France this week got tougher on Iran, sanctioning Iranian assets and raiding an Iranian intelligence-linked Muslim center.
The primary motivation for French action here is Iran’s failed plot this summer to blow up delegates at a conference just outside Paris. Hosted by a group that seeks the overthrow of the Islamic revolutionaries in Tehran, that conference was attended by Rudy Giuliani. Allied intelligence services detected the plot and linked it to an Iranian intelligence officer operating out of Iran’s embassy in Vienna, Austria. And on Tuesday, the French government directly blamed Iran’s MOIS civilian intelligence service for orchestrating the failed attack. Simultaneously, French authorities also conducted a raid against an Iranian-supported front organization in northern France.
