EU
must respond firmly to Tehran terror plot on European soil
The EU’s
eagerness to further unconditional engagements with Iran seems to have only
made Europe more vulnerable to state sponsored terrorism, writes Alejo
Vidal-Quadras.
Alejo
Vidal-Quadras, a Spanish professor of atomic and nuclear physics, was
vice-president of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014. He is currently
the president of the Brussels-based International Committee In Search of
Justice (ISJ).
During
the weekend of 30 June – 1 July, four suspects were arrested in Belgium, France
and Germany over a terror
attack plot to bomb the grand gathering of the National Council ofResistance of Iran (NCRI) in Villepinte, outside Paris. The keynote speaker at
the event was Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi.
An
Iranian-Belgian couple were arrested in Belgium with 500 grams of TATP (a
powerful home-made explosive) and a detonation device in their vehicle, on
their way to carry out the attack. To make matters more serious, the individual
arrested in Germany, Mr Assadollah Assadi, who gave the device to the couple,
is an
accredited Iranian diplomat, the 3rd counsellor of the IslamicRepublic’s mission in Vienna. Another Iranian was also arrested in France andwill be extradited to Belgium.
After
such a serious threat, luckily halted by the efficient work and cooperation of
intelligence agencies and security forces of at
least four EU member states, we could have expected a firm and forceful
response from our European External Action Service (EEAS), who should have
condemned the hostile and terrorist action of a diplomat accredited by a
European government. However, not only has there been a deafening silence on
the matter from the EU; there are signs that appeasement continues towards a
regime that plotted to commit a terrorist attack in a European capital. How did
we reach this point?
The
American administration’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran Nuclear Deal, last May, and reinstate all
sanctions previously imposed on Iran’s regime caused an avalanche of diplomatic
actions to save what Ms Federica Mogherini sees as her main achievement as EU
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The actions taken
by the European Commission include tools to protect European investments in
Iran from secondary sanctions and “confidence building” measures, with
Commissioners flying to Tehran to reassure the very nervous theocracy of the
mullahs.
And while
European leaders keep taking desperate measures to save the nuclear deal, it is
the leaders of the Islamic Republic who find themselves in a truly desperate
position, as not only is the American administration’s new policy taking a
great toll on the Iranian economy, but also there are growing protests,
uprisings and a chaotic internal situation that has been escalating in recent
months.
Starting
last December, Iran has seen a wave of unrest like it had not seen since at
least 2009. Workers, students, farmers, women and unions have been flooding the
streets in protests that first had economic demands but quickly turned very
political with slogans like “death to the dictator” resounding on the streets
of cities of all sizes throughout Iran. The myth of the regime’s supposed
stability that was the basis for the the EU’s policy of appeasement has been
contested by the Iranian people on the streets.
This
critical situation has spurred the bellicosity of the regime which, in a
desperate attempt to thwart their opposition, decided to commit an ISIS-style
terrorist attack in the outskirts of Paris that could not only have injured
many European citizens but also important dignitaries from all over the world including
Rudy Giuliani, Ingrid Betancourt, Giulio Terzi, Bernard Kouchner, Stephen
Harper and many others all of who were present in the Villepinte event.
It is
important to remember that this kind of action is not new. In 1997
EU withdrew its ambassadors from Iran and expelled Iranian
intelligence agents from Europe following the infamous Berlin Mykonos
restaurant assassinations of four Iranian-Kurdish dissidents. A German court
had issued an international arrest warrant for the then Iranian Intelligence
Minister. Other opposition members have been assassinated in Europe by
individuals suspected of being agents of the regime, such as the cases of Dr
Kazem Rajavi, NCRI representative in Geneva and former Iranian ambassador in
the UN, gunned down in 1990, Kurdish leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou in Vienna
in 1989 or Mohammad Hossein Naqdi, NCRI envoy and former diplomat murdered in
Rome in 1998.
This
month, Dutch intelligence services announced that the Netherlands
recently expelled two Iranian diplomats without elaborating on the
reasons. Experts have hinted this to be linked with suspicious murders of
Iranian dissidents in the country last year.
The EU’s
eagerness to further unconditional engagements with Iran seems to have only
made Europe more vulnerable to state sponsored terrorism, as Iran has used its
ease of access to the European Union countries for espionage and terror plots
that jeopardize the lives of European citizens. The EU needs to wake up. We
should follow up the brave actions of our intelligence and police services with
firm and decisive political action. We could respond by downgrading our
diplomatic relations and expelling agents that are linked to the Iranian
Intelligence Ministry in order to prevent more terrorist attacks on European
soil.
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