Iran is behind a “worldwide network of militias, which it supports with weapons, money and training and in return uses them for its strategy of terror” aimed primarily at the West and Israel, wrote Christine Kensche, Middle East correspondent for German magazine Die Welt, in an article entitled “How Iran is creating a global terrorist network against Israel,” reported Spanish outlet Atalayar on Friday.
Kensche specifically investigated the Polisario’s relations with the Shiite republic, and how their closeknit relationship mobilizes Iran’s “global terrorist network” against Morocco, an ally of Israel.
Die Welte has had access to recordings and transcripts of telephone conversations between Polisario representatives and an agent posing as a Hezbollah contact from Côte d’Ivoire about the war between Israel and Gaza that started last month. Kensche alleges that Iran is behind the Polisario’s attacks against Morocco, as it is behind its training, arming, and financing via its embassy in Algiers, and such attacks became worse after the ties resumed between Morocco and Israel, according to the article. The Hezbollah representative and the Polisario envoy allegedly discussed future combined assaults against Israel with Hamas, Hezbollah, Algeria, and Iran.
Mustafa Muhammad Lemine Al-Kitab, Polisario’s Middle East envoy, is said to have offered to help the Polisario Front, but that it had resources too inadequate to strike the Israeli embassy in Morocco. In other discussions, he allegedy urged even greater assistance for Hezbollah and Iran.
Tehran had also provided surface-to-air missiles and drones to Polisario members, through Hezbollah and Algeria, according to the article.
Iran is using “terrorist methods” to destabilize numerous regions, using Al Quds brigades, the international branch of the Revolutionary Guards which have been active for years in Gaza with Hamas and in some areas of the West Bank, in Lebanon with Hezbollah, in Yemen with the Houthis and in Syria and the Polisario in North Africa.
The recent assaults carried out just over a week ago by the Polisario against the Moroccan Sahara city of Smara have raised concerns not only about Iran’s global terror strategy against Israel but also against Morocco by using, arming, and indoctrinating Polisario Front members.
Die Welte discovered a “hawala” network operating between Spain and the Tindouf camps in Algeria, with intimate ties to the Polisario, Iran, Lebanon, and Hezbollah,” according to the article. “Hawala” is an ancient means of transmitting money, jewelry or expensive watches without using formal institutions.
“With the help of its proxies, Iran has repeatedly attacked Arab states that are ‘too Western’ in the eyes of fundamentalists and moving closer to Israel,” Kensche concluded