TEHRAN — The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday condemned the assassination of Kurdish cleric Mamosta Muhammad Nozhati in a terrorist incident in Iran’s western province of West Azarbaijan by “Zionist-American separatist groups”.
In a statement, the IRGC’s Beit al-Moqaddas Corps in West Azarbaijan province described the assassination as a “heinous and brutal terrorist crime” and extended its condolences to Nozhati’s family and the people of the province.
The statement said the assassination is not only an attempt to target a prominent religious figure but also an effort to sow division among Muslims, undermine unity between Shia and Sunni communities, and disrupt security and stability in society.
The IRGC highlighted Nozhati’s longstanding cooperation with Basij organizations representing university professors, seminary students and clerics, saying his record reflects his commitment to serving the public, as well as his humility and personal integrity.
The IRGC said West Azarbaijan province has faced similar incidents since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, but maintained that such violence has not weakened relations between Shia and Sunni Muslims or religious scholars in the province. 
Instead, the statement said, such incidents have strengthened unity and ties between their followers.
The assassination comes amid mounting evidence of a concerted U.S.-Israeli campaign to destabilize Iran through its border provinces, particularly in Kurdish-majority regions.
In early April 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump made a stunning admission that the United

 States had supplied weapons to subversive groups and protesters during the violent riots that erupted in late 2025.
“We sent them a lot of guns,” Trump told Fox News. “We sent guns to the Kurds.” He claimed that had the weapons reached their intended recipients, the rioters would have “overthrown the Iranian regime within two days”.
Analysts have traced the current destabilization campaign to a 2009 Brookings Institution report titled “Which Path to Persia?” — a document that has been described as a blueprint for regime change in Iran. 
The report explicitly outlined strategies for inciting unrest among Iran’s ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Baloch, and Arabs, supporting subversive groups and separatists to weaken national stability.
According to multiple reports, the US and Israel are actively seeking to turn Iranian Kurdish separatist groups into a ground force against Tehran . The CIA reportedly began cultivating Kurdish armed groups months before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, aiming to foment unrest and push for regime change.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi formally lodged a complaint with the United Nations in January 2026, condemning U.S. and Israeli support for terrorists and fueling violence inside Iran. 
Araghchi wrote that Washington and Tel Aviv had established a joint coordination center to plan operations for separatist forces and terrorists, and that Iran possessed “precise intelligence” confirming American and Israeli involvement.
Iranian officials have also said that the U.S. and Israel paid protesters and rioters to commit acts of violence — roughly $3,300 per killing and $1,300 per vehicle torched.