A large part of the news about the cooperation of citizens with the Zionist service in the 12-Day War was unrealistic and part of the enemy's psychological operations

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Tehran: Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, Secretary of the Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in an interview with the TV program "The Story of War", referring to the rumors about citizens, said: "The fact is that when it comes to citizens, a large part of the news that was published was news, and not information, and a large part of this was unrealistic news and part of the psychological operations."

 

He added: “In my opinion, the enemy was doing two things at the same time; it was both creating problems for us and trying to create a rift between us and our dear Afghan brothers.”

Referring to the support of the Afghan people for Iran during the 12-day war, Pourjamshidian said: “Almost one of the greatest supports for the Afghan government and people was for the Iranian people. Even those who were expelled said in some of their interviews that they were upset that they were being rejected, but we stand with the Iranian people in confronting the Zionist regime.”

He continued: “I believe that it is not that they were not citizens, they were, but in an unusual way, as is the case in other parts of the world, for example, in helping the services of the Zionist regimes, some Iranian citizens were also deceived, and this is a fact. The same is true for foreign citizens and some perhaps Afghan citizens. It is not that we can definitely say that they were completely at the disposal of the regime’s services. There were some who were deceived, to a very small extent, basically not enough to highlight it. Those who highlighted it were looking to damage the relationship between the two nations.”

The Secretary of the Iranian Security Council also referred to the process of returning illegal nationals and its intensification during the 12-day war and after it: “The issue of expelling illegal nationals was on the agenda of the government and the Ministry of Interior, we were doing this seriously, but it coincided with the war, and the discussion of psychological operations during the war caused the process of returning to be intensified. This is while more than 70 percent of the nationals who returned were self-identified.”

Pourjamshidian stated that during the war, propaganda intensified this process, saying: “During the war, due to the propaganda, it intensified to some extent, both the arrests increased and the atmosphere in society shifted to the point that, for example, a large part of them collaborated with the Zionist services. But as someone who has responsibility in this field, I basically did not think the number was even that high that it was even mentioned, very ordinary things.”

He emphasized: "Because first of all, they are Muslims, and then they fought for years with the Americans and the enemy inside Afghanistan, they studied and lived here with us, their culture is common, their beliefs are revolutionary. It's not like you say that because they are foreign nationals, their outlook is also foreign, no, many of them are like us."