Erfan Fard
Erfan FardCourtesy

Erfan Fardis a counter-terrorism analyst and Middle East Studies researcher based in Washington, DC. an expert in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran, Counter terrorism, IRGC, MOIS and Ethnic conflicts in MENA. He graduated in International Security Studies (London M. University, UK), and in International Relations (CSU-LA). He is fluent in Persian, Kurdish, Arabic and English. / Follow him in this twitter account @EQFARD

Echoing the tradition of American Presidents who visit Langley to engage with the CIA, Masoud Pezeshkian attended a ceremony at the Ministry of Intelligence Service (MOIS) to mark its 40th anniversary.

Known in Europe and America as a terrorist organization, MOIS is implicated in numerous international crimes and supports the destructive ideology of Khomeinism and Shiite clerical tyranny. Claiming to be the 'unseen soldiers of Imam Zaman,' a figure considered mythical and nonexistent outside of Shiite lore or superstitions, MOIS exposes Pezeshkian as a populist.

For history, the MOIS, later to become just MOIS, was established in 1983, amalgamating revolutionary-era intelligence units. It evolved into a formidable force coordinating sixteen intelligence and counterintelligence bodies. Despite nominal control under the president, MOIS's ministers require approval from Khomeini or Khamenei, reflecting the regime's theocratic grip.

In the geopolitical arena, the United States' intelligence community has long recognized Iran's MOIS as a significant intelligence apparatus intertwined with the criminal mullahs who govern Iran. This establishment, MOIS, has been directly linked to the loss of many CIA officers over the years, a testament to its ruthless operations.

MOIS utilizes all means at its disposal to protect the Islamic Republic's interests, employing infiltration, monitoring, arrests, and cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies. The infamous "Chain Murders" of Iranian dissident intellectuals during the 1990s serve as a grim reminder of MOIS's brutal operations, with the agency later claiming responsibility. MOIS has been involved in various types of terrorist activities—sabotage, espionage, bombings, and the assassination of dissidents—all within and outside Iran. This transnational suppression has persisted since the inception of the Islamic Republic, intensifying even during periods marked as 'pragmatist' regimes.

In light of MOIS's ruthless and manipulative activities, the international community must remain vigilant, holding the agency accountable for its transgressions. The recent sanctions imposed by the US underscore the imperative to curb MOIS's malevolent reach and protect human rights and democracy from its insidious influence. The legacy of Iran's MOIS is one of terror and subversion, and acknowledging this reality is crucial for fostering a safer world.

In the contemporary era led by Esmail Khatib, the MOIS is actively operating and orchestrating a transnational terrorist network across the Middle East and Latin America. What is particularly alarming is MOIS' concerted effort to establish numerous "sleeper cells" within the United States.

On the international stage, it has always been alongside the IRGC and the army in developing terrorism and providing financial and logistical support to the terrorism network in the Middle East and even Central Africa and Latin America, etc. Hundreds of cases of kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, drug transit with the help of Hezbollah and PKK, etc., have been recorded.

Throughout its existence, MOIS has been a primary instrument of violence, assassinations, and manipulation under various administrations, whether reformist or hardliner, with core policies of repression and coercion remaining unchanged. This has cemented the agency's malign role in supporting Islamic terrorism.

Within Iran, MOIS is despised among the people, and should be fought globally. Its only skills are hitting, killing, blinding, torturing, raping, confiscating, and harassing ordinary people, political and social activists, and interfering in all artistic, cultural, and intellectual works within Iran.

Forty years ago, Khomeini established the dark clerical dictatorship in Iran, five years after the 1979 uprising and the rise to power of the Shiite mullahs. This ministry has since been, alongside the police force and Basij, the arm of repression of the mullahs' regime. In the sinister and black record of this terrorist organization, hundreds of cases of murder of intellectuals, artists, activists, prisoners, etc., have7 been recorded.

