Defying Trump with Brief Iran Fight, Israel Seeks Sway over Peace Talks

A journalist's quest to find Anis Naccache, a Lebanese activist with ties to prominent militant figures and revolutionary movements, unfolds a narrative spanning decades and continents.

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The world had never witnessed an operation of that kind.

Naccache's involvement began as a young activist with Fatah, working under Abu Jihad. His story took a dramatic turn when he reportedly served as an aide to Carlos the Jackal during the 1975 OPEC ministers' kidnapping in Vienna. This event brought Carlos international notoriety and, according to Naccache, was orchestrated by Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Further complicating Naccache's history, he claimed to have trained Iranian opponents of the Shah in Fatah camps in Lebanon during the 1978 uprisings. He also asserted that the idea for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) originated during a meeting in Beirut, a concept later adopted by the revolution's leaders.

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Some feared that enemies of the revolution might rally around him to destabilize, or even overthrow the new regime.

Following the Iranian Revolution, Naccache allegedly volunteered for a mission to assassinate Shapour Bakhtiar, the Shah's final prime minister, who was living in exile in France. Naccache recounted obtaining Bakhtiar's phone number, securing an interview under false pretenses, and then attempting the assassination on July 18, 1980. However, a reinforced door reportedly thwarted the attempt, which resulted in the deaths of two policemen and a French woman.

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A revolutionary court had sentenced Bakhtiar to death and that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had approved the sentence without publicly announcing it, effectively transforming it into something akin to a fatwa authorizing his killing.