The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced on Tuesday that security forces arrested the main perpetrators of the assassination of Mowlavi Abdolvahed Rigi, a Sunni cleric and Friday prayer Imam of the city of Khash, in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

In a statement, the Ministry indicated that three of the main perpetrators of the assassination of Rigi were identified and arrested in cooperation with the provincial police headquarters, following a series of intelligence observations by officers and intelligence experts.

The Iranian Ministry pointed out that the perpetrators intended to flee Iran after assassinating the cleric before being detained by the intelligence forces.

On Friday, Rigi was found dead on a road near Khash, a day after he was abducted by unidentified assailants while he was at his mosque. Authorities in Sistan and Baluchestan revealed that the pro-Islamic Revolution cleric had been shot in the head.

Rigi was previously informed of threats made against him by various anti-Islamic Revolution groups. He reportedly told a delegate sent to the province by Iranian Leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei that "opposition groups have threatened me, but these [threats] won't work."

Iranian border guards seize large arms shipment in Marivan

In a related context, Kurdistan Province's Deputy Border Guards Commander Colonel, Mohsen Dalvand, announced on Tuesday the seizure of a large shipment of weapons and 49 shotguns and hunting weapons on the borders of Marivan county.

According to Dalvand, "After hours of ambush and using optical equipment, the border guards spotted the arms traffickers carrying the shipment and took the initiative to surround them in the border area and discovered 43 pistols and 6 shotguns and prevented the shipment from being smuggled into the country."

The Colonel stressed that extensive measures have been taken at the borders in order to decisively tackle any border violation, illegal trafficking, and goods smuggling.

It is noteworthy that in early December, the Iranian media outlet Tabnak published a report exposing images of a huge stockpile of confiscated weapons - on their way to Iran - seized by the Iraqi authorities in Sulaymaniyah, east of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, in what was described as the largest weapon smuggling operation thwarted so far.

In early November, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed that the Iranian opposition is arming itself with weapons stolen from Basij forces and smuggled from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.