Iran is hellbent on igniting Middle East tinderbox in murderous bid to stop collapse of regime, warns resistance leader

IRAN is determined to spark war in the Middle East in a bid to divert the world’s attention from its crumbling regime, a resistance leader has warned.

Hossein Abedini, a member of the National Committee of Resistance of Iran, said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is capitalising on the region’s exploding tensions to escalate terror on his own people at home.

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Iran’s murderous terrorist wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)[/caption]

Reuters

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is waging war on his own people with a surge in human rights abuses[/caption]

Tom Farmer

Hossein Abedini, Deputy Representative of NCRI in the UK[/caption]

AP

A picture from the violent protests of the Iranian public following the death of Mahsa Amini[/caption]

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Iran-backed Houthis who have been creating havoc in the Red Sea[/caption]

Abedini said the root of the issue lies within Iran itself and the external crises are a tactic to quell internal dissent.

He told The Sun: “Iran is abusing the crisis in the region to expand terror at home – and is using the conflict in the Middle East to divert the attention from its main war, which is against its people.

“The head of the snake [Ali Khamenei] needs to create an external crisis now more than ever.

“Khamenei and his criminal president Ebrahim Raisi, have reached a deadlock in the face of the Iranian people’s uprising against the regime.

“Therefore, to contain their internal crises, the mullahs have resorted to external wars.

“This is a unique feature of this regime.”

Iran has seen a huge surge in human rights abuses, suppression of democratic activism, support for terrorism, warmongering, and threats to global stability, Abedini said.

And the regime is terrified of a fresh uprising, he warned.

“The number of executions has risen significantly, with at least 864 executions recorded in 2023 until December 20, compared to 646 in 2022 and 366 in 2021.

“The substantial increase directly reflects the regime’s fear of a potential new uprising.”

In just two months since the Middle East tinderbox was ignited, Iran had executed at least 250 prisoners.

The Iranian government’s repressive measures – particularly against youth and girls – have also intensified.

“Atrocious measures that Iran claimed it had put aside are back,” Abedini said.

In October, a teenage girl in Tehran was fatally wounded by Morality Police – Iran’s Islamic vice squad upholding its religious morals – when she attempted to ride the subway to school without wearing a headscarf.

The incident once again reminded Iran’s public of the chilling case of Mahsa Amini – the 22-year-old girl who was beaten to death by Hijab enforcers in 2022.

Violent protests erupted across Iran and demonstrators clashed with police, hurling rocks and bottles as well as setting fires in several cities.

Over the past year, Iranian authorities have committed strings of horror crimes to eliminate any challenge to their iron grip on power.

These include hundreds of unlawful killings, tens of thousands of arbitrary arrests, widespread torture, including rape of detainees and widespread harassment of victims’ families who call for truth and justice, Amnesty International reports.

Iran’s young population has been increasingly oppressed by the brutal theocratic regime, and the overall campaign to silence the Iranian people reflects the fear of the regime towards potential domestic unrest, Abedini believes.

“The regime is particularly fearful of the growing activities of the
Resistance Units of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran [MEK], which is laying the ground for another uprising.”

And this fear, he says, has driven Tehran to significantly expand its destabilising role in the surrounding region, particularly through its proxies.

REIGN OF TERROR

Iran has been deemed the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and the regime’s ruthless terror-waging wing, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been accused of carrying out global terrorist attacks.

For decades, the country has fostered terrorism and supported conflict in the region through its proxy war groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Sun has seen reports by NCRI detailing the primary location where the IRGC has been providing the Houthis with Naval training.

According to the information, the naval units of the proxy group are trained at The Khamenei Academy of Naval Sciences and Technology in Ziba Kenar on the Caspian coastline in Gilan Province.

One section of the compound is dedicated to the six-month training course of foreign mercenaries affiliated with the Quds Force.

In January 2020, a special training program was launched for about 200 Houthis inside the campus.

Their housing was separate from other students, who were barred from interacting with them to prevent intelligence leaks.

Former US ambassador Mark Wallace told The Sun that Iran’s murderous regime poses the greatest threat to the world order.

He said obtaining a nuclear weapon is just one strand in Tehran’s global campaign to reign terror and “the UK is firmly in its sights”.

Wallace, among many others, firmly believes that Iran – whose explicit aim is to destroy Israel at all costs – was behind the October 7 attacks against the Jewish state.

He said: “It is Iran and not the hidden hand of Iran behind the horrific attacks of October 7 and those that predate it. The dots are well connected.”

And as Israel continues its brutal offensive that is tearing apart the bomb-blitzed Gaza Strip, Iranian proxies continue to unleash hell on the sidelines.

Richard Kemp, ex-British colonel has warned the West “must strike” Iran’s murderous terrorist army now.

The former army officer told The Sun: “It’s deeply worrying what Iran is doing across the region, and even beyond… fermenting and supporting conflict.”

He said nuclear-capable Iran “only understands force” – and military action will be the quickest way to end the Middle East crisis that is threatening to explode into a full-blown war.

TENSIONS RISE IN MIDDLE EAST

What started as Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza has now become a major war flash point as multiple states are now involved in the conflict.

Iran-backed Houthis have been creating havoc in the region as they continue to attack cargo ships in the Red Sea in a bid to show their solidarity with Hamas.

In December 2023, the US launched a multinational joint-military coalition called Operation Prosperity Guardian to respond to the threats posed by the Houthis in the Red Sea.

Earlier this month, British and US warships blitzed at least 60 targets of the rebel groups inside their strongholds in Yemen in what is being called a dramatic escalation of the conflict.

Western coalition forces smashed dozens of military targets, including an airbase, airport and army camp.

Just days ago, a second strike by the UK and US  unleashed laser-guided bombs to blast eight Houthi sites after rebels refused to halt attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

It came just hours after Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden warned the Iranian-backed militants they would strike Yemen again “if needed”.

A US official told CBS the strikes had “good impact” on targets, understood to have been in the capital Sanaa, al-Dailami military base, near the city of Taizz, and Bayda province.

Despite the attacks, the rebel forces have vowed to retaliate to a scale “beyond the imagination” and told the US and Britain they had made a “huge mistake launching the war in Yemen”.

Houthi spokesman Muhammad Al-Bukhaiti also added on Al-Arabi TV that “American interests will be a target for our forces wherever they are”.

Just this week, the Houthi rebels allegedly held secret terror meetings with al-Qaeda to plot a wave of “suicide attacks” against the West.

They reportedly tried to “persuade” their Islamist terrorist allies to join their fight in the Red Sea to help inflict further pain on their “mutual enemies”.

According to Yemeni sources, the meetings were held in both Yemen’s capital Sanaa as well as Hodeidah, the Houthi Red Sea port stronghold.

Clerics loyal to the Houthis met with al-Qaeda chiefs in an apparent bid to convince them to carry out their “legitimate duty” to confront Western “aggression”, Sky News Arabia reported.

Meanwhile, a top Iranian spy chief and his deputy commander were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria last week.

The strike wiped out four members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including the two senior members in Damascus.

Names of those killed were confirmed by Iranian media as General Hojatullah Omidhar, the deputy intelligence officer of IRGC Quds Force, along with Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi.

Members of the Iran-backed group were reportedly holding a meeting when the airstrike hit.

Confirming the death toll, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has accused Israel of assassinating its members.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack – and has declined to comment on “foreign media reports”.

AP

Iranian police deployed to disperse a public protest in Iran[/caption]

A woman with open hair protesting against Iran’s theocratic regime following Mahsa Amini’s deathRex