From the day of its establishment until today, several mullahs have reached the presidency in this sinister and mafia ministry. Khomeini only had one Minister of Intelligence, Reyshahri, who was present in this ministry for 5 years of Khomeini's crime-filled caliphate. Before the 1979 revolt, he was arrested by SAVAK (the National Security Agency of Iran during the reign of the late, and patriotic Shah of Iran) due to terrorist activity in an Islamic group. After 1979, he was also one of the Islamic judges who issued death sentences for hundreds of people in Islamic kangaroo courts. He was one of the famous bloodthirsty figures of Khomeini's era. He was the Islamic judge of Khomeini's Islamic courts. Later in his life, he was supported by reformists to be present in the Assembly of Experts.

During the caliphate and dictatorship of Khamenei from 1989 until today, which has been 35 years, great terror has been institutionalized in Iran, and he has had 7 spy mullahs in the MOIS, although few have reached 8 years of tenure in this ministry. From Fallahian, Dori Najafabadi, Younesi, Mohseni Ejehi, Moslehi, Alavi to Khatib, the machine of repression and terrorism by this ministry never ceased.

During Fallahian's time, Interpol was after his arrest due to the AMIA explosion in Argentina (18 July 1994), the Mykonos murder (17 September 1992), chain murders, murders outside the country, etc., but this did not happen. Factually, Europe did not cooperate with Israel and the United States. He was also one of the Islamic judges before becoming minister and killed hundreds in Abadan, Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Mashhad. This is only one of the cold-blooded slaughterers who is a major violator of human rights in the Islamic Republic.

After him, Dori Najafabadi was also one of the notorious mullah prosecutors whose hands are stained with the blood of innocents massacred. During Khatami's presidency and his ministry, chain murders among Iranian intellectuals occurred, and he resigned. But in the prosecutor's office, he issued so many torture, prison, death, and murder orders that Europe eventually issued a statement against him.

Following his tenure, Ali Younesi reached the ministry, but he was also among the heads of military courts and directly participated in the massacre of military figures opposing the Islamic Republic.

Then it was Ejehi's turn. He was also previously an interrogator. He worked in the prosecutor's office and was always associated with important and sensitive cases in high-security ranks, and he still maintains this position. He is globally known for violence and repression. From mass executions to the brutal suppression of protesters. He also teaches training courses at the Baqer al-Olum Faculty of the MOIS and also in revolutionary courts. His name is tied to the suppression of protesters, shutting down the internet, and harassing prisoners.

Next in line, Moslehi came to power. From the first day of 1979, he was one of the thugs of the Islamic Revolution Committee and supporters of Khomeini and participated in the executing and harassment of citizens supporting the late Shah of Iran. He was later the representative of the Supreme Leader in the military forces (IRGC and Basij). He is one of the savage repressors, and even the European Union on October 10, 2011, banned Moslehi from entering EU countries due to severe and widespread human rights violations in Iran and the rights of Iranian citizens, and symbolically said that all his assets in Europe would also be seized. The U.S. Treasury Department also sanctioned Heidar Moslehi in September 2022 due to cyber activities against the United States and its allies. His education was solely in Islamic jurisprudence and he was a student of Khamenei, having little connection with intelligence studies or political sciences.

This is the record of less than ten Ministers of MOIS in Iran’s outlaw regime, all involved in crime. They lack academic education and security expertise. They have all played an overt role in repression and terrorism. They are under international pursuit and sanctions.

Esmail Khatib, current head of MOIS
Esmail Khatib, current head of MOISTehran Times

One must ask Pezeshkian, with this disgraceful and shameful history, what is there to be proud of? A history filled with crimes and murder that has supported terrorist groups within the transnational terrorism network tied to the Islamic Republic in the Shia Crescent for years is not something to be proud of. Even if there isn't an international tribunal to condemn the mullahs' crimes, perhaps in the future, akin to the Holocaust Museums, there might emerge a horror museum recording their cruelty for posterity.

Iran is experiencing the fall of its plan to surround and destroy Israel and achieve Middle East hegemony on its way to threatening the West. MOIS is one of the devious, murderous and corrupt institutions that symbolize that plan.