Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday blamed “Zionist-American Kurdish separatist groups” for the killing of Mamosta Mohammad Nezhati, a Sunni Muslim Kurdish cleric who was linked to the Basij, the thuggish militia deployed by the IRGC to terrorize the Iranian people into submission.
Iranian state media supplied few details about the death of Nezhati, beyond saying that he was killed in the West Azerbaijan province of northern Iran. The announcement of his death came from the IRGC’s provincial command.
West Azerbaijan borders on Turkey, Iraq, and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan that is separated from the rest of Azeri territory by Armenia, making it the only self-governing province of Azerbaijan. Most of the population of Iran’s West Azerbaijan province is ethnically Kurdish or Azeri.
The first report of Nezhati’s death appeared on a social media channel linked to the Iranian military on Tuesday evening. The report said the cleric was attacked by multiple armed individuals riding on motorcycles.
Various Iranian media reports described Nezhati as either a member of the Basij, or as someone who cooperated closely with it. The IRGC praised him for supporting the regime in Tehran and promoting “Shia-Sunni unity.” Iran is ruled by Shiite Muslim clerics, but has several Sunni Muslim minority groups.
“The martyrdom of Mamosta Mohammad Nezhati, following a terrorist and brutal crime by American-Zionist separatist groups, has caused sorrow among the religious community and people of West Azarbaijan Province,” said the IRGC- linked Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Wednesday.
“This crime is not merely the targeting of a prominent figure, but also a desperate attempt to create rifts among Muslims, to undermine Shia-Sunni unity, and to disrupt security and peace in society,” IRNA said.
No immediate claim of responsibility for the cleric’s death was made, but the IRGC has a history of clashing with Kurdish separatists in West Azerbaijan province, particularly the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
The PDKI is a militant left-wing political organization that was established in 1945. The group’s leadership is believed to be headquartered in Iraq, and they frequently send operatives into Iran to conduct guerilla actions. The group’s long-term goals include either autonomous government or a separate state for the Kurds of northern Iran.
A similar assassination was carried out in another restless area of Iran in July, when a Sunni cleric named Molavi Mohammad Anvar Rigi was killed by unknown gunmen in the impoverished province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
The Baluch ethnic group also has militants who seek independence from the oppressive Iranian regime. As with the killing of Nezhati, the IRGC said Rigi’s murder was intended to “undermine security” and “stoke sectarian divisions” in Sistan-Baluchistan.