Iran accuses American, British and Israeli secret services of plotting explosions in Zahedan, Baluchistan

Iran’s interior minister Mostafa Pur-Mohammadi, speaking over a domestic TV channel, also charged the three services with subversive activities in Iranian Khuzestan, Kurdistan and Azerbaijan.
debkafile reports a sizeable US and Israeli intelligence and commercial presence in the neighboring Caspian republic of Azerbaijan. This was the first time an Iranian official accused Israeli intelligence of “terrorist activity” inside the country. Israeli security sources take this as a ploy to lay the groundwork for justifying an Iranian payback – either through its proxy, the Lebanese Hizballah, or Palestinian terrorist networks in the pay of their intelligence services.
The charges are also part of Tehran’s preparations for the UN Security Council session Wednesday, Feb. 21, to discuss further sanctions for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Pur-Mohammadi said the terrorist attacks were aimed at sparking inter-religious hatred between the Sunni minority and Shiite majority of the Islamic Republic.
debkafile‘s Iran experts report that the minister accused the three services of subversion also to silence public questions about the sudden vulnerability of the invincible Revolutionary Guards to attack in different parts of the country.
Zahedan close to the Pakistani and Afghan borders saw three strikes. In one, gunmen ambushed an RG bus and set off a bomb car which killed 11 soldiers and injured 31.
The interior minister’s interview coincided with three other events in Iran.
1. Our Tehran sources report that one of the suspects detained after the Zahedan bus attack, Nasrollah Shanbe-Zehi, was executed Monday, Feb. 19, in a public hanging on the spot of the explosion. The gallows was raised on the Zahedan-Tehran highway and the body was left there for several hours. A crowd stood below chanting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans.
2. Also on Monday, 20 Revolutionary Guards brigades of 60,000 men launched a three-day war game dubbed Eqtedar (Grandeur) in 16 out of Iran’s 30 provinces. Its commander is Brig.-Gen Mohammad-Reza Zahedi.
3. Sources close to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna disclosed Monday that Iran has transferred to its Natanz uranium enrichment plant gaseous materials for activating centrifuges.