Iranian senior officials and apparatuses involved in decision-making on terror activity, the directing of terror, and the provision of aid for carrying out acts of terror

Terror activity, subversion, and elimination of regime opposition activists abroad require the approval of the decision-makers in the Iranian regime, including that of the leader Khamenei. The trial of Iranian agents in Germany, accused of murdering four leaders of the Kurdish opposition organization in the Mykonos Café in Berlin – as well as the bombings in Argentina, serve as examples characterizing the Iranian decision-making process regarding terror activities. In both cases, it was the leader, the Intelligence Minister, and Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (which includes the president) who directed the operational echelons and approved the chosen targets.

In the past, President Rafsanjani was also involved in the decision-making process regarding terror activities. Today some decisions on terror are made without giving prior notice to President Khatami, who might be opposed to some of them. Therefore, most of the decisions regarding terror are made today by the leader Khamenei and the top echelons of the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards.

Iranian leader Ali Khamenei: the decision-maker on terror	President Khatami: kept out of the decision-making process	Former president Rafsanjani, who was involved in the decision-making process (www.iraq.net)

  Several apparatuses are involved in the ongoing application of the policy of supporting terror:

The Intelligence Ministry is the most notable body that participates in terror activity outside Iran. It provides funding, technical services, and training for agents and for the Iranian-supported terror organizations. All is achieved while using the diplomatic cover given to members of the ministry in Iranian embassies throughout the world. The Intelligence Ministry and the Intelligence Minister’s involvement in terror affairs, uncovered in Germany (Mykonos Cafe) and Argentina (AMIA), have both been proven.

The Revolutionary Guards, originally established in order to protect the Islamic regime in Iran, have become an institution sponsoring terror, mainly in Lebanon (through a unit of the al-Quds Force), but also in other Middle Eastern countries and in other places around the world such as Bosnia and Afghanistan. The Revolutionary Guards also assist in financing, training, and providing weapons while putting their military expertise in the service of the Palestinian terror organizations.

Qassem Soleimani, commander of the al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, whose units are deployed in Lebanon.

 The Iranian Foreign Ministry participates both in disseminating the ideology of the Islamic revolution and in assisting the activities of bodies affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards. The Foreign Ministry provides diplomatic cover for the operations of the intelligence and terror operatives, assists in providing documentation (passports, visas, and so forth), and in transferring equipment and weapons via the diplomatic pouch. Iranian diplomats are engaged in gathering intelligence information and in the surveillance of targets against which Iran is planning attacks. The Foreign Ministry’s involvement in the preparation of terror attacks was well illustrated in Argentina (the attacks against the Israeli embassy and the Jewish Community Center in 1992 and 1994 respectively).

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