IRGC Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Sistan-Baluchestan

Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
TT
20

IRGC Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Sistan-Baluchestan

Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)

Gunmen have attacked the car of a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killing one of his bodyguards, according to state media.

Saturday’s report identified the dead man as Mahmoud Absalan, the bodyguard of Brigadier-General Hossein al-Massi, who survived the ambush in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Absalan is the son of General Parviz Absalan, another IRGC commander in the region.

The state-owned news agency, IRNA, reported that the "criminals" opened fire at a checkpoint in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, and security forces arrested those behind the attack.

The incident coincided with the celebrations marking the Revolutionary Guard's establishment anniversary.

The Iranian media did not identify the names or number of attackers.

Sistan-Baluchestan is located in the southeast of Iran, a region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has been the site of clashes between separatists from the Baluchi minority, other armed groups, and Iranian forces.

Many clashes are linked to the smuggling operations, making it an area for clashes between separatists from the Baluch minority or extremist groups operating in that region.

Tehran has previously accused Islamabad of supporting them.

In January, the IRGC announced that three of its mobilization members were among nine people killed in a clash with "armed criminals" in the same region a month after troops killed a gunman who attacked the IRGC's rural intelligence office.

On November 18, the official Iranian media reported the death of three security forces members, including a colonel, during a clash with "criminals" in Sistan-Baluchestan.

Last year, four members of the Iranian Guard were killed during an armed clash in the same province.

The predominantly Sunni Sistan-Baluchestan province has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and Sunni militants fighting the country's Shiite authorities.

Many of Iran's Sunnis complain of discrimination, a charge denied by the state.

In 2009, a suicide bomber killed six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and more than 29 other people in Sistan-Baluchestan, in one of the boldest attacks on Iran's most powerful military institutions.

A high-ranking Iranian official announced Thursday that Iran would not abandon its plans to avenge the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of IRGC's al-Quds Force, in 2020, despite Washington's "offers" to lift sanctions and make other concessions.



France Plans to Take Iran to Int’l Court over Citizen Detentions

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025.  EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
TT
20

France Plans to Take Iran to Int’l Court over Citizen Detentions

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025.  EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

Two French citizens held in Iran for almost three years have not had consular services for more than a year prompting Paris to prepare a complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been held since May 2022. Iranian state television aired a video later that year with them appearing to confess to acting on behalf of French intelligence services, something categorically denied by Paris.
Held in Tehran's Evin prison, France has accused Iran of keeping them in conditions akin to torture.
French officials have toughened their language towards Iran, notably over the advancement of its nuclear program and regional activities, but also the detention of European citizens in the country.
Speaking after a rare cabinet meeting to broadly discuss Iran on Wednesday, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot indicated Paris would soon take the matter of violating the right to consular protection to the ICJ.
"We are putting together a complaint that we will file at the ICJ," Foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine told reporters at a news conference on Thursday, adding that the Kohler and Paris were being held in "shocking" conditions.
According to Reuters, Lemoine declined to say when it would be filed and acknowledged that procedures at the ICJ were long, but insisted that Tehran needed to be called out on the issue because the embassy and consulate had not had access to their citizens for more than a year.
"It's in violation of Iran's obligations," he said, citing the Vienna convention on consular relations.
In recent years, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.
Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage.