Ageing commander's offhand admission lifts veil on Iran's assassinations

The recent admission by a former Revolutionary Guards minister about orchestrating the killing of dissidents on European soil in the 1980s and 1990s shed light on Tehran's ruthless suppression of opponents abroad.

In a video interview published by Didehban-e Iran, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its minister from 1980 to 1999, described his role in funding covert operations abroad. His statements indicated that Iran was directly involved in orchestrating political assassinations beyond its borders.

His office in a statement on Monday attributed the shock admissions to his mental debilitation after a brain surgery despite the release of a hitherto unpublished segment of another video interview in 1997 in which Refiqdoost had made similar claims.

Political implications and reactions

Iranian-Canadian political analyst Shahir Sahidsaless speculated in an X post on Tuesday that Rafiqdoost’s admission to multiple assassinations could not have been “accidental, inadvertent, or unplanned.” He suggested that these revelations are tied to Iran-US negotiations and potential sanctions relief. According to Sahidsaless, the IRGC, which holds significant economic power in Iran, benefits from ongoing sanctions and may be attempting to undermine diplomatic efforts by confirming Iran’s involvement in assassinations.

"Rafiqdoost's confessions are deliberately intended to block any possibility of negotiations [with the United States] and the lifting of sanctions," Sahidsaless wrote. He argued that assassinations in the West go beyond Iran's support for militant groups, a longstanding point of contention with Western governments. These admissions, he said, amount to an acknowledgment that the government has directly ordered and carried out killings abroad.

Thus far, European governments and the United States have not responded to these claims. Sahidsaless speculated that the lack of immediate reaction might be due to ongoing diplomatic considerations, including US efforts to engage with Tehran.

Possible diplomatic fallout

Sahidsaless warned that this controversy could lead to intensified international pressure on Iran, including the formal designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization in Europe and strengthened European support for US-imposed sanctions. If negotiations fail and Iran persists in advancing its nuclear program, these admissions could provide further justification for punitive measures.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a conservative member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, similarly referred to the importance of the timing and impact of Rafiqdoost’s controversial interview. “Foreign [powers] will take this as a true statement,” Bakhshayesh told the Iranian Labour News Agency on Monday.

While acknowledging that Rafiqdoost’s claims might contain some truth, he criticized the general for discussing classified matters at a time when Iran is under maximum pressure. “This is injustice to the country, especially in the current circumstances that we are under maximum pressure.”

Who were the victims?

According to Rafiqdoost, the victims included dissidents as well as high-profile figures such as Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran's last prime minister under the Shah, who was assassinated in Paris in 1991, and General Gholam-Ali Oveissi, the chief commander of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, who was killed in Paris in 1984.

“The Basque separatist group in Spain carried out these assassinations for us. We paid them, and they conducted the killings on our behalf,” he said.

Rafiqdoost’s admissions could be potentially used by the families of victims in European courts as evidence if they choose to sue the Islamic Republic as a sponsor of terrorism.

Iran has allegedly continued assassination of dissidents overseas. Currently, two members of the Russian mob are standing trial in a US federal court over an alleged plot to kill Iranian-American feminist activist Masih Alinejad on US soil.

Denials and controversy

Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s former ambassador to Germany (1990–1997) and a senior nuclear negotiator, tweeted that he was :stunned, amazed and shocked" by the revelations, particularly regarding the killing of dissident artist Fereydun Farrokhzad in Munich in the 1990s. However, Mousavian himself has long faced allegations of involvement in Iran’s overseas assassination campaigns. Opposition groups have accused him of orchestrating over 20 assassinations in Europe, including the notorious Mykonos restaurant killings in Berlin in 1992, where four Kurdish leaders were murdered by Iranian agents.

Mousavian’s alleged role has fueled calls for his expulsion from Princeton University, where he has been a visiting research scholar since 2009.