Arrest of Suspects Over Attempted Assassination of Dr. Vidal-Quadras Strengthens Hypothesis of Iran Regime Link
Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
NCRI logoIt is imperative to put the Revolutionary Guards on the terrorist list and shut down embassies of Iran’s regime
Yesterday, Spanish media reported that “three people suspected of being linked to the attack on Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras were arrested” and that “these arrests strengthen the hypothesis of a so-called ‘Iranian footprint’” which is related to his relationship “with the Iranian opposition since the time he was a Member of the European Parliament between 1999-2014 and his ties since then.” (El Pais, November 21, 2023)
In connection with these arrests, The Times of London on November 21 separately quoted Spanish media as saying the police have confirmed the existence of an “Iranian trail”, which shows that this attack was carried out due to the victim’s relationship with the Iranian opposition.
Meanwhile, the Mail Online on November 21 wrote, “The partner of an English woman who hired an assassin for the murder of a veteran politician is an ‘extremist Shiite Muslim.’”
A week earlier, on November 14 (five days after the terrorist attack against Vidal-Quadras), the regime’s Fars news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), quoted an “informed source” and wrote, “The Islamic Republic has officially warned all countries that host terrorist groups that hosting PMOI/MEK and other terrorist groups will entail serious consequences for them… The informed source, referring to the assassination of Vidal-Quadras, emphasized that the Spanish government would be better off not being a player in a scenario by the PMOI/MEK… Spain should know that hosting the PMOI/MEK or playing in their grounds will have serious consequences for it.”
A well-known tactic of the mullahs’ regime is to first demonize its opponents, either directly or through proxies and various infiltrators, and then proceed to physically eliminate them. On October 26, 2022, the mullahs’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed Alejo Vidal-Quadras and the International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) on its blacklist, and in parallel, the regime’s agents in European countries attacked him and the ISJ. The European Union and its member states must resolutely confront the regime’s policy of spreading false information and demonization and expose and neutralize its political proxies and its network of infiltrations in European political circles.
It is also a well-known fact that the regime uses criminal gangs to purge and assassinate its opponents. For example, in March 2018 when the regime wanted to blow up the Nowrouz (the Iranian New Year) celebration of thousands of MEK members with the presence of scores of European and American dignitaries in Tirana, Albania, it had hired criminal gangs in Turkey and the Balkans under the supervision of the IRGC Quds Force to carry out the operation. The Albanian General Police Director in a press conference on October 23, 2019, exposed the details of the criminal gangs who were hired for this plot.
The Iranian Resistance calls on the European Union to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization and urges the Spanish government, police, and the Judiciary to arrest the perpetrators of the terrorist attack against Dr. Vidal-Quadras and to introduce and prosecute them and make public all the relevant documents and details. As Dr. Vidal-Quadras has himself repeatedly emphasized, closing the Iranian regime’s embassies and representative offices in Europe, expelling the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and IRGC, and punishing the regime’s mercenaries is crucial in confronting and preventing the spread of the regime’s unbridled terrorism.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
November 22, 2023