Fars news reports that Abduk-Malek Rigi, the leader of the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (aka Jondallah), is willing to negotiate a settlement with the Islamic Republic.
Rigi, in an interview with al-Arabiya, said that his group is willing to negotiate with Iran in the presence of a third party. Rigi announced that if Iran secured full political rights for the Baluchi minority, the group would disarm and enter the political process.
Jondallah kidnapped 16 Iranian border guards earlier this summer and has already claimed to have executed four of them. The group has previously called for dialogue with Iran, however the Islamic Republic has not publically responded to Jondallah’s threats. Instead, Iran has severely cracked down on suspected Baluchi activists and smugglers in the country’s southeastern province—something Jondallah as decried as systematic political oppression. Perhaps fearing the public fallout of continued executions, it appears Rigi is now taking his demands into the realm of public diplomacy.
It is not clear if these new overtures will amount to anything new in the ongoing conflict between Jondallah and the Islamic Republic. What Rigi wants above all else at this point is the release of his brother, Abdul-Hamid Rigi, who was extradited to Iran from Pakistan several weeks ago. Jondallah’s strategy of hostage-taking and publicized executions has not helped this case one bit, and has only resulted in a hardening of Iran’s position and a surge of additional arrests. Iran is not likely to release Abdul-Hamid or the other 200 Baluchi prisoners Jondallah demands, and Rigi’s recent announcement (as evinced in cited Fars story) is now being framed as a victory for the Islamic Republic.
[Image: Jondallah leader, Abdul-Malek Rigi]
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