As local experts and media debate the counterintelligence report recently released by the BIS secret service unit, a related annual communiqué issued by the military intelligence (VZ) has riled Iran.
The country’s name appears in several sections of the report’s unclassified version, which provides a general overview of the VZ’s activities in three “crisis regions”: the Balkans, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Middle East.Iran receives its first mention in a section analyzing the security situation in the latter region, where the VZ lists Iran’s “continuing efforts to gain dominance” in the area as an ongoing negative trend. In another passage detailing the VZ’s counterintelligence activities, the report notes robust activity by Iranian intelligence workers, who allegedly undermine the efforts of Czech and other coalition forces by infiltrating military bases, recruiting agents and installing pro-Iranian officials in the Iraqi administration.Parroting the consensus of the European Union and the United States, the report also points to Iran’s worrisome nuclear enrichment program and ballistic missile testing. According to the report, the VZ evaluated the scope of Iran’s potential to develop weapons of mass destruction in preparation for the planned construction of a U.S. missile-defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.In addition to these direct specifications, the report alludes to Iran’s allegedly unfavorable involvement in the Iraq conflict. “The VZ … focused on certain neighboring states’ efforts to influence the development of the security situation in the country by supporting Iranian insurgents in the areas of training, arming and financial aid,” the report states.Countering the VZ’s “astonishing and ambiguous use of the name Iran,” the country’s embassy refuted several of the report’s claims in an Oct. 1 statement. “Unfortunately, the [VZ] released news of Iran in its report,” said Davud Alimohammadi, second secretary at the embassy. “None of this news was true.”While dismissive of the VZ report, the embassy statement did not address the inflammatory issues directly. Instead, it focused on criticizing the coalition’s failure to secure peace in Afghanistan and Iraq despite its long-term engagement in the region.“A portion of the report related to Iraq and Afghanistan shows that foreign troops, in spite of a half-decade-long presence, still fail to understand correctly the developments and roots of problems existing in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the statement reads. In an apparent response to the VZ’s allegations that Iran supported insurgent groups, the embassy also claimed that Iran sought “lasting peace, stability and security in Iraq and Afghanistan.” While proposing an intensified Czech-Iranian dialogue regarding Middle East development in light of the Czech Republic’s upcoming EU presidency, the embassy essentially reiterated Iran’s position on the coalition’s military engagement in the region:“The wrong policy of some countries far from the region is undeniable and therefore the Islamic Republic of Iran urges the withdrawal of foreign troops and resumption of the ruling to the trustworthy people of the said countries.”
(Prague Post)
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