Iranian pro-government media spread images of an alleged “Israeli” they claimed to have injured in their attacks against Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The article was posted on Iran’s Tasnim News on Saturday.
There was one problem with their report. The “Israeli” whose image Tasnim News in Iran used and who they claimed to have harmed was half a world away at the time of the attacks and was not in the Middle East, let alone in Erbil. The ‘Post’ confirmed this in a conversation with him.
The Iranian claims are part of their attempt to portray their attacks on Erbil on Monday, January 15, as targeting “Mossad” or “Israeli spies.” In fact, Iran carried out an attack on the house of a Kurdish businessman named Peshraw Dizayee and murdered him as well as three other people, including Dizayee’s infant son. The attack also killed a Dutch citizen, and Holland summoned Iran’s ambassador in the wake of the attack.
Iran’s Tasnim News also published an article on Saturday showing Dizayee with a man who appears to be the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, but the Iranian media used the image to headline an article about the businessman being a ”strategic partner of Mossad.”
This is another example of Iranian media using an image of a rabbi to imply somehow that any meeting with Jews is an example of the Kurdish businessman being linked to “spies.” This use of an image of a rabbi to “prove” links to “Mossad” is part of a wider use of antisemitic tropes by Iranian media that is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out the attack on Dizayee and his home in Erbil. Erbil is the capital of the Kurdistan autonomous region of Iraq. The attack is one of several Iran has carried out on the Kurdistan region over the last several years in which they have used missiles and drones to target either dissidents or to target what they claim are “spies.”
Iran has long claimed that the Kurdistan Region is linked to Israel or has pro-Israel elements within it. This is part of Iran’s decision to spread conspiracies against the Kurdish region because the Kurdistan region tends to be more pro-Western and is more diverse, open-minded, and tolerant.
Iran seeks to destabilize region
Iran’s goal is to undermine the region and also weaken independent elements within it. As such, Iran spreads conspiracies and also carries out attacks.
An article on Dizayee noted that he was an important businessman behind many important projects in the Kurdistan region. One of these is the Empire World construction project in Erbil. He also ran a company called Falcon Group and was involved in an important road project.
Hana Jutiar, the wife of Dizayee, spoke to Kurdistan24 over the weekend to discuss the brutal attack on her home.
The decision by Iran to spread new rumors about their strikes on Erbil several days after the attacks illustrates that they were surprised by the pushback in the wake of the murderous attack. Iran believed it had impunity to attack Erbil, but it now understands it needs to continue to claim the attacks harmed Israelis in order to bolster its case. There is no evidence for Iran’s baseless claims. The fact they used a photo of a man who wasn’t even in Erbil is an example of Iran’s propagandistic claims.
Iran’s Tasnim News also claimed that the Kurdish businessman was linked to an Iranian dissident group led by Hussein Yazdanpanah. This group, the PAK or Kurdistan Freedom Party, played a key role in the war against ISIS. The coordinated articles at Tasnim were designed to try to excuse Iran’s attack on Erbil by using random images to make it seem Iran’s targeting of the Kurdish businessman had some legitimacy.
