Iran appoints new IRGC spy chief as Israel tensions rise

No causes have been supplied on why Hossein Taeb, now an adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ commander-in-chief, was changed.

Revolutionary Guards parade
The US added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its record of 'international terrorist organizations' in 2019 [File: Iranian Presidency Office via AP]

Tehran, Iran – Iran appointed a brand new commander to move the highly effective intelligence service of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with no motive given as to why the earlier chief left the job.

Ramezan Sharif, spokesman of the elite power, introduced in a press release on Thursday that Hossein Taeb was changed by Mohammad Kazemi, who beforehand headed the Intelligence Safety Organisation, the counterintelligence arm of the IRGC.

The 59-year-old Taeb, who was beforehand a senior determine within the Iranian intelligence ministry, switched to the IRGC within the late 2000s, and was appointed as the pinnacle of the paramilitary Basij organisation in 2008.

One 12 months later, the intelligence unit of the IRGC was fashioned and Taeb took its helm, a place he held till his substitute was introduced.

No motive was supplied on Thursday for Taeb’s departure by the IRGC spokesman, who solely stated Taeb was appointed as an adviser to the power’s commander-in-chief, Hossein Salami.

The information got here after two days of rumours on-line that Taeb had been dismissed from his place. No Iranian official commented on the hypothesis.

Taeb’s substitute comes days after Israeli media reported he was behind an alleged Iranian plot to kill or abduct Israeli vacationers in Turkey.

Israel raised its Istanbul journey advisory to the best alert stage earlier this month and stated residents might be focused by Iranian makes an attempt to kill or abduct Israelis vacationing in Turkey.

Dying nuclear deal

In July 2021, the Reuters information company claimed in a report, citing unnamed Iraqi sources, that Taeb led an IRGC delegation to Baghdad and suggested Shia militias to step up assaults on American targets with out going too far.

Tensions between Iran and the US throughout the area have considerably escalated since Washington unilaterally deserted Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers in 2018, imposing harsh sanctions which might be enforced to at the present time.

The January 2020 assassination of Qassem Soleimani – the influential commander of the IRGC’s Quds Power – by the US took tensions to new highs.

Iran and the US have to this point been unable to succeed in an settlement to revive the nuclear deal, and the difficulty of whether or not a “international terrorist organisation” designation imposed by the US on the IRGC can be lifted is among the predominant sticking factors.

Iran’s standoff with Israel, which strongly opposes the nuclear deal, has additionally significantly worsened because the nuclear talks have stalled in the course of the previous few months.

A number of IRGC personnel have been killed in current months, however Iran has not assigned blame for all of them. It has, nonetheless, accused Israel and promised revenge for the homicide of IRGC Quds Power Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, who was assassinated in a drive-by taking pictures in Tehran in late Might.

A courtroom in Tehran dominated on Thursday the US should pay $4.3bn in punitive and compensatory damages to the households of a number of Iranian nuclear scientists who have been assassinated in recent times. The courtroom stated the US authorities has assisted Israel within the murders.

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post