Alwaght- less than a month after Israeli demand for ceasefire with Tehran in the recent war, it seems that the Israelis have turned to destabilizing activities through their agents in Iran after their defeat in the full-scale war.
On Saturday, members of a terrorist group in northwestern Iran fired blindly at an IRGC border post in the town of Sardasht, killing a voluntary force and injuring another. The attack obviously showed that the main aim was the IRGC. Kurdish sources like Hengaw news published a statement issued by the PJAK, saying that the terrorist group was responsible for the attack.
But this terrorist attack was not the only destabilizing action by terrorists in Iran’s border areas in the past week. During the past week, elements of the PJAK also carried out two other terrorist attacks against Iranian border guards in Baneh town in Kurdistan Province, which resulted in the martyrdom of 3 border guards and the injury of several others. The details of these attacks are as follows:
- Armed clashes and the martyrdom of a border guard of the Baneh border regiment while monitoring and guarding the border strip, on July 22.
- Ambush by PJAK elements and the martyrdom of two border guards and the injury of another border guard on the outskirts of the Siranband border post in Baneh, on July 23.
PJAK or the PKK branch
As a terrorist group, PJAK is actually an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The group was founded on 2004 as a branch of the PKK for terror and violence in Iran’s Kurdistan province. All the documents and statements by the group show that the founding members were actually PKK members and mostly Iranian Kurds.
A review of sources shows that the PJAK and the PKK have always stressed Abdullah Ocalan as their absolute and undisputed leader. The PJAK and the PKK are one sect with two different names, and despite the claims of the PJAK and its supporting umbrella, the PKK who consider themselves supporters of democracy and freedom of the Kurdish people, we see actions of violence and terror by this group every day, which they then officially take responsibility for. In fact, the PJAK and the PKK, as two Kurdish groups, have become a threat to the security of the Kurdish people, and many of their destabilizing actions have caused harm to Kurdish regions and people.
It should also be kept in mind that the transfer of members between the PJAK and the PKK groups is easy. Usually, the recruited people are trained directly at the HPG camps (the military branch of the PKK) and after completing the course, some are sent to work in the PJAK, taking into account security, political and intellectual points. In fact, these two groups have a single educational system.
Also, not only is the Marxist-Leninist ideology the intellectual and working root of the PJAK and the PKK, but also the statute and work program of the two groups are identical and based on democratic confederalism. This statute was presented by Ocalan as the intellectual policy of all parties branching off from the PKK, which the PKK also wants to implement in Iran without any cuts, that is, the political strategy of both is based on the implementation of the democratic confederalism system in the Kurdish regions.
Ocalan’s sham ceasefire
Terrorist operations of PJAK against Iran are repeated in Iranian border regions in recent days while over the past two months, the PKK leaders announced their disarming following a deal with Turkish government and security apparatus. Having in mind that PJAK is part of the PKK, the question is why the group has not implemented the decision of its big brother PKK for disarming. It seems that the continuation of PJAK’s armed activities despite the disarmament of the PKK is an indication of a new agenda for this terrorist group. Given the destabilizing operations of this terrorist group after the recent war between Iran and Israel and Tel Aviv’s failure to achieve its goals in the war, the PJAK has now become a proxy of the Israeli regime to create insecurity in Iran. Destabilizing Iran is a common goal of Israel and the US, and the PJAK pursues this common goal of Tel Aviv and Washington through terrorist missions in the western border areas of Iran.
There are also numerous documents and reports of the connection between the PKK and the Americans. Behrouz Tahmasebi, a former senior member of the PKK and then the PJAK, told the media: “The formation of the PJAK within the PKK coincided with the US entry into the Middle East. This action was the result of a political agreement between the PKK and the US.”
Osman Ocalan, one of the former leaders of the PKK, said in this regard: “The PKK sought to influence Iran through the establishment of the PJAK and with the support of the US. In other words, the PJAK was formed with the aim of interfering in Iran’s internal affairs. The US was pleased with the formation of this group and declared its full support for it. Washington also prevented the actions of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government against it and allowed the PKK and PJAK to operate freely in the Qandil Mountains, near the Iranian-Turkish border.”
There are also documents showing that the Israelis have long been trying to use the PJAK for their anti-Iranian purposes. One of these documents, leaked by WikiLeaks, is a report of a meeting between Meir Dagan (former head of Mossad) and Nicholas Burns (Deputy Secretary of State in the Bush administration). In this meeting, Dagan suggests that ethnic conflicts and separatist activities could be a suitable way to confront Iran. He places particular emphasis on Kurdish separatist groups, especially the PJAK, and states that these groups are ready for terrorist actions.
Close US-PJAK relations come while the group is on the American terror blacklist, but this labeling seems to provide Washington a shield against moral criticism at home. In other words, PJAK blacklisting has never blocked US support or close ties of the American security officials to the group’s leaders. Actually, these relations continue informally to meet the American objectives against Iran.
