Posted on 03/03/2007 6:53:50 PM PST by blam
Iran poised to strike in wealthy Gulf states
By Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:24am GMT 04/03/2007
Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf states to attack Western interests and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear programme, a former Iranian diplomat has told The Sunday Telegraph.
Western interests in Dubai could be attacked the Iranian regime's agents
Spies working as teachers, doctors and nurses at Iranian-owned schools and hospitals have formed sleeper cells ready to be "unleashed" at the first sign of any serious threat to Teheran, it is claimed.
Trained by Iranian intelligence services, they are also said to be recruiting fellow Shias in the region, whose communities have traditionally been marginalised by the Gulf's ruling Sunni Arab clans.
Were America or Israel to attack Iran, such cells would be instructed to foment long-dormant sectarian grievances and attack the ex-tensive American and European business interests in wealthy states such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Such a scenario would bring chaos to the Gulf, one of the few areas of the Middle East that remains prosperous and has largely pro-Western governments.
The claims have been made by Adel Assadinia, a former career diplomat who was Iran's consul-general in Dubai and an adviser to the Iranian foreign ministry. They came as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, made a formal visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday in what was widely seen as an attempt to defuse growing Sunni-Shia tensions in the Middle East.
advertisementSaudi Arabia has accused Iran of backing Shia death squads killing Sunnis in Iraq, and of backing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia in its efforts to bring down the government in Beirut. Meanwhile, a US naval build-up has continued in the Gulf waters south of Iran, a move intended to show Washington's readiness to strike against Teheran's nuclear installations for defying UN orders to cease uranium enrichment.
Mr Assadinia, who fled Iran after whistle-blowing on corruption among the country's all-powerful theocrats, said: "The Iranian government believes that to survive it needs permanent bases throughout the Middle East. Anybody who contemplates threatening or invading Iran will have those cells unleashed against them."
Mr Assadinia, 50, served for two years at the Iranian consulate in Dubai, which he says was also used as a conduit for illicit funding of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shia militant group that waged a six-week war with Israel last summer.
Iranian foreign ministry agents would regularly pass through with suitcases containing up to £11 million, using diplomatic baggage channels to bypass customs scrutiny.
"The amounts varied, but it would come through on average twice a month," he said. "I would see it sometimes. As far as I know, that money always went to Hezbollah."
His consulate, he said, was a hub for regional intelligence operations because of the huge number of Iranians working in Dubai, which is the main trade port for the Middle East. Its skyscrapers and industrial estates are home to 4,000 Iranian businesses, providing easy cover for espionage.
Other intelligence activities included running nightclubs and prostitution rings, where carousing officials and diplomats could be lured into "honey trap" blackmail operations, and organising Iranian expatriates - there are an estimated 500,000 in the Gulf - to act as double agents.
"People were encouraged to tell the Europeans that Iran wanted a good relationship with them, when in fact Iran was involved in terrorism," said Mr Assadinia. Asked whether it was an attempt to divert attention from a covert nuclear weapons programme, he replied: "Precisely".
Of greatest potential concern is his claim that Iran has established networks of agents to liaise with Shias across the Gulf, particularly in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Saudi Arabia.
Politically disfranchised Shia communities exist throughout the region. Teheran has backed their claims for more power ever since the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979, but could now also mobilise them as a way of deterring the Gulf's Sunni rulers from supporting American efforts to stop Iran's nuclear programme. Although most of the Gulf states oppose US intervention against Iran, privately they fear that a nuclear-armed Teheran would dominate the Middle East.
Allegations of Iranian agents operating in the Gulf have surfaced before, but it is rare for them to be spelt out in detail by a former regime official. Mr Assadinia named a hospital in Dubai - which The Sunday Telegraph has not identified for legal reasons - as one place where many doctors and nurses also worked for Iranian intelligence.
He left his post in Dubai in 2002 and was granted asylum in Europe a year later, having undergone "intimidating" interrogations by Iranian intelligence agents in Teheran. Mr Assadinia plans to give more detail of his claims at a meeting later this month at Westminster, organised by the British Awhazi Friendship Society, which lobbies Parliament, the European Union and the United Nations. He hopes his disclosures will encourage other Iranian officials to follow suit.
"The government sees itself as strong, but in fact it is like Saddam Hussein before he was overthrown - very fragile and brittle within," he added.
A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in London described Mr Assadinia's claims as "baseless and fabricated". He said the Iranian diplomatic presence in the Gulf was entirely legitimate and described the friendship society as an "illegal" organisation dedicated to stirring up trouble between Iran and its neighbours.
That nice NOTTT
All these governments should say is "We know who, and we know where these cells are. If the time comes, they will be eliminated expeditiously." and leave it at that........
RELATED ARTICLE:
Law proposed (by Senate Dem Webb!) to prevent Bush from attacking Iran
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1794412/posts
What about Syria?
Iran, Saudi Heads Vow to Work for Unity
Now the Saudi's said this afterwards:
"The two leaders stressed that the greatest threat against the Muslim nation are attempts to spread strife between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims," the official Saudi agency SPA said.
The Iranians said:
Iran and Saudi Arabia oppose the dominance of enemies over the region and their conspiracies. During this trip, we tried to devise some measures to prevent the enemies from harming the Muslim world and to foil their plots 
President Ahmadinejad
Yes, and the Sultan of Oman will be quite irritated to learn that his country has been erased from the map and apparently incorporated into Yemen.
I wonder how long before he get whack by maybe CIA or Mossad agents that guy is more crazier than JACKO
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh but but but but
Queen HARXIST GRITCH SHRILLERY
AND Queen wannabe Fancy Puhlousey all say
we just need 101 more choruses of KUMBYA.
So, the Iranians MUST NOT mean what they are saying.
They must be playing the children's game SPOOK THE INFIDELS.
That must be right. Isn't it?
/sar
Let's do it anyway and see what happens.
Sunni or later shiite happens....
The muzzies are almost permanently offended....so yes...do it now.
I assume whatever the "western interests" are, that they are aware that they are sitting on a pile of muslim dynamite.
No sympathy here, if their desire to make money is that unconscious.
The only legitimate western interests I care about (ours) I assume are isolated and well protected by our military...
You forgot to mention that the housewives Boxer and Pelosi have ordered congressional offices to change their light bulbs and turn off their computers at night. Surely, that homey economy will help.
LOL.
No /sar tag?
I have no use for either traitor.
The threat of such an attack by Iran will result in the U.S. having basing and overflight rights in the UAE and other threatened Gulf states. Right now, we don't have any and will need to rely on carrier based and aerial refuled long distance bomber flights stressing crews and aircraft. The carrier based strike aircraft will have the legs from the ship that will remain just outside land based defensive missile ranges and in the middle of a protective anti-submarine screen battle group in the Gulf of Oman--not the Persian Gulf; the turning radius is too tight and the Hormuz Straits too easy to obstruct and the Iranians have shore based anti-ship missles on the shoreline well within range. Since we will not be putting maneuver forces on the ground, the strike joint air force packages will have no close air support mission post strike and can turn their secondary attention to interdiction targets.
Excellent thread, Ping.
might mean that they had a meeting which accomplished nothing and had to make nice flowery comments anyway afterwards.
Actually they should have started eliminating them long ago. a car accident here, a heart attack there, and no need for polonium tea...
The Telegraph seems to have everyone's secret battle plans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.