Jamshid Chalangi:
In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will discuss the Saturday’s terrorist attack in Ahwaz and ask who would benefit from this action.
Did Daesh play a role in the attack or was the regime itself involved?
Who are the Al Ahvaziya separatist group and what role did they play in the attack, and if this terrorist attack in any way benefits our Arab Iranians?
Our guests tonight are political activists and commentators Reza Hossein Bor, Maziar Shakori and Hassan Hashemian.
Reza Hossein Bor:
I have been following this tragic event very closely and talked to several people and conclbehavior the Islamic republic regime follows a specific pattern of behaviour in certain situations.
Similar incidents have happened in Iran in the past as well when there was a terrorist attack in Mashad at the shrine of Imam Reza and the regime accused opposition groups for it.
They did a similar attack in Samarra in which many people were killed and again the regime accused its opponents for the crime.
Again, we have had several such attacks in Baluchestan of Iran and several senior clerics have been killed and the regime has blamed the Baluch people of Iran.
In all these actions we are faced with one news source, which is the regime itself, which portrays itself as the victim at the hands of its opposition forces.
If the ISIS or opposition groups were involved in this action on Saturday, they would have assassinated the senior members of the regime, not the innocent defenseless young soldiers. And this means the attack had been organized by the regime itself.
Hassan Hashemian:
I believe all possibilities exist as to who might have planned this deadly attack and we cannot say with certainty that the regime itself is behind it.
However, I do agree that if this action served the regime’s interests it will not hesitate to carry it out.
For the last 40 years the Islamic republic regime has militarized our society and its propaganda claims that it is a powerful military regime and can deal with all internal and external challenges against itself.
However, the Saturday incident has hugely damaged that “invincibility” image of the regime. So there is this question as to why it should carry such attack on its own credibility? But again, there are many reasons to believe that it has staged it itself for the reasons that will follow.
Now the intelligence minister has claimed that they have arrested several people for the attack and the army says it has identified some other elements. They just keep giving contradictory account of what has really happened.
Jamshid Chalangi:
Now the government says that it is doing its best to protect the Iranian people and their security.
Hassan Hashemian:
The regime claims it is in Syria to provide internal security for the Iranians but the Saturday event discredit this empty claim.
Maziar Shakori:
Nobody approves of this terrorist action and in fact it runs against the interests of the Iranian opposition forces. Now Hassan Rouhani will use this incident at his UN speech today to portray himself and the regime as victims of terrorism.
I do not think that the regime had planned this attack but I believe its security forces had known about it in advance and did not do anything to stop it because they had already run several security checks prior to the march and had stationed their forces all around the area.
The Al Ahvaziya separatist group has claimed responsibility for the attack and it is a credible claim but I believe there is a possibility that the regime’s security forces might have infiltrated the group and have helped and directed them to carry out the attack so the regime will use the incident for its own objectives.