{"id":8560,"date":"2017-10-19T18:32:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T23:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=8560"},"modified":"2017-10-19T18:32:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T23:32:33","slug":"irans-foreign-minister-javad-zarif-iranians-are-all-irgc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/8560\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif: Iranians Are \u2018All IRGC\u2019?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adelle Nazarian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Breit Bart, October 16, 2017<\/strong><\/span> – Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed, \u201cIranians\u2013boys, girls, men, women\u2013are ALL IRGC.\u201d?!<\/p>\n

However, many Iranians \u2013 both living in the Islamic Republic and throughout the world \u2013 disagreed and rejected Zarif\u2019s claim, creating the #WeRejectIRGC hashtag on Twitter in response. Some stated, contrary to Zarif\u2019s tweet, that it is the IRGC that carries out acts of terror<\/a>,\u00a0 both directly and through its proxies throughout the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The IRGC boasts a long history of attacks against Iranians:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hossein<\/p>\n

Hossein Abedini member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran<\/em><\/p>\n

1990:<\/strong> On March 14, 1990, the IRGC attempted to assassinated<\/a> Hossein Abedini, an Iranian parliamentarian in exile and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The IRGC operatives blocked the vehicle he and his driver were in on his way to the Istanbul Airport in Turkey. Abedini was shot and went into a coma for 40 days. He ultimately survived the attack.<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/p>\n

Professor Kazem Rajavi<\/em><\/p>\n

1990:<\/strong> On April 24, 1990, 13 Iranian terrorists carrying service passports issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry assassinated<\/a>\u00a0 Professor Kazem Rajavi, the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), by gunning him down near his home in Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\"Ali<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ali Akbar Ghorbani<\/em><\/p>\n

1992:<\/strong> On June 5, 1992, Iranian agents kidnapped Ali Akbar Ghorbani<\/a>,\u00a0a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), in front of his home in Istanbul, Turkey, and tortured him to death. A captured terrorist led the police to his shallow grave<\/a>\u00a0 on the outskirts of Istanbul.<\/p>\n

\"Mohammad<\/p>\n

Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, the representative of NCRI in Italy<\/em><\/p>\n

1993:<\/strong> On March 15, 1993, Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, the representative of NCRI, was assassinated<\/a>\u00a0 by IRGC operatives as he drove to his office in Rome, Italy.<\/p>\n

\"Ms.<\/p>\n

Ms. Zahra Rajabi<\/p>\n

1996:<\/strong> On February 20, 1996, terrorists dispatched from Tehran assassinated<\/a>\u00a0 Ms. Zahra Rajabi<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0a senior member of NCRI, in her home in Istanbul, Turkey. She had gone to Turkey to assist Iranian political refugees. Her colleague, Abdul Ali Moradi, was also fatally shot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2009:<\/strong> In June 2009, a member of Iran\u2019s security service assassinated<\/a>\u00a0 Neda Agha Soltan as she stood in the streets of Tehran sparked by protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s fraudulent reelection to the presidency. Iran\u2019s Basij para<\/a>military<\/a> forces were accused of brutally suppressing protests in the aftermath of that infamous election.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s President Hassan Rouhani praised the IRGC just before the United States\u2019 designation of the group \u2013 which is the financial lifeblood of the Iranian regime \u2013 as a terrorist organization, saying<\/a>, \u201cIf the United States wants to commit another mistake and take action against the Revolutionary Guards, this is a bigger mistake; the Revolutionary Guard is not just a military unit, but the Guards are in the hearts of this people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adelle Nazarian \u00a0Breit Bart, October 16, 2017 – Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned\u00a0\u00a0 Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[155,159,153,82,154,156,102,150,158,157],"class_list":["post-8560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinion","tag-ali-akbar-ghorbani","tag-hassan-rouhani","tag-hossein-abedini","tag-irgc","tag-kazem-rajavi","tag-mohammad-hossein-naghdi","tag-national-council-of-resistance-of-iran","tag-ncri","tag-neda-agha-soltan","tag-zahra-rajabi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8562,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8560\/revisions\/8562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}