The mullahs’ regime is continuing its policy of exporting fundamentalism and terrorism to the Republic of Azerbaijan in the guise of humanitarian aid.
Through its various organs and institutions, including the Khomeini Aid Committee, the regime exports fundamentalism to Azerbaijan.
In November 2008, a convoy of 9 trucks with $400,000 worth of products, including food stuffs, home appliances, and office supplies entered Azerbaijan from Iran. Publicly, these shipments are sent to Azerbaijan by the Khomeini Aid Committee (KAC) on an annual basis as “aid to low-income people in the Republic of Azerbaijan.” The KAC’s director in Azerbaijan is identified as Kazem Zadeh. According to him, the KAC supplies more than 30,000 people in Azerbaijan, 10,000 of whom are secondary and post-secondary students. Through the initiative, KAC recruits agents and spies for the regime.
This is a well-known tactic implemented by the mullahs’ regime in most countries in the Middle East. In Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries, the regime benefits from this tactic in expanding its influence. One of the tasks of the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Qods Force is to expand and strengthen such networks.
The Republic of Azerbaijan’s government has vehemently confronted these tactics. Since last year, the government has taken measures to tackle the mullah regime’s export of fundamentalism and terrorism. For instance, in September, Azerbaijan took back two of the buildings used by the regime, one of which housed the regime’s embassy and the other the KAC in the capital, Baku. After taking possession of these buildings, the government demolished them and transferred the regime’s embassy to a smaller building which used to house the regime’s consulate.
The Republic of Azerbaijan is also preventing the regime’s fundamentalist propaganda activities in this country. As an example, it prevented the shipping of one of Khomeini’s books which was translated into Azeri. Moreover, 32 cartons of the regime’s books and cultural products were ceased by the Astara customs, and in accordance with orders from Baku’s governor, the regime’s flag which was hoisted at the al-Hoda’s representative office was taken down along with the office’s signs. Al-Hoda is one of the regime’s centers in Baku used for spreading fundamentalist propaganda. A number of this center’s imported books were also ceased and one of its workers was interrogated by the police. The director of al-Hoda described this as an unprecedented measure during the past four years.
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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.