Ground Report

The Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi lauded the Palestinian resistance movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for their recent victory in the Gaza war against Israel, and pledged again that “Iran would arm resistance groups in the West Bank”, according to a FARS news report.

General Naqdi is highly regarded in Iran and welds a lot of respect among the hardliners and religious elite and is not know as a man who make unsubstantiated claims, especially about something as serious as arming known terrorists groups.

Hamas , for example is considered a terrorist organization in the United States. There have been legal cases, including racketeering and money laundering, against individuals and organizations, associated with that group.

“Their arming will be done,” Naqdi said on Wednesday, adding, “Everything will be done in their proper times.”

Also in August, General Naqdi announced that arming the Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank has already started.

“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Naqdi told FNA on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of a forum of Basiji university professors in Tehran at the time.

He underlined that arming the West Bank would lead to the annihilation of the Zionist regime.

Stressing the need for Israel to return the Palestinian lands to their real owners, Naqdi said, “The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back.”

He also revealed that “many of the equipment and possibilities used by the Palestinians in their recent defense against Israel were the products of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and added that Tehran has also trained them on how to use such technologies to defend themselves.”

Source: Fars News

Note: Earlier in his career Naqdi served as the Iranian Police Force’s Counter-Intelligence Chief and is also reported to have been involved in “crackdowns” during the 1997-2005 administration of Khatami including the 1999 student protests.

*Amnesty International reported that in March 1999 Iranian authorities announced that General Naqdi, chief of police intelligence at the time, to be tried in May by a military court along with 10 of his subordinates. “The charges against them are believed to include ‘unlawful arrest’  and ‘using torture to elicit confessions’.”

Source: * Amnesty International http://amnesty.org/…/62d74a86-e1cb-11dd…/pol100051999en.html

Note: Iran has began arming Iran as early as August of this year according to reports. Source: Iran Begins Arming Palestinian Terrorists http://freebeacon.com/…/iran-begins-arming-palestinian-ter…/

Note: Palestinian groups that have been involved in terrorism and violence include the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO), Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Nidal Organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and last but not least Hamas.