Dubai, United Arab Emirates – The Long War Journal magazine reported in a report on the recent protests by Hamdan University students against Iraqi students’ harassment of Iranian female students, that the Iranian authorities have been using their agents in the region to suppress anti-government movements inside Iran.
The report stated: “Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias, and the Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade all participated in suppressing anti-regime movements inside Iran”.
The magazine confirmed on Tuesday that there is growing concern about the use of foreign forces stationed inside Iran during periods of internal unrest to suppress protests.
This method was first reported during the 2009 wave of protests.
The magazine noted that during that period, approximately 5,000 armed members of the Lebanese Hezbollah were sent to Iran to participate in the repression.
Students from Bouali University in Hamadan organized a protest gathering, with the participation of a number of citizens.
This is in rejection of “the presence of Iraqi students linked to the Popular Mobilization Forces and their harassment of Iranian girls”.
They also demanded their expulsion from the university.
After that, a number of Hamdan residents tried to organize a gathering in front of Bouali University to protest the actions of an Iraqi student.
But security forces suppressed the gathering, using sticks and threats of arrest to disperse the protesters.
The Iraqi news website Al-Jabal had previously confirmed that an Iraqi student named Saif Saddam Hussein insulted and harassed an Iranian student at Hamadan University.
In recent years, the number of Iraqi students in Iran has increased to tens of thousands.
Meanwhile, the University of Tehran recently announced direct admission without examination for members of the Popular Mobilization Forces in administrative specializations.
Is not the first time
The Long War Journal also discussed in its report the role of foreign militias in suppressing the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests.
She pointed out that members of Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilization Forces militias participated in supporting the Iranian Basij forces in suppressing the demonstrations.
Eyewitnesses saw “men in civilian clothes and with a Lebanese Arabic accent” in several Iranian cities during the suppression of protesters.
The magazine stressed that this is not the first time that there have been reports of pro-Iranian forces from abroad participating in suppressing protests inside the country.
Middle East Forum had previously published an article stating that the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is responsible for the Iranian regime’s foreign operations.
That is, the establishment of proxy political-military groups in neighboring countries, and that they “use a unique method of asymmetric political warfare”.
According to the article, suppressing internal opposition in the most violent ways using Basij forces and members of Arab militias affiliated with Iran is one of the most prominent functions of these proxy groups.
