PHOTO: Leading MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi “Al-Saud helps terrorist groups target the Iranian nation”

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One of Iran’s top MPs has declared that recently-arrested “terrorists” are linked to Saudi Arabia.

In the latest regime allegation against Riyadh, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Parliament’s National Security Committee, said:

Al-Saud [the Saudi ruling family) resorts to all means in the world and the region against the Islamic Republic and, toward that end, helps terrorist groups target the Iranian nation.

The terrorists arrested in Iran have provided invaluable information to [Iranian] security authorities regarding the Saudi role and its support for terrorist groups.

Throughout the summer, Iranian officials have proclaimed a rising threat of terrorism, while assuring that security forces are dealing with the challenge. The Revolutionary Guards and other agencies have carried out a series of arrests, claiming plots to bomb Iranian cities, while forces have clashes with insurgents in both the northwest and southeast, with scores of casualties.

See Iran Daily, July 6: Supreme Leader — “US, Britain, & Israel Behind Terrorist Attacks”

The rhetoric over “terrorists” has been linked both to Iran’s involvement in regional crises such as the Syrian conflict and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, as well as the ongoing concern with “sedition” inside the country.

Boroujerdi used his interview with a Lebanese newspaper to defend Russian use of an airbase in western Iran for bombing across north Syria, even though the arrangement was quickly suspended amid internal criticism:

There are joint operations rooms among Iran, Russia, Syria, and Iraq both in Damascus and Baghdad. But when we felt we needed to take bigger steps to strike terrorists, we agreed to provide some support like refueling Russian aircraft at the Nojeh airbase.

Russia issued a high-profile announcement on August 16 that it had begun missions with long-range and tactical bombers from the base in Hamedan. However, the publicity sparked a backlash, with some Iranian MPs saying the foreign presence was against the Islamic Republic’s Constitution. Days later, Iran said the Russian operations “had finished for now”, as Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said Moscow’s officials had been “ungentlemanly”.

See Syria Audio Analysis: How Serious is Russia’s Mis-Step Over Its Iranian Airbase?

Boroujerdi insisted on Monday, “Iran took this decision based on its national interests and national security and to support the resistance front, which is today fighting terrorism [in Syria].”

Physicist Kokabee Released After 5+ Years in Prison

Physicist Omid Kokabee has been given a conditional release after more than five years in prison.

Kokabee, who is suffering from kidney cancer, was given the release on Sunday.

A post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas, Kokabee was arrested in Iran in January 2011 during a visit to his family. He said he was detained when he refused to work on a military research project.

In May 2012, he was given a 10-year sentence for “contact with enemy states” by a Revolutionary Court.

Kokabee, 34, has been on medical furlough since May 25, after undergoing surgery to remove his cancerous kidney. He had been denied access to specialists in a hospital and refused temporary leave until his condition became critical.