Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS, a.k.a. VEVAK) is ranked by experts as one of the largest and most active intelligence agencies in the Middle East, having masterminded 450 acts of terrorism throughout the world since the 1980s, yet it has been shrouded in so much mystery that apart from the occasional revelations by the Iranian opposition, little has ever been made public about its operations and functions. Its secret budget and unchecked power have turned it into one of the key pillars of the Iranian theocracy.

VEVAK is also one of the most secretive agencies in the world and its command structure is directly answerable to the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.