Despite the fact that external operations run by Iran’s Quds Force abroad have not ceased over the past years, they have, according to Iranian activists and opposition figures, become more overt since the outbreak of the war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.
According to Alhurra’s correspondent in the Kurdistan Region, leaders in the Iranian opposition indicate that since the end of 2025, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has intensified the transfer of drones to Europe, with the aim of launching attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests and against gatherings of the Iranian opposition.
The correspondent adds, citing the same sources, that “the Iranian Quds Force relies on two methods to transfer weapons and drones to Europe. The first method involves transporting them in disassembled form as separate spare parts, so as not to raise suspicion at border crossings and airports. Some of these are transported under diplomatic cover by members of the Iranian diplomatic corps.”
The second method consists of “organized smuggling operations overseen and carried out by international gangs affiliated with the IRGC.”
Sources say the Quds Force also relies on sleeper cells in Europe, including individuals recruited by IRGC intelligence, as a means of espionage and assassination.
According to Iranian opposition sources, Iran possesses numerous secret factories and workshops in various parts of Europe, where Iranian experts and gang members work on assembling drones and manufacturing explosive devices.
Over more than a month since the outbreak of the war, Iranian proxies in the region have carried out numerous attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests. In recent years, similar operations have also been executed in several European countries. According to the European Center for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, these attacks have included bombings, car arson, cyberattacks, as well as espionage and surveillance operations targeting Iranian opposition figures, U.S. and Israeli commercial centers, and Jewish organizations and schools.
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On March 25, Israel’s National Security Council issued a warning to Israelis ahead of the spring holidays, emphasizing that the Iranian regime would intensify its efforts to carry out attacks abroad against Israeli and Jewish targets. The council urged Israelis abroad to take heightened security precautions.
“The IRGC has not stopped over the past years from transferring spare parts for weapons and drones through various means to Europe, particularly via its cells in Gulf countries and Turkey, in order to build a hidden arsenal of drones outside Iran that it can use to target Western interests and destabilize international security,” said Amjad Hussein Banahi, a leader in the Iranian opposition Komala Party, in remarks to Alhurra.
Banahi confirmed that since the outbreak of the war against the Iranian regime, his party has been able to thwart numerous plots by the Quds Force and its intelligence apparatus aimed at assassinating party leaders, Kurdish and Iranian opposition figures, and activists in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in Europe. He noted that Iranian intelligence has intensified its activities outside Iran as part of an external war waged by the IRGC and its affiliates, alongside the drone and missile war it has been carrying out against countries in the region and U.S. interests since the start of the war on February 28.
In previous years, Iranian embassies and consulates served as the primary hubs for carrying out assassinations, espionage operations, and recruitment for the IRGC. However, in recent months, this role has shifted to other institutions affiliated with the IRGC outside Iran, particularly in Europe.
“To deflect suspicion, Iranian regime embassies in Europe and in most countries around the world rely on front organizations to carry out intelligence missions, assassinations, kidnappings, armed attacks, and the recruitment of spies. These fronts include mosques and Hussainiyas, commercial centers, exchange offices, charitable organizations, and cultural associations secretly affiliated with the regime, in addition to branches of regime-owned or regime-supported media institutions, as well as local and international criminal gangs,” explained Kamal Abdel Karim, deputy secretary-general of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, an Iranian opposition group, in remarks to Alhurra.
Abdel Karim noted that Iranian intelligence operatives are present in these locations and manage such operations, stressing that assassination operations and armed attacks carried out by Iran in Europe are directly planned in Iran and supervised by Quds Force personnel. However, they are not executed by Iranian nationals in order to deflect suspicion from Iran, but rather by loyal individuals of various nationalities, including Europeans recruited for these operations, along with gang members and hired killers.
Abdel Karim warned of a wave of large-scale attacks and assassinations that the IRGC is planning to carry out against opposition figures and U.S. and Israeli interests in Europe, confirming the existence of precise information about IRGC plans to expand its external war to ease pressure on the regime in Tehran following the intensity of strikes it is facing inside Iran from the United States and Israel.
A report issued last March by the Singapore-based international digital security firm CloudSek revealed that groups backed by the IRGC have launched cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure in the United States.
The company stated in its report that “within hours of the launch of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Iran mobilized more than 60 affiliated cyber groups to initiate cyberattacks. Artificial intelligence tools significantly facilitated the targeting of U.S. internet-exposed critical infrastructure.”
The report identified the most prominent cyber groups affiliated with the IRGC participating in the Iranian attacks against the United States and Israel.
Tawfiq Mazra’a, an Ahwazi opposition figure living outside Iran, believes that Iran’s external movements at the current stage rely on activating tools of direct and indirect influence by mobilizing military proxies, sleeper cells—security, military, political, and even media—as well as cultural centers in countries across the region and the world, “to mobilize Shiite and Muslim communities and leftist groups to organize protests that pressure governments, alongside carrying out acts of sabotage.”
He added that the Quds Force is currently working to strengthen its external role by coordinating operations in Europe, the United States, and Arab countries through local proxies, armed mafias, mercenaries, recruitment companies, and the activation of networks linked to it outside Iran. He also pointed out that Iranian hospitals abroad have likewise been turned by the Quds Force into hubs for recruitment and planning intelligence operations.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
