TEHRAN- Up to 20 foreign spy services actively participated in the Western-backed riots in Iran last year, according to the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence organization.

Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi broke the story in an exclusive interview with the khamenei.ir published on Monday.

In the interview, he discussed the various aspects of the violent riots that broke out in September of last year after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody.

According to Kazemi, the unrest broke out when American authorities decided to step up the so-called maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic under the Trump administration because their foreign policy against Iran had failed when President Joe Biden assumed office.

He averred in the interview that “after the Biden administration came to power, the Americans reached this strategic conclusion that they had faced failure in many foreign cases, and the reason for that was the actions of Iran and the management of its Leader; these failures had caused America’s international position to be overshadowed, so Iran must pay the price.”

In order to constrain and limit the Islamic Republic, he continued, “They proceeded toward rewriting Trump’s version of maximum pressure.”

Based on his remarks, the U.S. authorities came up with three strategies to keep the riots going: creating an emotional climate following Amini’s death; transforming protest into unrest through daily strikes; and converting the mood of discontent into an armed movement by mobilizing armed groups.

He said that more than a dozen nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Albania, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Norway, Bahrain, New Zealand and the Zionist regime played an active role in the events of last year.

The IRGC intelligence chief highlighted that in the trilateral meeting of representatives of the United States, UK, and the Zionist regime, they decided that the 5th Fleet of the American Navy supply Kurdish anti-revolutionary elements with an avalanche of weaponry.

It is worth saying that as a part of the project, the enemy tried to allocate $550,000 in media aid to incite ethnic and religious minorities in Iran’s border areas.

With the initiative and financing of the United States and other countries, the Zionist regime did its best to enflame the protesters and create a financial support for strikers and protesters, according to Gen. Kazemi.

He went on to add that the CIA requested the creation of a joint team with Israel’s Mossad and UK’s MI6 to re-launch the project of assassinating Iranian experts, particularly in the nuclear, space, and military fields.

Kazemi also revealed that think tanks affiliated with the American ruling body had been activated by examining and diagnosing the protests in Iran, especially the events of November 2018, and recommended focusing on the field of women and youth for the long-term overthrow of the Islamic Republic system. For example, in the report of the FDD Institute, it was emphasized that the future protests in Iran are likely to involve more violence, including vandalism against public property, etc., and protests are likely to occur explosively with shorter intervals between each uprising.

Last year, General Kazemi added, the spy services emphasized that the operation regarding the mandatory hijab would be a prelude to the overthrow of the regime, therefore, by focusing on the issue of compulsory hijab, they created a wave of opposition surrounding hijab, especially in social networks.

Given the historical hatred of Iranian people for terrorist groups, especially the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) and royalists, he pointed out that “they have never had the ability to create waves and social security outcry inside the country, and have always waited for an opportunity to surf the waves and create insecurity and unrest in Iran.”

The participation and involvement of the intelligence agencies of close to twenty different countries in the riots last year were revealed via investigations by the IRGC’s intelligence organization, he explained.

Kazemi added that efforts by French diplomats in Tehran to acquire information about the riots and the condition of Iran’s security and law enforcement apparatus, and to share such information with an intelligence officer of a European country’s embassy.

IRGC intelligence chief said that 28 European countries’ ambassadors gathered at a European embassy to debate the potential closure of European embassies, with Germany starting first.

He highlighted that the use of non-European nationals (Afghans, Pakistanis, and Iraqis) and the presence of European nationals to gather information on the riots resulted in the arrest of 40 people from nearby countries. For example, he said, a French-Irish national in Khorasan Razavi Province and a German national in Ardabil Province were detained.

Kazemi also stated that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ratcheted up its activities to enhance the essential cyberspace platforms for disseminating news of the riots, including efforts to send technical equipment, escape tools, and lifting sanctions on mobile communication devices.

Referring to riots, he said that the intelligence agencies of the UAE and the Zionist regime held meetings on a regular basis in an Arab nation to inflame the unrest in Iran.      

In his interview, Kazemi also emphasized that the enemy sought to instill fear among Iranians of all social classes and political inclinations by inducing discrimination and violation of women’s rights, as well as the collapse of the Islamic Republic and the end of the Islamic Revolution.

After the death of Amini, an Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, protests with foreign assistance broke out in Iran in the middle of September.

She fainted at a police station in Tehran and was declared dead three days later.

Official examination by the forensic medicine found that Amini’s death was brought on by disease rather than claimed blows to the skull or other important body parts.

Iran’s intelligence community said that various nations, notably the U.S. and the UK, utilized their espionage and media infrastructure to incite violent disturbances in the country.

Rioters went on the rampage, viciously assaulting law enforcement forces and severely damaging public property.

On February 5, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, pardoned or commuted the sentences of a large number of prisoners who had been arrested during the riots.