Special Series: Iranian Intelligence and Regime Preservation

In recent months, several covert Iranian intelligence operations have come to light. Throughout March, U.S. officials claimed and media reported that Iran was providing arms to the Taliban. On March 30, Tehran announced that Iranian intelligence agents had carried out a complicated cross-border rescue of a kidnapped Iranian diplomat in Pakistan. Then on May 1, a report began to circulate that intelligence agents thought to be working for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been arrested in Kuwait. The diplomat's rescue may have been exaggerated (unnamed Pakistani officials said they were involved in the handover, which may have occurred in Kabul), but it does not diminish Iran's reputation for having a capable intelligence apparatus particularly adept at managing militant proxies abroad — all in the name of regime preservation. Editor's Note: This is the second installment in an ongoing series on major state intelligence organizations.