Iran had been in late 2022 the scene of protests which turned violent, allegedly over living conditions and the death of a young woman at police custody. The suspicious riots last September, led to the death or injury of tens of Iranians, including security forces, as well as the arrest of dozens others.
Amidst all this chaos, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said it all: Role by foreign intelligence in the riots was obvious.
As he urged the government to meet people’s livelihood demands, the insightful leader warned against repeated schemes by foreign services to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
The September riots were preceded by several protests held by members of teachers’ syndicates in Iran in May 2022. However, it became evident that the suspicious demonstrations were aimed at fomenting unrest across the Islamic Republic, but failed to do so as the Iranian intelligence announced the arrest of two French spies who were stoking the protests.
“The Special Mission” Documentary
In a documentary, Al-Manar Channel disclosed details on the activity of the two spies, Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler, and how they were spotted and busted by the Iranian intelligence and security bodies.
The nearly 30-minute documentary, entitled “The Special Mission – Spies of France”, was aired earlier in February. It shows the chronicles of the French intelligence mission since the two spies landed in Imam Khomeni International Airport in Tehran on April 28, 2022.
Al-Manar’s editor of Iranian affairs Hasan Haidar speaks to our website on the documentary:
French Spies
Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, who traveled between Iranian cities such as Tehran, Kashan, and Isfahan, were the French mission’s protagonists. The two spies of the French intelligence agency were arrested in May while visiting Iran as ordinary tourists.
Both well-prepared, Kohler and Paris appeared in the documentary confessing to carrying their mission. They revealed how they were trained at the French intelligence service’s headquarters that specializes in Asia, primarily the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kohler’s department was also dedicated to collect data on Iran’s technological, industrial, and scientific progress.
Cecile Kohler is a member of the French External Security Service’s Intelligence and Operations Service (DGSE), since 2018. Similarly, Jacques Paris has been a member of DGSE since 2000. He serves as an agent in the Iran office, in a syndical and political framework, the spies said, as disclosed by the documentary.
According to Kohler, the DGSE utilized the International Labor Organization (ILO) to destabilize and exert pressure on states that oppose it. In addition, the International Organization for Education granted federal aid to any syndicate seeking to overthrow and destabilize regimes hostile to imperialism.
“We came to set the stage for the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic Republic regime. France is also interested in pursuing the nuclear program”, Kohler added in the documentary.
How It Was Going?
After members of the illicit Iranian syndicates reached out to the DGSE, the mission began in earnest. The DGSE agents started to outline the mission’s goals, which include contacting the syndical members and guiding them on how to organize the country’s so-called ‘revolution’ on the International Workers’ Day (Labor Day).
Kohler and Paris held joint meetings with the aim to “mobilize saboteurs to overthrow the government.” As was foreseeable, the Iranian intelligence service was actively monitoring their movements since the day they landed, the documentary revealed.
The agents appointed people like Reza Shihabi, who was previously backed by French intelligence and a member of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist organization, as well as Shaaban Mohammadi, who was in a connection with the terrorist Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, according to the documentary. It is worth noting that both organizations were involved in agitating several sabotage activities across the Islamic Republic.
During the meetings, illicit syndical members expressed their willingness to take up weapons and riot against the police to demand their ‘rights’. Thereupon, the agents explained to the syndicalists the Fourth International (FI) revolutionary conceptual framework and emphasized the significance of assembling all employees, young and old, to enhance the level of impact of the demands. Consequently, the French money was utilized to hire syndical figures and to subsidize the costs of demonstrations, a procedure Kohler alluded to as “purchasing demonstrations.”
After a few days, the participants present at the meeting became protest leaders. The foreign-backed Iranian opposition media hastened to assist them in broadening the scope of their demonstrations.
Scheme Foiled
However, many demonstrators were unaware of those meetings, as well as the plans and funds spent on protesting. Despite all of their efforts, they failed to parlay the demonstrations into activities that could contribute to Iran’s destabilization at the time (May 2022). As members of syndicates, they were the first to demand their rights. That is because people’s first concern was to demand their rights as citizens, the documentary “The Special Mission” revealed.
Eventually, Cecile Kohler acknowledged in the documentary that the objective of the US embargo, which was endorsed by European states, is to bankrupt the Iranian government and force it to make unpalatable decisions by raising taxes and gasoline costs, increasing public anger and creating internal conflict and division. She also affirmed that the mission’s ultimate goal was to destabilize the Iranian regime, overthrow it, and bring forth a regime that advocates imperialism and fulfills the agendas of French imperialism and the US, as well. Hence, all of these efforts, as evidenced by the newly aired documentary were focused on flaring the civil war in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Lastly, the documentary displayed scenes of the operation in which the French spies were arrested, demonstrating the immense effort of Iran’s security and intelligence authorities to safeguard the country’s security and divert Western efforts to overthrow the republican regime.
“The Special Mission” is just an episode in a series of documentaries uncovering the Western conspiracy against Iran, with the eyes being on the next episodes that Al-Manar will air soon and will tackle other schemes against the Islamic Republic.
Report by Marwa Haidar, Documentary translated by Areej Fatima Al-Husseini.
Maha Kanso contributed to this report.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
