There are documents from the history of Nazi Germany and of the Zionist movement that certify that cooperation at the intelligence level took place between the two sides, and that such cooperation took place between German officers and the most radical of Zionist groups. By virtue of such cooperation, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was negotiating with German officers the transfer of Jews to Palestine from territories under Nazi occupation in Eastern Europe in exchange for intelligence and financial services. In other words, the racial hatred between the two sides, and the genocidal war that was being waged by the Nazis against the Jews, did not prevent an exchange of interests between the Nazis and the Zionists. That was during World War II. In more recent times, Tehran had, under Khomeini, turned to an arms dealer of Iranian origin in order to arrange a deal aimed at obtaining weapons from the Hebrew state through an American filter, during the First Gulf War between Iran and Iraq – this in spite of the declared enmity between Iran on the one hand, and Israel and the United States on the other. Here too their interests led two enemies to cooperate. Meanwhile, there is a great deal of information about trafficking networks, of currency, precious stones and narcotics, working in Africa, Latin America, and even the United States and Europe, for Iran and for the Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) and its many branches, especially Hezbollah. Individuals have also been convicted in court on such charges in several countries. In other words, interests justify cooperating with trafficking and organized crime networks without any consideration for ethics. Furthermore, many acts of violence and assassinations have been ascribed to Iran's intelligence services in several capitals. Some of those acts are still under investigation, while others Tehran prides itself in having carried out. All of this is to say that Tehran does not hesitate to use any means when it comes to carrying out what it considers to be its interests, without much consideration for the other party in carrying out such interests. In other words, there is a methodology followed by Iran based on the notion that interests justify the means – and such means do not always correspond to the Iranian movement's officially declared goals. In this sense, if there is an objection, or an accusation, that could be directed at Iran's behavior, it would address the core of such a methodology. The criticism directed at the American accusation against the Revolutionary Guard of having planned to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Washington Adel Al-Jubeir through a drug-trafficking network may be linked to what has been made public of this plot so far. Said criticism is mostly focused on the notion that the methods employed are not of the degree of professionalism known of Iranian services, as well as on gaps in the American version of events. Yet it becomes automatically null and void when it exceeds the technical/penal aspect of the assassination attempt to the general political methodology followed by Iran in carrying out what it considers to be Iranian interests. Indeed, such a plot in itself expresses a shift in escalation towards the Gulf region, and Saudi Arabia in particular, by being connected to the public opposition of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to Iran's policies in the region – whether those linked to exposing networks of espionage and interference in the Gulf, for the benefit of particular groups, or to the growing crisis in Syria. It is not unlikely that Iran's ongoing policy of attack in the region has reached its farthest extent, which would drive it to move to a phase of outright hostility. And this is in fact what the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard have been declaring frankly, at every occasion. And that is what is important about everything that has so far been revealed of the assassination plot. Indeed, the technical details may be open to increase or decrease, but the main point is that Iranian policies towards the region have moved to a phase of escalation and direct threat.
