KLM Netherlands to Suspend Tehran-Amsterdam Flights from October

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced that it will suspend its Tehran-Amsterdam flights starting from October 2 (September 24) this year "because it is not economically viable." The airline's website published this news on Saturday, July 16, stating that the last flight on this route will depart for Tehran on September 31 (September 22) and will land at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands the following day. KLM's website (part of the Air France-KLM group) mentioned that this decision was made due to a "negative financial outlook" for continuing flights on the Tehran route. KLM also announced that it will provide alternative flights with another airline for ticket buyers from October 2 onwards or compensate them financially. The Fars news agency also noted that "Iran Air still has direct flights from Tehran to Amsterdam." KLM had previously suspended its flights to Iran in 2013 but resumed them in 2016. This new decision comes as Air France also announced on April 12 that it would reduce the number of flights to Tehran due to economic issues starting this fall. According to Reuters, the airline stated that its activities over the past two years show that flights to Tehran do not yield sufficient financial returns. However, the announcement of KLM's suspension of flights from Amsterdam to Tehran coincided with the news of the expulsion of two Iranian embassy staff in the Netherlands and the summoning of the Dutch ambassador to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. These events occurred in June but were reported by the Dutch intelligence and security service on Friday, July 15. Nevertheless, the Dutch intelligence and security service did not explain the reason for the expulsion of the Iranian embassy staff in the country. Iran protested this action by the Netherlands, accusing Amsterdam of failing to fulfill its "international obligations regarding the arrest and trial of terrorist elements" and sheltering members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization. Recently, Dutch media reported on the connection of an Iranian citizen who was assassinated in the streets of the Netherlands years ago with the Mujahedin-e Khalq. This individual, named Ali Motamed, was shot on December 15, 2015, in Almere, Netherlands, and died that same day in the hospital. In June of this year, the trial of two suspects in his murder was held for the first time in Lelystad, Netherlands, and Dutch media reported that Ali Motamed was "most likely" the same Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, a member of the Mujahedin-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 high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic, including Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti, then head of the Supreme Court, were killed.