By Reza Shafa
New details about the Iranian regime’s objectives from sending explosive material to Venezuela
In less than a week, three shipments from the mullahs’ regime have been held by Turkey. The most important one was bound for Venezuela.
On January 7, the Turkish government officially announced that the Iranian regime’s shipments seized at the Mediterranean port of Mersin contained enough material to set up an explosive lab. Suleyman Tosun, a senior Turkish customs official, said that after a search of 22 containers labelled "tractor parts," it was concluded that they do not contain such material at all, but that instead authorities detected illegal lab equipment with fake B/Ls (Bill of Landing) and labels.
The shipment was transported to the port of Mersin by a truck from Iran. One kind of material detected inside the shipments were chemicals such as Nitrate and Sulphite with “danger” signs attached to their containers. Turkish officials said that these are material used for explosives.
The Mersin incident occurred after Turkish police seized another Iranian truck bound for Spain. After examinations, 100 kilos of heroin were found in the truck.
The third shipment of the Iranian regime seized in Turkey was an Iranian bus by which 10,000 fake Euro coins were being smuggled.
A report by theTrumpet.com (January 8) talked about some of the motives of the Iranian regime from sending lab equipment to Venezuela, saying,
“Iran’s proxy Hezbollah is already heavily involved in Venezuela. … For Iran, Venezuela is an important base of operations. … Hezbollah also has links with Mexican drug-smuggling cartels. Hezbollah is in the drug business, but the even greater danger is that it could smuggle something much more catastrophically explosive into the U.S.”
The sending of an explosive lab to Venezuela from Iran has increased the chances that such material could be used in terrorist attacks. “And perhaps a more important question is: What has Iran shipped to Venezuela already that customs' officials didn’t catch,” the website asked.
It is thus clear what the regime’s objectives are when it boasts about operating joint ventures in Venezuela including assembly of tractors and cars. While factories in Iran itself continue to go bankrupt and protests and demonstrations by aggravated workers and the unemployed take place on a daily basis, projects and ventures in Latin America and Venezuela can only be seen as part and parcel of the regime’s overall policies which are unpopular at home and go against Iran’s national interests.
In truth, such claims by the Iranian regime have no other purpose than to serve as a cover for clandestine terrorist activities. Needless to say, the policy of exporting terror and brewing more crises abroad is vital for the regime and its survival.
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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime's Intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) also known as VEVAK, Intelligence Office of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Qods Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.
