Historical Confession: Rafighdoost Claims Responsibility for the Assassination of Bakhtiar, Oveysi, Shafigh, and Farrokhzad

Mohsen Rafighdoost, who was in charge of the Ministry of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps until its dissolution in the years following the Iran-Iraq war, admitted in an interview with the 'Iran Watch' website that the assassination of prominent figures such as Shapur Bakhtiar, Gholamali Oveysi, Fereydoun Farrokhzad, and Shahryar Shafigh, the son of Ashraf Pahlavi, was orchestrated by the Islamic Republic and that he was 'responsible' for them. Rafighdoost stated that he was the 'commander' of the assassinations and added that 'usually' members of the Basque separatists from Spain were tasked with carrying out the assassinations. He said: 'We said we want to assassinate such a person. They said we will take this amount. There was an Egyptian cleric in Germany who was their friend. We deposited the money with him and said if he does it, give it to him.' The Islamic Republic attempted to assassinate Shapur Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister before the Islamic Revolution, through 'Anis Naqash,' a Lebanese architect, in the summer of 1980, but failed in this objective. He was eventually assassinated in a complex operation in the summer of 1991. Shapur Bakhtiar was killed on August 6, 1991, at his home by an assassination team along with his assistant, Soroush Katibeh. Rafighdoost mentions in this interview that he was the 'chief' of Anis Naqash in the assassination of Shapur Bakhtiar and describes how he traveled to France to secure Naqash's release, threatening the then-French Foreign Minister that if he was not freed within two weeks, 'if one of your embassies is bombed or one of your planes is hijacked, do not complain.' Anis Naqash also stated in August 2008 to the Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, that 'the death sentence for Bakhtiar was issued by the Revolutionary Court, which was also confirmed by Imam (Khomeini). I told the Revolutionary Guards that I have operational experience and I will take this task on.' General Gholamali Oveysi was also shot dead in Paris on February 7, 1984, along with his brother Gholamhossein Oveysi. The Lebanese Islamic Jihad group, led by Imad Mughniyeh, claimed responsibility for this operation. Mughniyeh later became a military commander in Hezbollah in Lebanon. He played a leading role in international terrorism, including the bombing of the U.S. Embassy four years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the attack on the Israeli military headquarters in Lebanon, the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992, and the explosion at the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. The assassination of political and ideological opponents and critics of the Islamic Republic began in December 1979 with the murder of Shahryar Shafigh, the son of Ashraf Pahlavi, in Paris, and continued both inside and outside Iran. Although no one outside the officials of the Islamic Republic knows the exact number of these murders, the Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation recently documented hundreds of extrajudicial killings by the Islamic Republic in a research report titled 'Iran: State Violence Without Borders.' This report mentions at least 862 cases and states that the state violence of the Islamic Republic of Iran includes 'committing murder' and 'kidnapping' in countries such as the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Germany. Reuters also reported in October 2024, citing court documents and statements from Western governments, that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been involved in at least 33 assassination or kidnapping attempts since 2020. In the United States, at least five terrorist plots by the Islamic Republic have been recorded since 2020. Masih Alinejad, a journalist and political activist, is another opposition figure that the Iranian government has attempted to target through its hired terrorists. One of the most well-known recent kidnapping cases by the Islamic Republic was the abduction of Rouhollah Zam, a 42-year-old Iranian journalist residing in France. Iranian security officials lured him to Iraq under a kidnapping scheme and then transferred him to Iran. Mr. Zam was executed on December 13, 2020. The abduction of Jamshid Sharmad from the United Arab Emirates and his transfer to Iran is another example of the Islamic Republic's kidnapping of opponents. Mr. Sharmad was also executed by the Iranian government a few months ago. The Islamic Republic's efforts to assassinate and eliminate do not limit themselves to Iranian figures. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Joe Biden recently published details of an indictment related to thwarting an Islamic Republic plot to assassinate Donald Trump before the presidential election. According to the criminal indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan, New York, an unnamed official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had ordered one of the Iranian government's agents in September to prepare a plan to monitor and ultimately assassinate Trump. The U.S. Department of Justice identified the main Iranian operative for the assassination of Donald Trump as Farhad Shakri, 51, residing in Iran, and his associates as Carlyle Rivera, 49, from Brooklyn, New York, and Jonathan Ludolt, 36, from Staten Island, New York. The U.S. has long identified the Iranian government as one of the largest supporters of international terrorism and has imposed extensive sanctions against it.