[Sunday Telegraph-UK] Colin Freeman - Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf states to attack Western interests and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear program, according to Adel Assadinia, 50, a former Iranian career diplomat who was consul-general in Dubai. Trained by Iranian intelligence services, spies working as teachers, doctors and nurses at Iranian-owned schools and hospitals have formed sleeper cells ready to be "unleashed" at the first sign of any serious threat to Teheran, it is claimed. Assadinia said the Iranian consulate in Dubai was used as a conduit for illicit funding of Hizbullah. Iranian foreign ministry agents would regularly pass through with suitcases containing up to £11 million, using diplomatic baggage channels to bypass customs scrutiny. The consulate, he said, was a hub for regional intelligence operations because of the huge number of Iranians working in Dubai's 4,000 Iranian businesses, which provide easy cover for espionage. "The government sees itself as strong, but in fact it is like Saddam Hussein before he was overthrown - very fragile and brittle within," said Assadinia, who was granted asylum in Europe in 2003.
2007-03-05 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive