Iran Arrests Dozens After Killing of Hamas Leader Haniyeh

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Iran Arrests Dozens After ******** of ****** Leader Haniyeh

Follow our latest updates on the Middle East crisis here.

Iran has arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, military officials and staff workers at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran, in response to a huge and humiliating security breach that enabled the ************** of a top leader of ******, according to two Iranians familiar with the investigation.

The high-level arrests came after the ******** in an ********** early Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, who had led ******’s political office in Qatar and was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president and staying at the guesthouse in northern Tehran, Iran’s capital.

The fervor of the response to the ******** of Mr. Haniyeh underscores what a devastating security ******** this was for Iran’s leadership, with the ************** occurring at a heavily guarded compound in the country’s capital within hours of the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s new president.

“The perception that Iran can neither protect its homeland nor its key allies could be fatal for the Iranian regime, because it basically signals to its foes that if they can’t topple the Islamic Republic, they can decapitate it,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group.

Officials in both the Middle East and in Iran itself have said the deadly blast was the result of a ***** that had been planted in Mr. Haniyeh’s room as long as two months before his arrival.

Iranian officials and ****** said Wednesday that ******* was responsible for the **************, an assessment also reached by several U.S. officials. *******, which has vowed to ******** ******’s governing and military abilities, has not acknowledged that it was responsible for planting the *****.

The Revolutionary Guards Corps’ specialized intelligence unit for espionage has taken over the investigation and is hunting down suspects that it hopes will lead it to members of the ********* team that planned, aided and carried out the ********, according to the two Iranian officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigations.

The news of the sweeping arrests came after the Revolutionary Guards announced in a statement that “the scope and details of this incident are under investigation and will be announced in due course.”

The Guards Corps has not yet made public any details of the arrests nor of its investigation into the **********, including its cause. But it has vowed a severe revenge, as has Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who issued an order to strike ******* in retaliation, according to the Iranian officials.

The intensity and scope of the Guards’ investigation reveal the degree to which the ************** has shocked and rattled the country’s leadership.

The deadly blast, which also ******* Mr. Haniyeh’s ************ bodyguard, wasn’t only an earth-shattering collapse of intelligence and security; nor only a ******** to protect a key ally; nor evidence of the inability to curb the infiltration of Mossad; nor a humiliating reputational *****. It was all of those, and more.

Perhaps most important, it delivered a jarring realization that if ******* could target such an important guest, on a day when the capital was under heightened security, and carry out the ******* at a highly secure compound equipped with bulletproof windows, air defense and radar, then no one was really safe.

“This security breach requires different policies and strategies; it may be arresting spies if there was infiltration, or retaliation if the operation was conducted from outside the borders, or a combination of both,” Sasan Karimi, a political analyst in Tehran, said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Haniyeh’s proximity to Iran’s supreme leader — with the two men meeting at Mr. Khamenei’s residence just hours before the ************** — has also raised concerns.

At Mr. Haniyeh’s ******** in Tehran on Friday, Mr. Khamenei was surrounded by a tighter circle of bodyguards than usual when he performed an Islamic prayer ritual on the body. He then left immediately, only pausing briefly to greet Mr. Haniyeh’s son.

Just four days before Mr. Haniyeh’s **************, the country’ minister of intelligence, Seyed Esmaeil Khatib, said to local media that Iran had “disintegrated and destroyed a network of Mossad infiltrators who were every day assassinating some of our scientists and sabotaging our key facilities.”

Then came the shock of Mr. Haniyeh’s **************.

After the *******, Iranian security agents raided the guesthouse compound, which belongs to the Revolutionary Guards Corps and which is where Mr. Haniyeh frequently stayed — in the same room — on his visits to Tehran. The agents placed all the guesthouse’s staff members under quarantine, arrested some, and confiscated all electronic devices, including personal phones, according to the two Iranians.

A separate team of agents interrogated senior military and intelligence officials with roles in safeguarding the capital. It placed a number of them under arrest until investigations are completed, according to the two Iranians.

When the security agents raided the guesthouse compound, they combed through every inch of it, inspecting surveillance cameras dating back months as well as guest lists. They also were examining the comings and goings of staff members, who are strictly vetted before employment and drawn from the rank and file of the Guards as well as from the Basij, its paramilitary volunteer task force, the two Iranian officials said.

A photograph circulating on Telegram and among Iranian officials on Wednesday showed a damaged building in northern Tehran.Credit…Provided to The New York Times

The investigation also focused on Tehran’s international and domestic airports, where agents have been stationed, looking through months of footage on cameras from the arrival and departure lounges and examining flight lists, the two Iranians said. They said that Iran believes members of Mossad’s ********* team are still in the country and their goal is to arrest them.

An Iranian member of the Revolutionary Guards, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said he was not aware of the arrests, but said that security protocols had been completely overhauled in the past two days for senior officials. The security details for senior officials were changed, and electronic equipment such as mobile phones swapped. He said some senior officials had been moved to a different location.

A former president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who has served in senior security roles, said in a statement that by assassinating Mr. Haniyeh, ******* was also “targeting Iran’s security and stability at the start of a new government,” and he added that the way to confront the threat would be for all security, intelligence and military branches to cooperate and strengthen their capabilities.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Iran #Arrests #Dozens #******** #****** #Leader #Haniyeh

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

For verified travel tips and real support, visit: https://hopzone.eu/