“Iran wants to annihilate Israel, nothing new,” declared former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell in 2019, when he was still Spanish Foreign Minister. “We have to live with it.”
Now we must live with the fact that Iran is trying to kill parliamentarians, officials, and journalists.
As the hitman prepared to pull the trigger, Alejo Vidal-Quadras instinctively moved his head back—an action that saved his life. The bullet was aimed at the neck of the Spanish right-wing politician. “But it went in here,” said Vidal-Quadras, pointing to one side of his jaw. “And came out there,” pointing to the other.
Vidal-Quadras, a former vice president of the European Parliament and once a professor of Atomic Physics, was targeted by the Iranian regime, which is subcontracting murders to European criminal networks. “They are recruiting mafia organizations to do their work.”
Vidal-Quadras, 80, former center-right MEP for the People’s Party and co-founder of the Vox movement (from which he later resigned), is a supporter of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group, and was on Tehran’s blacklist of sanctioned Westerners in 2022.
He was returning home from a walk in the park around lunchtime. Just 30 meters from his apartment in Madrid’s Salamanca district, a man called out, “Hola, señor”, making him turn. He was shot at close range with a 9mm Parabellum pistol, named after the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (“If you want peace, prepare for war”). The bullet shattered his jaw and narrowly missed his neck and brain. “Police told me the intention was to shoot me in the neck. Because there are two fatal shots: one to the head, obviously, and the other to the neck. Then there was the miracle.”
Vidal-Quadras, who lost 40% of his hearing in the attack, says the Iranian strategy worked—at least regarding the Spanish socialist government. He stated that there was “no diplomatic or political reaction” in Madrid to his attempted murder. “The government didn’t say a word.”
“If Rafael Grossi sets foot in Iran, he should be tried and sentenced to death,” recently wrote Kayhan, a newspaper closely tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, about the head of the UN atomic agency.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump and anyone else threatening the Supreme Leader of Iran is “waging war against Allah” and must be “punished with death,” according to a new religious fatwa by Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi.
Hours later, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Iran was accused of gathering intelligence on Jewish targets in Berlin in preparation for attacks. A Danish citizen named Ali S., working for Tehran, was arrested.
Vidal-Qadras was shot at close range with a 9mm Parabellum pistol, named after the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (“If you want peace, prepare for war”). The bullet shattered his jaw and narrowly missed his neck and brain.
Sweden thwarted two Iranian plots targeting Saskia Pantell, head of the Zionist Federation of Sweden, and Aron Verständig, president of the Swedish Jewish communities.
A Pakistani national was sentenced to over four years for gathering information on Reinhold Robbe, a German center-left politician and ex-head of the German-Israeli Society.
A Swedish SVT investigation found that Iran’s terror campaign began materializing in early 2024: grenades near the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, shootings, explosives at Israeli Elbit Systems sites in Gothenburg and Brussels, and grenade attacks on the Copenhagen embassy. Iran provided a complete “target catalog,” including kidnappings, murders of Israelis, attacks on Jewish community sites, and elimination of exiled Iran International journalists.
This week, the Washington Post revealed a foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Mike Pompeo in a Paris hotel.
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, was also tailed by two Middle Eastern men in Paris. He was extracted from the Ritz hotel by his security detail.
UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis disclosed about 20 Iranian plots targeting Britain.
In London, Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed. Dissident singer Shahin Najafi was nearly killed in Hannover on the anniversary of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
The US has offered a $20 million reward for info leading to the arrest of Shahram Poursafi, accused of trying to hire hitmen to assassinate John Bolton.
Ten years ago, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was murdered for investigating the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 and injured 300—the worst mass killing of Jews between the Holocaust and October 7, 2023. A court has now confirmed his death was homicide, not suicide, and linked to Iran and Hezbollah.
Darya Safai, a Belgian MP of Iranian origin, was given extra security after death threats linked to Iran’s promotion of Islamist extremism in Europe.
Ulysse Ellian, Dutch MP, received a threatening email from the Iranian embassy.
Masih Alinejad, anti-hijab activist, escaped an assassination attempt in New York.
Other targets: Salman Rushdie (almost killed by a Hezbollah-trained agent) and Irwin Cotler, ex-Canadian Justice Minister.
Roya Hakakian, Iranian-American author of Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, was warned by the FBI she was a target.
The most blatant case in Europe: Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, arrested in Germany for plotting a bombing at an Iranian opposition rally near Paris. He was sentenced to 20 years in Belgium. Germany closed the Hamburg Islamic Center in 2024 due to Iranian links.
Vidal-Quadras claims Western policy toward the Islamic Republic over the last 40 years has been one of appeasement: “Peace, negotiations, dialogue, concessions. This policy has failed. The more the West tries to appease them, the more aggressive they become.”
When Khomeini issued his fatwa against Rushdie, Polish dissident Adam Michnik wrote: “A world where a fanatic ruling Iran can hire killers around the globe is a world where no one is safe.” That was 1989—and we should have understood.
But we’re like cowardly writer Paul Theroux, who, when Rushdie showed up at Bruce Chatwin’s memorial, responded to concerns for Rushdie’s safety with a laugh: “We’ll be here for you next week, Salman.”
Now we’re all “here.” And no one is laughing anymore.
Not even the writer of this article—who has reason to be afraid.
Published originally on July 5, 2025.
