In the Iranian regime's intricate worldwide network for terror, the orders on terrorist acts and killings almost always come directly from the very top: the supreme leader himself, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Not a single act of terrorism occurs without the order, approval, or supervision of Khamenei," said Ali Safavi, spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the leading opposition group to the regime.
The NCRI's charge came barely 36 hours before reports that five death row prisoners in the Evin Prison — all convicted of opposing Khameni — were transferred to the Ghezel Hesar Prison, where executions are routinely carried out. Specifically, the five were sentenced to death on charges of membership in anti-Khomeni groups as well as assembly and collusion against national security and armed rebellion against the state.
"These five are at risk of imminent execution," the NCRI's Safavi told Newsmax on Friday evening, adding that his organization had called on relevant bodies of the United Nations "to save their lives."
"But dealing in death is a common trait of the regime and Khameni himself," said Safavi. At a standing-room-only press conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, he specifically cited the November 2023 attempt on the life of Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former member of the European Parliament and head of the anti-Khamenei International Committee in Search of Justice.
The attack on Vidal-Quadras was crafted, according to Safavi, by Iranian Deputy Minister of Intelligence Seyed Yahya Hosseiny Panjaki and executed by the gang known as the "Moroccan Mafia."
Panjaki is also in command of the secretive Qassem Soleimani Headquarters, named for the Quds Force commander killed in 2020 under orders from President Donald Trump. According to Safavi, Soleimani Headquarters coordinates the regime's plans for murder and terrorism abroad through the Ministry of Intelligence (whose minister is actually appointed by the ayatollah and not the president of Iran), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, and the IRGC Quds Force.
"And there are three ways to carry out terror plots abroad: using Iranian agents, using foreign mercenaries, and using a combination of Iran's network of agents and foreign ministries," Safavi said.
He went on to note that the plots abroad are usually focused on Iranian expatriates opposing the regime and are focused primarily on France, Germany, Albania, Spain, the United Kingdom, the U.S., Austria, and Sweden. The ayatollah's overseas agenda, Safavi added, included a foiled bombing plot in Paris that targeted Maryam Rajavi, leader of the NCRI, in June 2018 and well-documented assassination plots against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, onetime White House national security adviser John Bolton, and Trump himself.
"And Ayatollah Sayed Ahmed Khatami called for the execution of President Trump," said Safavi, referencing comments made by the senior Iranian cleric in July. "This was made on the Friday day of prayer and would not have been made without the approval of Khameni. On Aug. 1, 1000 clerics throughout Iran repeated that threat."
Khameini has posted an apparent death threat to Trump on his website.
Safavi would not say how his group obtained what he called "classified" documents showing the Ayatollah's oversight of Iranian terrorism except to say "we have our own network operating on the ground in Iran."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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