The representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lebanon issued the first public announcement about the Iranian regime’s role in the mass killing of American military and diplomatic personnel in the early 1980s in Beirut.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) first located and translated an interview with Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, who serves as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon.
The state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quickly retracted the damning revelations Tabatabai made about Iran’s role in the suicide bombings of Americans, but MEMRI retained its copy.
Iran and its chief strategic ally, the US-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah, in Lebanon have been blamed for the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983 in which 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed, and twin suicide truck bombers blew up the barracks. of members of the American and French multinational forces in Lebanon in 1983, where 220 US Marines, 18 US Navy sailors and 3 US Army soldiers lost their lives.
Fifty-eight French soldiers were also killed in the terrorist attack.
According to MEMRI’s translation of Tabatabai’s interview with IRNA, Tabatabai said, “I immediately went to Lebanon and prepared what was necessary for [carry out] martyr operation where America and Israel are.”
Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, serves as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon.AFP via Getty Images MEMRI holds a copy of the revelation Tabatabai made about Iran’s role in the suicide bombing of Americans. Roger Viollet via Getty Images
He added, “Efforts to establish [Hezbollah] start in [Lebanon’s] Baalbek area, member’s place [Iran’s] The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrived. I had no part in setting it up [political] party [Hezbollah]but God allowed me to continue military activities with the group that had worked with us before [Islamic] Victory of the Revolution.”
The MEMRI report continued, “It should be noted that the part of the interview in which Tabatabai admitted to receiving Khomeini’s fatwa ordering attacks on American and Israeli targets in Lebanon was removed by IRNA from its website shortly after publication.
This seems to be because there is no official representative [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Republic, or Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, once said that Iran had any involvement in directing, planning and carrying out the massive bombing in Lebanon against the US,” MEMRI wrote.
Tabatabai also said during the interview, “With the victory of the Islamic Revolution [in Iran]Hezbollah was established [in the summer of 1982]. For two years, [Hezbollah’s] the military base is located at my house. ‘Group’ [supporters of the Islamic Revolution] signed a contract declaring their willingness to become martyrs. Probably more than 70 [of them] sign this contract at my house.”
A group of soldiers and aid workers stand amid destruction and damage at the scene of the suicide bombing of the American Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon, April 18, 1983.Getty Images
Tabatabai’s importance to the highest echelons of the Iranian regime was recently on display on the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s English website.
The entry shows Tabatabai’s meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Amir-Abdollahian “highlighted [Sayyed] Issa Tabatabai’s important support and contribution to increase the position of the ‘resistance’ in Lebanon, the region, and the Islamic world,” according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry text.
Michael Rubin, an Iran expert for the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital, “The American people have surprised both the Iranian people and the victims of Iranian terrorism with diplomatic changes made to avoid containing Iran.
Now that the representative of the supreme leader has confessed, the question is: (1) Will the American people who brought water for Iranian terrorism apologize? (2) Will Iran pay compensation to the victims of their violence? If [President] Biden prices five Americans at $6 billion, the US should demand no less than $289.2 billion from Iran today.”
The state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quickly dismissed the revelation.Getty Images
Rubin’s reference to Americans accused of aiding Iranian terrorism includes allegations that Iranian Americans, one of whom works for the Department of Defense, are involved in foreign lobbying for the Islamic Republic.
The US State Department has classified the Iranian regime as the worst international state sponsor of terrorism.
MEMRI’s revelations could lead to new legal action against the Iranian regime for its role in the killing of American military and diplomatic personnel.
According to MEMRI, “Iran has always vehemently denied any role in the bombing. It did not submit a defense in response to a 2001 US lawsuit filed against it by the families of hundreds of Americans killed or injured in the barracks bombing.”
Fox News Digital reported in 2016 that a US Supreme Court ruling allowed families of victims of the 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other Iranian regime-related attacks to collect nearly $2 billion in frozen funds from Iran.
MEMRI’s revelations could lead to new legal action against the Iranian regime for its role in the killing of American military and diplomatic personnel. Getty Images
Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American expert on the Iranian regime, told Fox News Digital, “Issa Tabatabai’s confession is a sign of serious division among the regime’s top leaders.
No one among the clerics or the Revolutionary Guards would admit to doing such an act unless the infighting among the Shiite Mafia leaders escalated.
For Tabatabai to admit and take responsibility for such a horrific act of violence, he must be convinced that his superiors will not or cannot punish him, otherwise he will censor himself and skip key details.”
He continued, “But he didn’t. He had it all laid out – before editors cut out part of his interview. So, either that, or he thinks he has nothing to lose. Either way, considering Biden [and French President Emmanuel Macron] The administration is desperate for any facsimile of an agreement with the Khomeinist regime, they will probably sweep it under the rug.”
No one in the ranks of either the clergy or the Revolutionary Guards would admit to such an act. Roger Viollet via Getty Images
MEMRI wrote that Tabatabai expressed “the full confidence given to him by Khomeini and his successor Khamenei, and underlined that he is Khamenei’s trusted representative in Lebanon in all matters related to finance and Shiite propagation.”
A Pentagon spokesman referred questions from Fox News Digital to the State Department. Neither the State Department nor the National Security Council answered the question.
Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on Iran, told Fox News Digital, “It seems that no matter how many times Western leaders see the consequences of their appeasement with terrorists, they are resigned to continue down the path that was doomed in the past. four decades.”
Numerous Fox News Digital press inquiries were sent to Iran’s Foreign Ministry and its UN mission for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
