The foiled terror plot in Greece is yet another example of the thriving collaboration between Tehran and Islamabad and how the ayatollah regime has been using Pakistani terror cells across Europe.
As part of the intense struggle against Israel, the Iranians are hell-bent on orchestrating attacks at all costs. In recent years, we have seen a growing number of Iranian plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, on multiple continents. This time it was closer to home, a country that is popular among vacationing Israelis.
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Iran's actions in recent years on the world stage have showcased its expansive use of cells beyond its borders that get help from home-grown elements. Such a modus operandi helps it maintain plausible deniability. Iranians have found new-old agents to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israel: The Pakistanis.
Pakistan is not just a safe haven for terrorist groups, it also manages to outsource its most selling product: terrorism. The Pakistanis have a wide network of people across Europe, including labor migrants and organizations helping fund their activity.
In February 2022, Spain arrested five Pakistanis who were affiliated with the radical right-wing party TLP in Pakistan for allegedly helping the 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris. That party has many supporters in Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. Europe, in effect, had become a Pakistani terrorist paradise.
Several months after the horrific attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai in 2008, two Pakistani suspects were arrested in Italy for allegedly providing logistical support to the perpetrators. In October 2021, a man in Cyprus of Pakistani origin was arrested over allegedly plotting to assassinate two Israeli businessmen. In the most recent plot in Greece, both suspects arrived illegally from Turkey and are not Greek citizens, but it is important to understand that the massive immigration to Europe helped proliferate such cells across the continent.
Iran has good ties with Pakistan's spy agencies. Although the conventional wisdom is that the two countries are rivals because of their diverging Islamic character, the two have managed to maintain productive collaboration when it comes to fighting the insurgents in Balochistan. This was also evident in the case of the Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death in Pakistan over espionage.
Pakistan and Iran are close on a whole host of issues, including Kashmir. Pakistani-sponsored terrorist groups see Israel as their ultimate enemy despite the lack of direct hostilities. This tactical alliance between Tehran and Islamabad against Israel and the Jews is a very reasonable outcome. My familiarity with the Iranian conduct suggests that Tehran wants Jewish blood to be shed, and is willing to collude with any organization that is willing to help, even if the perpetrators are amateurs.
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