Iran Protests the Expulsion of Two Employees from Its Embassy in the Netherlands

The spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry described the expulsion of two employees from the Islamic Republic's embassy in the Netherlands as "unconstructive," "unfriendly," "illogical," and "lacking legal legitimacy," and announced that the ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador following this incident. According to the IRNA news agency, Bahram Qasemi stated on Saturday, July 6, that the assistant to the Iranian foreign minister "immediately" summoned the Dutch ambassador and conveyed the Islamic Republic of Iran's formal protest against this "unfriendly" act. He emphasized: "As previously communicated to the representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to retaliate." The Dutch intelligence and security service reported on Friday, July 5, that two employees of the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands were expelled about a month ago. Hulbert Breidemeijer, spokesperson for the Dutch intelligence and security service, did not specify the reason for this action and added that the agency "unfortunately cannot" provide further information on this matter. Based on Mr. Qasemi's statements on Saturday, it becomes clear that the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador in June but did not publish a report about it. Bahram Qasemi also stated: "We expect the officials of this country, instead of making unfounded and unjust accusations against others, to fulfill their international obligations regarding the arrest and trial of terrorist elements for whom even Interpol has issued red notices, and to explain their sheltering of members of the terrorist and criminal group known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iranian people." Recently, Dutch media reported on the connection of an Iranian citizen who was assassinated in the Netherlands in 2015 with the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization. On December 15, 2015, a person named Ali Motamed was shot on the streets of Almere, Netherlands, by someone at close range and died that day in the hospital. In this regard, a court held its first session in June this year for two suspects in his murder in the city of Lelystad, Netherlands, and Dutch media wrote that Ali Motamed is "most likely" the same as Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq and the main perpetrator of the explosion at the Islamic Republic Party building. In that explosion, which occurred on June 28, 1981, several senior officials of the Islamic Republic, including Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti, the then head of the Supreme Court, were killed. The trial of the suspects in the murder of Ali Motamed (or as some say, Reza Kolahi Samadi) is set to continue in August of this year. According to Dutch media reports, the "28-year-old and 35-year-old" suspects in this case are "recidivist criminals" in the Netherlands. On November 8 of last year, an Iranian citizen named Ahmad Mola Abunahad, known as Ahmad Nissi, founder of the "Ahvaz Liberation Movement," was killed in front of his residence in The Hague. The news of the expulsion of two employees from the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands also comes after Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat working at the Islamic Republic's embassy in Vienna, was arrested in Germany in connection with a plot to attack the venue of the National Council of Resistance meeting. The arrest of Assadollah Assadi followed the detention of an Iranian couple whose vehicle contained half a kilogram of explosives. Other individuals have also been arrested in connection with this case in Belgium and France, and investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Belgium, and France in protest against the Mojahedin-e Khalq meeting and the arrest of the Iranian diplomat, describing the diplomat and explosives case as a "scenario" to undermine Iran's relations with Europe.