U.S. Condemns Iran's Melign Activities, Vows To Work With Allies To Hold Regime Accountable

Washington on Friday strongly condemned Iran's 'malign activities' both in the region and across the world, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Asked by TURAN about the latest deadly attack at the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran, State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily press briefing that he wanted to be very careful about attaching causation or anything like that as "we are still figuring out exactly what happened, and motive and all of those things still remain to be unearthed."

In the meantime, he said, the U.S. condemns any form of violence and is committed to ensuring the safety and security of foreign diplomatic missions. "We express our condolences to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the families of those hurt and killed in the attack of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran."

While the details of this incident are still emerging, Washingtin is calling on the Iranian authorities to investigate and to hold those responsible for the attack, hold them accountable, Patel said.

"We note that Azerbaijani missions in several other countries have also experienced security issues in recent months, and we reiterate our support for the safety and security of all diplomatic missions," he added.  "We also would remind the Government of Iran of its responsibility under the Geneva Convention to protect foreign diplomats in Iran."

Friday's attack in Tehran also came on the heels of the U.S. Justice Department's announcement that it had charged three men — Khalid Mehdiyev of Azerbaijan, Rafat Amirov of Iran,  and Polad Omarov, a Georgian citizen based in Eastern Europe — in a plot hatched in Iran to assassinate Masih Alinejad, an American human-rights activist in Brooklyn who has criticized the country’s repression of women.

All three men are members of an Eastern European criminal organization, known by its members as Thieves-in-Law, which has ties to Iran and last year was tasked with carrying out Ms. Alinejad’s killing, the indictment says.

Amirov, (a/k/a “Farkhaddin Mirzoev,” a/k/a “Pᴎᴍ,” a/k/a “Rome,”) is a leader in the criminal organization and was taken into custody in the Southern District of New York on January 26.

Omarov (a/k/a “Araz Aliyev,” a/k/a “Polad Qaqa,” a/k/a “Haci Qaqa,”) also holds a leadership role in the organization, was arrested in the Czech Republic on January 4, and the United States will request his extradition on the charges in the Superseding Indictment.

Mehdiyev, a member of the organization, resides in Yonkers, New York, and was arrested on July 29, 2022, on charges contained in an underlying criminal complaint and will be arraigned on the charges in the Superseding Indictment before Judge McMahon on January 31.

"The Organization has ties to Iran and is violent, engaging in murders, kidnappings, assaults, and extortions, and members typically identify themselves with tattoos and other displays of eight-pointed stars," reads the indictment.

In a statement on Friday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the U.S. "will not allow Iran or other authoritarian regimes to export efforts to stifle peaceful dissent through threats and intimidation against those living lawfully in our country."

"And we will hold those involved in such activities accountable under the law, just as we are doing today,"  he noted.

TURAN's correspondent asked State Department's Patel whether the latest events could be seen as indication of growing Iranian threat both in the region and abroad.

In the case of indictment in New York, he referred to the Justice Department and the White House's statement.

"... Broadly speaking, we have not parsed our words as it relates to Iran’s deeply destabilizing and deeply malign activities not just in the region, but across the world more broadly"  Patel said.

He went on to elaborate: "We have seen that take form in Ukraine through its provision of UAV technologies to the Russian Federation for them to wreck havoc on Ukrainian infrastructure. We have seen it take form in a number of other instances as well."

The U.S, he said, will continue to take steps to hold the Iranian regime accountable: "we’ll do so in close coordination and contact with our allies and partners across the world."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.