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Denmark says it foiled Iranian plot to kill activist on its soil Denmark pushes for fresh Iran sanctions over 'assassination plot'
(about 2 hours later)
A police operation that cut off Copenhagen from the rest of Denmark for several hours last month was launched to foil an alleged Iranian plot to kill an exiled opposition activist, Danish officials have revealed. Denmark has recalled its ambassador from Tehran and called for fresh EU sanctions against Iran after its security services accused Iranian intelligence service of plotting an assassination on Danish soil.
A Norwegian citizen of Iranian background was arrested in Sweden on 21 October in connection with the plot, and extradited to Denmark, Danish security service chief, Finn Borch Andersen, said. The Danish intelligence chief, Finn Borch Andersen, said on Tuesday that the alleged murder plot had targeted the exiled leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), a separatist group that has a history of carrying out attacks in Iran.
Andersen said on Tuesday that the attack was meant to target the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), which seeks a separate state for ethnic Arabs in Iran’s oil-rich south-western province of Khuzestan. “We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil. Obviously, we can’t and won’t accept that,” Andersen said.
“We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil. Obviously, we can’t and won’t accept that,” Andersen told a news conference. A Norwegian national of Iranian background has been arrested in Sweden and since extradited to Denmark in connection with the foiled attack, according to officials.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi dismissed the accusations. “This is a continuation of enemies’ plots to damage Iranian relations with Europe at this critical time,” Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying. The announcement came as Tehran scrambled to muster European support before the US re-imposes stringent sanctions on the country early next month. The European Union, Iran, China and Russia have set out a plan to sidestep those unilateral US sanctions.
Andersen said the Norwegian citizen had denied charges in court of helping a foreign intelligence service plot an assassination in Denmark. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, dismissed the allegation and said that the timing of the accusations was suspicious. “This is a continuation of enemies’ plots to damage Iranian relations with Europe at this critical time,” he said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Danish foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said on Twitter that the reported attack plot was “completely unacceptable”. Andersen revealed on Tuesday that a massive police operation that cut off Copenhagen from the rest of Denmark for several hours last month was triggered when police noticed a stolen, Swedish-registered car near the home of an Iranian opposition activist.
“The government will respond to Iran and is speaking with European partners on further measurements,” he said. Fearing that an attack was imminent, Danish authorities closed the Øresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden and the Great Belt bridge between the islands of Zealand and Funen. Hundreds of Danish police and soldiers used cars, sniffer dogs and helicopters to hunt for the rental car.
The 28 September operation that closed access to the island of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, was launched after police noticed a stolen, Swedish-registered car near the home of an Iranian opposition activist that sped up when officers were spotted. The incident came shortly after Tehran summoned UK, Dutch and Danish envoys and urged Denmark and the Netherlands to extradite Iranian exiles who they said were responsible for a terrorist attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, which killed at least 24 people, including children. The ASMLA initially took responsibility for the attack, but later withdrew its claim.
Fearing an attack was imminent, the Danish security service, PET, launched a manhunt, and the borders with Germany and Sweden were closed, Borch Andersen said. The Danish foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said the foiled attack was “completely unacceptable” and that his government “will respond to Iran and is speaking with European partners on further measures”.
The Oresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden, and the Great Belt bridge between the islands of Zealand and Funen were closed as hundreds of Danish police and soldiers used cars, sniffer dogs and helicopters to hunt for the rental car. France has also recently accused Iran of plotting attacks on European soil. In October, French diplomatic sources said that they had concluded that Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind a foiled bombing attack that targeted a rally organised by an Iranian opposition group near Paris in June.
In November 2017, Ahmad Mola Nissi, an Iranian exile who established ASMLA, was shot dead in the Netherlands. The Danish security service then bolstered police protection of the ASMLA leader in Denmark and two associates. An Iranian diplomat was among six people who were arrested for allegedly plotting the bombing of the event, which featured among its guests senior US politicians including Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s attorney.
Last month, Iran summoned the envoys of the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK over shooting attack on a military parade in Khuzestan on 22 September in which 25 people were killed. Tehran denied the allegations, which it called a conspiracy to “sabotage Iran’s ancient and longstanding relations with France and other significant European countries”.
Iran accused the three countries of harbouring Iranian opposition groups. In May, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was carrying out “assassination operations in the heart of Europe”, an allegation that at the time bewildered security experts, given that there had been no recent killings in Europe officially attributed to the Iranian state. Since then, France and now Denmark have directly blamed Tehran.
Another Arab opposition group, the Ahwaz National Resistance, and the Islamic State militant group both claimed responsibility for the parade attack, though neither has provided conclusive evidence to back up their claim. The most recent killing of an Iranian dissident took place in The Hague in November last year, when a gunman shot Ahmad Mola Nissi, who was also a former leader of a group closely linked to the ASMLA, which had claimed responsibility for several attacks in Iran.
Last week, diplomatic and security sources said France had expelled an Iranian diplomat over a failed plot to carry out a bomb attack on a Paris-area rally by an exiled Iranian opposition group. Relations with Europe are vital to Iran’s bid to weather out US-imposed sanctions. Unlike the US, which has withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal, the EU has remained adamant that it wants to preserve the deal. Trump’s first set of sanctions – hitting the country’s access to dollars, gold and precious metals – were reimposed in August.
They are to be followed by a set of even more stringent measures by 4 November, including an embargo on the imports of Iranian oil and sanctions on its banking sector.
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