Published: Less than 20 min ago
Before the attack on Salman Rushdie, Hadi Matar, 24, had direct contact with members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
This is stated by the newspaper Vice with reference to intelligence sources in several countries.
Author Salman Rushdie, 75, is still being treated in hospital after Friday’s assassination attempt.
However, he has been able to be disconnected from the respirator and started talking.
Son Zafar Rushdie tweeted on Sunday that the injuries are “serious and life-changing”, but also wrote that his father has retained his “lively and defiant sense of humour”.
The suspected perpetrator, Hadi Matar, 24, was arrested at the scene immediately after the knife attack.
Already during Friday and Saturday, there were reports in the American media that he supported Iran’s regime and Shia extremism in general on social media.
Now Vice World News states that he also had direct contact on social media with people in Iran’s military organization Isam Revolutionary Guard. The paper cites intelligence sources in the Middle East and a European NATO country.
However, the informants do not go into when the contact was made, who initiated it or what was discussed.
– This communication must be scrutinized carefully. Continued investigations will reveal more of exactly what these connections looked like, a source in the intelligence service of a European NATO country told Vice.
According to the whistleblower, the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie bears all the hallmarks of a “guided attack” – that a person who sympathizes with a certain cause is processed by the intelligence service to act on his own.
There is no evidence that Iran had any involvement in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie.
Facts
This is the Revolutionary Guard
check Formed in 1979 after the Islamic revolution that overthrew the country’s former leader, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, from power.
check Its main task is to protect the regime, unlike more traditional military units that defend the country’s borders. However, the Guard’s special force Quds is responsible for Iran’s operations abroad, such as in Syria and Lebanon.
check The Revolutionary Guard has become a power player in Iran and also has strong interests in the country’s economy.
Sources: TT, Reuters
check The Revolutionary Guard was labeled a terrorist by the United States in 2019.
Read more