Former Ambassador: I Was Nearly Victim of a Foiled Iranian Regime Bombing

A former National Security Council member told The Kyle Olson Show this week that he was nearly the victim of a terrorist attack in 2018 for which an Iranian diplomat is currently on trial.

Robert Joseph, former ambassador to the U.S.-Russian Consultative Commission on Nuclear Testing, said he personally became the target of an Iranian terrorist attack by attending a rally held by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Iran’s most prominent dissident organization, in suburban Paris in 2018, along with several other Americans.

“I attended a rally for Free Iran in July of 2018 and there was an attempt to bomb the rally – a peaceful rally with tens of thousands in attendance,” Joseph told The Kyle Olson Show.

“The individual that was providing the bomb to the terrorists was an Iranian intelligence agent with diplomatic cover. He had a position at the embassy in Vienna [Austria],” he said.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at the rally, the New York Times reported at the time. Belgian police arrested an Iranian-born couple in relation to the alleged attempted bombing after finding explosives in their car.

Belgian prosecutors accused Assadollah Assadi, the Iranian diplomat, of giving the weapon to the would-be attackers. His trial will begin in November, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“This trial should be highlighted by the media,” former U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell wrote when the trial was originally set to begin in July.

“The Iranian regime – the dictatorship of the mullahs – [has] threatened U.S. interests in any number of ways. They have stated that they’re willing to close the Straits of Hormuz, which of course would have a tremendous effect on the world energy picture,” Joseph said.

“The regime has attacked our allies, including drone strikes on Saudi Arabia. The regime has conducted terrorist action after terrorist attack in Europe and elsewhere,” Joseph said, “Even in the United States, where they were plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador.”

Iranian officials are believed to have planned to kill Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in 2011 “while the ambassador dined at Cafe Milano, an upscale Georgetown restaurant,” the Washington Post reported.

Manssor Arbabsiar pleaded guilty after he was recruited by “a cousin who was a senior official in the Quds Force, which in 2007 the Treasury Department designated a terrorist supporter,” according to the paper.

Joseph said there is a “long, long list of terrorist actions that have killed hundreds of Americans. We have to care about what happens in Iran.”

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube or download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler.