Egyptian authorities race to contain fallout from fatal telecom fire    Egypt's electricity, public enterprises ministers discuss expanding renewables in energy-intensive industries    Escalation in Gaza as ceasefire talks remain fragile amid mounting humanitarian crisis    UK, Egypt strengthen cooperation on green transition, eco-tourism, and environmental investments    Egypt's bourse, clearing house say settlement, connectivity unharmed by Ramsis blaze    CPME shareholders approve EGP 2.8bn acquisition of Qardy, Catalyst Partners Holding    Philippines' unemployment rate falls in May '25    Gold prices dip on stronger US Treasury yields    Egypt, Somalia leaders discuss strategic partnership, counterterrorism in New Alamein    Egypt, UNDP discuss expanded cooperation on medical waste management, human development    CIB finances Giza Pyramids Sound and Light Show redevelopment with EGP 963m loan    Egypt's PM, Uruguay's president discuss Gaza, trade at BRICS summit    Egypt, Uruguay eager to expand trade across key sectors    Egypt, Norway hold informal talks ahead of global plastic treaty negotiations    Greco-Roman tombs with hieroglyphic inscriptions discovered in Aswan    Global tour for Korean 'K-Comics' launches in Cairo with 'Hellbound' exhibition    Egypt teams up with private sector to boost university rankings    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Three ancient rock-cut tombs discovered in Aswan    Egypt condemns deadly terrorist attack in Niger        Egypt's EHA, Schneider Electric sign MoU on sustainable infrastructure    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's EDA joins high-level Africa-Europe medicines regulatory talks    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    Egypt's Democratic Generation Party Evaluates 84 Candidates Ahead of Parliamentary Vote    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Cabinet approves establishment of national medical tourism council to boost healthcare sector    Egypt's PM follows up on Julius Nyerere dam project in Tanzania    Egypt's FM inspects Julius Nyerere Dam project in Tanzania    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Are Iran's Revolutionary Guards getting jittery?
Published in Daily News Egypt on 31 - 03 - 2007


We are in a season of skullduggery in the Middle East, with a strange series of disappearances that all involve the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The murky saga is a reminder that the real power in Iran may lie with this secretive organization, which spawned Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Revolutionary Guards orchestrated the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines last week in the Shatt-Al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran. The British say they have technical data to prove their people were outside Iran's territorial waters when they were captured, and they have protested vigorously to Iranian diplomats. But the Iranian Foreign Ministry doesn't seem to know anything about the case. Indeed, it may have been one of the indirect targets. The Revolutionary Guards seized the hostages, if that's the right word, at a time when they are under intense and growing pressure. United States troops captured five of their intelligence operatives last January in the Iraqi city of Irbil. Perhaps the Revolutionary Guards commanders wanted some bargaining chips to get their people back. There are larger forces at play, too. The Revolutionary Guards were targeted in the new United Nations sanctions enacted last weekend against Iran's nuclear program - which, as it happens, is run by the Revolutionary Guards. The elite military group may have wanted to retaliate by imposing its own brute sanctions against Britain, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. European officials note that the provocative move comes at a time of growing speculation about new discussions between the US and Iran - a dialogue the Revolutionary Guards may oppose. The two nations met in Baghdad this month as part of a regional conference on Iraqi security, and it was expected that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would meet her Iranian counterpart at a follow-up meeting in Istanbul in April. That meeting may be in jeopardy if the British sailors aren't returned soon. The Revolutionary Guards may also have hoped to sabotage diplomatic negotiations over the nuclear issue. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said several weeks ago that the US was getting "pinged all over the world'' by Iranian intermediaries who wanted a resumption of negotiations. Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, hinted that message in his recent contacts with the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana. But the prospect of nuclear talks may have been blown out of the water, as it were, until the British issue is resolved. Maybe that was the goal of seizing the sailors. The Revolutionary Guards, after all, can't be happy about curbing the nuclear program that would allow them to project power even more aggressively. But what's making the Revolutionary Guards so jittery? Why are they behaving as if someone had made off with their family jewels? Maybe that's where the last of the mysterious events comes in. On Feb. 7 a top Revolutionary Guards officer named Brig. Gen. Ali Reza Asgari vanished in Istanbul. This was no small fish. He was a former deputy defense minister who, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, had been Iran's key operative in Lebanon, helping organize its proxy army, Hezbollah. According to Robert Baer, who was a CIA case officer in Beirut at that time, Asgari was the primary contact for Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and its most feared terrorist operative, Imad Mughniyeh. "Asgari was in the IRGC's chain of command when it was kidnapping and assassinating Westerners in Lebanon in the '80s,'' Baer wrote in Time magazine. So what happened to Asgari, the man who knows some of the Revolutionary Guards' most precious secrets? Officials in Washington, Paris and Berlin shrug their shoulders and say, sorry, they just can't be helpful on this one. But a leading Israeli daily, Yedioth Aharonoth, reported soon after Asgari's disappearance that Mossad had organized his defection. An Israeli defense source was quoted in London's Sunday Times on March 11 as saying that Asgari "probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency.'' The betting among spy buffs is that Asgari was recruited in what's known as a "false flag'' operation. His handlers may be Israelis, but posing as officers of another intelligence service, perhaps even including during the debriefing. Such speculation was piqued two weeks ago when the German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung was asked during a visit to Turkey whether Asgari was in Germany. "I cannot say anything on this issue,'' he replied. In the perverse spy story that is the Middle East, we have started a strange new chapter. This one has killers and kidnappers galore, and a plot to die for. ........... Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by THE DAILY STAR.

Clic here to read the story from its source.