Sputnik - Following the deadly attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday morning, which killed 25 and wounded 53 during a parade commemorating the 38th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, terrorist group al-Ahvaziya, which is registered in the Netherlands but has ties to Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for the attack.




The attack was carried out�by an unknown number of�assailants on�Saturday morning during�a parade of�the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's elite paramilitary formation, 12 of�whom were killed by�the terrorists. The parade went through�Ahvaz, capital of�Iran's southwesternmost province of�Khuzestan, where much of�the Iran-Iraq War was fought.
"Terrorists recruited, trained, armed and paid by�a foreign regime have attacked Ahvaz," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on�Twitter Saturday. "Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for�such attacks. Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in�defense of�Iranian lives."


On Monday, IRGC Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami blamed Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia for�the attack, promising a "devastating" response to�the attackers and their sponsors.
Massoud Shadjareh, the founder of�the Islamic Human Rights Commission, and Mohammad Marandi, an expert on�American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at�the University of�Tehran, joined Radio Sputnik's�Loud & Clear�to�discuss the attacks and the potential perpetrators.


?"Last year, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, said, �We need to�take the war against�Iran inside�Iran.' After that, ISIS [Daesh] attacked Tehran, and we know that ISIS and the Saudis, from�long ago, have a very strong relationship," Marandi said.




He noted that after�the attack, a spokesperson for�al-Ahvaziya went on�a Persian-language station, Iran International, which is funded by�Saudi Arabia, and took responsibility for�the attack.
"An advisor to�the UAE crown prince also tweeted that this was not a terrorist attack, that a decision has been made to�carry out�these attacks inside�Iran," Marandi noted.


"So the evidence has been provided by�Saudi Arabia and the UAE."

Marandi said that later in�the weekend, a video appeared on�Daesh's Amaq News Agency claiming responsibility for�the attack, but�that the video both unusually contained incorrect information about�the attack and lacked a specific attribution to�Daesh. He speculated this signaled some kind of�cooperation between�Daesh and al-Ahvaziya.

Shadjareh noted that al-Ahvaziya is "inspired by�the Gulf states" and that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown by�the US invasion in�2003, had supported "this sort of�Arab nationalism." Khuzestan has a large Arab population, and the 1980 invasion of�Iran by�Iraq focused primarily on�conquering the province. Hussein believed the region's Arab population would rise up�and support the Iraqi army, but�instead they put up�fierce resistance. By 1982, the Iranian army had pushed the Iraqis out�of Khuzestan, but�in the retreat Hussein deployed a scorched-earth policy that devastated the region. The once-prosperous oil refining city of�Abadan, which sits on�the border with�Iraq, has never fully recovered from�the war.
When Riza Shah Pahlavi rose to�the Persian throne in�1925, ending the reign of�the Qajars and beginning the Pahlavi dynasty, his sharp attitudes against�tribal autonomy provoked an uprising by�Arabs in�Khuzestan, and many others followed through�the 1940s. When the Pahlavi dynasty fell in�the chaos of�the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic republic, it renewed nationalist sentiments in�the region, as�well as�among many other ethnic groups inside�Iran, including Kurds and Baluchs. The uprising in�Ahvaz was repressed with�about 100 casualties on�both sides.


But Shadjareh said al-Ahvaziya are not really nationalists; they're simply the result of "people with�deep pockets" in�Saudi Arabia and the UAE, whose leaders masquerade as�an NGO at�international functions.
"What is very clear is that the rhetoric that has been articulated by�the Trump administration, by�the Saudis, by�Emiratis, is now being put into�action. And the international community has really failed to�identify this as�what it is�� indeed, an act of�terrorism," he said, indicating that the media had also failed to�cover it as�such.


The conversation then turned to�the subject of�MEK, a group designated as�a terrorist organization by�the US State Department from�1993 to�2012 but�now touted by�US neoconservatives as�an alternative to�the Iranian government.

On June 30, former New York City Mayor and now US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke in�Paris to�a rally by�the National Council of�Resistance (NRC) in�Iran, an umbrella organization controlled by�the MEK, the Guardian reported at�the time.
"We are now realistically being able to�see an end to�the regime in�Iran," Giuliani told a crowd of�about 4,000. "The mullahs must go, the ayatollah must go, and they must be replaced by�a democratic government which Madam [Maryam] Rajavi represents� Freedom is right around�the corner� Next year I want to�have this convention in�Tehran!"


"Those protests are not happening spontaneously," Giuliani said, referring to�riots in�Iran earlier this year. "They are happening because of�many of�our people in�Albania [which hosts an MEK compound] and many of�our people here and throughout�out the world."

Marandi noted that the MEK fought on�behalf of�Iraq and operated as�Iraqi intelligence during�the Iran-Iraq War. Even though it was considered a terrorist organization in�the 1980s in�the West, it was still allowed to�open offices in�many Western countries under�different names. Only recently has it been recognized as�a "legitimate organization," Marandi said.

Marandi also noted that the MEK is "very close to�the Israeli regime," citing as�one example a "fake laptop" that supposedly belonged to�an Iranian nuclear scientist was supplied to�the MEK by�the Israeli government. That laptop was later used by�the US government in�2005 to�argue the case for�the existence of�a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program, although the information on�the computer was later shown to�be fraudulent.
"These people carried out�huge attacks on�Tehran," Marandi said, "so we Iranians have very sharp memories, very dark memories about�this organization."


Shadjareh likewise noted the MEK had committed "war crimes against�Kurdish communities and Shias in�the south, as�basically foot soldiers for�Saddam Hussein," though it's unclear whether he means Iraq's large Shiite community, which was heavily oppressed under�Hussein, or Shiites in�Iranian Khuzestan during�the Iraqi occupation.

"They have shown in�their whole history they're willing to�be sold to�the highest bidder," Shadjareh said. Noting how MEK is recognized worldwide for�its brutality, Shadjareh pointed out�that the US nonetheless now represents this group "as the hopeful for�bringing democracy to�Iran."
The United States and the West are "so desperate," he said, "they're now supporting the most unsavory groups and encouraging them."