there is a state official, a diplomat accused of organizing a terrorist attack at a rally in the center of Europe.
On November 27, 2020, a precedent happened in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran: a government official is accused of terrorism on the territory of foreign states, his guilt is proven, recorded by video cameras, he is brought to trial.
This is really hard to believe.
It is known that all the special services of the world, in one way or another, carry out special operations to capture and precisely eliminate the enemies of the regime or terrorists who infringe on the security of the state.
This is done by all the secret services: the CIA, the MOSSAD, the Germans, the Russians, the British, the Iranians, the Palestinians - everyone.
To deny this is to deny that the sky is blue and the Earth is spherical.
But to arrange a massive terrorist attack ... And where?
In Europe, where dozens of innocent people must die and suffer hundreds!
And it's not even about morality.
The risks of losses in case of a successful execution of such an operation for the state are significantly higher than possible "bonuses".
In order to understand the level of the event and Tehran's interest in retaliation (in May 2018, Trump unilaterally broke the nuclear deal with Iran, and the rally of the Iranian opposition, consisting of dissidents who emigrated after the Islamic Revolution, had to take place at the end of June 2018), let's see the list of invited persons.
Among them: Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Former FBI Director Louis Free, Former Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt - all in all, a tempting catch ...
Which, most likely, was just bait, which the Iranians happily swallowed.
It is quite logical to announce such an event immediately after the US withdrawal from the deal and wait for the activation of the European Franco-Belgian Iranian diaspora.
For the European intelligence services it has long been no secret that the Iranian political emigration for the most part is a secret network of agents, so the Europeans work with it very successfully: European citizenship, the quiet life of their families are at stake for migrants, and all this is against deportation to Iran. where Iranian officials themselves do not want to live.
Iranian Vice President Masumeh Ebtekar, for example, has a son living and studying in the United States.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called the bomb conspiracy allegation a "false flag operation."
French Iranian expert François Nicullo, a former French ambassador to Tehran, says Iranian President Rouhani was furious when he learned of the planned attack in France.
“While visiting Europe in those days, he was absolutely furious when he learned of this intelligence operation,” the diplomat told AFP.
That is, the president of the country did not know about the plan of the most serious special operation of his minister of intelligence?
It's up to you to judge whether this is possible.
But the Belgians did not get emotional.
The head of the Belgian State Security Service, Jaak Raes, is confident that the planned explosion was a state-sanctioned operation approved in Tehran.
European intelligence officers proved this: the meeting at Pizza Hut was recorded through audio and video filming, the correspondence of the couple with Assadi was also recorded, and the diplomat was arrested exactly at a service station in Germany, on his way back to Vienna, because in Germany his status of diplomatic immunity did not work.
“The plan of attack was developed on behalf of and under Iran’s leadership,” Raes wrote in a letter to Federal Attorney Frederick van Leu.
"It was definitely not Assadi's personal initiative."
The trial, which began on November 27, 2020 in Antwerp, is doing huge image damage to Iran ahead of a possible thaw with the US and a new deal with Biden.
If Iran were more pragmatic, it would begin an indicative thaw at home, releasing political prisoners, passing mild sentences to the opposition, rather than trying to stage a mass terrorist attack on European territory, closing the horizon of opportunities even on the Eurasian continent.
But alas.
Le Monde writes that on March 9, 2019, during pre-trial detention, Assadi told the governor of the Beveren prison that if he was found guilty, “our armed groups would be prepared to act against police officers, witnesses or PMOIs.”
Bad, if so: no one likes threats.
On November 27, Assadi was replaced by his lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, in court and stated that his client disputes the charges and raises procedural issues, including a statement on the diplomatic status and immunity of his client.
Lawyer Dimitri de Beco
Reuters
© Johanna Geron
The trial in Antwerp was nervously awaiting in Iran.
From November 25 to November 27, 2020, AP, Reuters, Le Monde, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Deutsche Welle, Al Arabiya, France 24, The Week, The Gazzette, New York Post, Fox News and many others wrote about the trial. others.
And suddenly on the evening of November 27 in Iran there is an attempt on the life of the curator of the Iranian nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
His guarded cortege, guards and an armored car, in an incomprehensible way, are shot in the suburbs of Tehran.
Photos from the scene of the tragedy become top news of all world agencies.
Blood, a shot car, the remains of an exploded car nearby, shell casings, and then - the body of Fakhrizade, mourned at home by his family, a closed coffin, national mourning and the covers of all world media with reports of how the MOSSAD, having trampled Iranian national sovereignty, kills a leading nuclear physicist who allegedly created the Iranian atomic bomb.
To gallery page
Iran is crying, everything in the country is hung with black flags, the whole world is discussing Israel's daring attack on the Iranian scientist.
Members of the European Parliament and diplomats, wringing their hands, condemn Tehran not to get excited and not to retaliate against Israel.
Tehran promises to think it over.
The loss of the scientist, which Benjamin Netanyahu himself mentioned when presenting his stolen Iranian nuclear dossier, is undoubtedly a tragedy, and the author expresses his sympathy to the family of the deceased.
But from a pragmatic, image point of view, one day Iran became a victim from an aggressor.
This position is much better than the one in which Tehran was still on the morning of November 27.
It is better to accept condolences from friends and enemies than accusations from the prosecutor.
The news of the death of nuclear engineer Fakhrizade, with many mysterious versions of his liquidation being thrown in, blocked the information agenda of the trial in Antwerp over an Iranian diplomat accused of terrorism.
And if it were not for the execution of the opposition journalist Ruhollah Zam, kidnapped and forcibly removed from Iraq on December 12, Iran would have received sympathy for a long time.
It seems that not everyone in Tehran understands this: it is very difficult to abandon the usual methods of doing business.
The adjudication is expected on January 22, 2021.
We will soon find out whether Europe has decided to sympathize with a nuclear engineer or an executed journalist, bargain with Tehran and exchange the European scientists held in Iranian prisons for Assadi.
Iran shouldn't have a quarrel with Europe.
After all, it is Russia, Germany and France that are saving the Islamic republic in the UN Security Council over and over again.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.