Iran’s Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi announced Thursday that seven people of a 12-member network “sponsored by the Iraqi intelligence and army” have been sentenced to death, reported Iran News Agency (IRNA).
"Twelve people belonging to a vast terrorist group were arrested recently, and seven of them have been sentenced to death. Strong documents and proof exist in this relation," Younesi said.
He added that in the past two years, the “terrorists dispatched groups to Iran, and that most of them have been busted.”
The minister said the group was planning bomb attacks against "all" foreign embassies as well as military bases, top-level military personnel, intelligence offices, oil installations and newspaper offices, reported AFP.
He also said the "terrorists" had "separatist plans," an expression usually used to refer to the desire for independence of certain members of the Arab minority of Khuzestan, an oil-rich region on the border with Iraq, according to AFP.
For the first time for several months, Tehran is directing its accusations at people "in the pay of the Baath party" in power in Baghdad, rather than the Baghdad-based Iranian armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, which it holds responsible for nearly all attacks over the past year, added AFP.
The presence of opposition movements in each other's country represent one of the main obstacles to the normalization of relations between Iran and Iraq who went to war between 1980 and 1988, said the agency – (Several Sources)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
