Terror plot accusations undermine Iran-Europe engagement at worst possible time

Denmark’s arrest of a Norwegian national of Iranian descent on suspicion of helping prepare assassinations of Iranian Arab separatists has put the administration of President Hassan Rouhani under pressure at a time when it is reeling from US sanctions both at home and abroad. Of note, the Trump administration has over the past year urged Europe to adopt a tougher position on Iran, referring to Iranian “terrorism” on European soil. 

Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) chief Finn Borch Andersen on Oct. 30 announced that the Norwegian national had engaged in intelligence collection to target the exiled leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), pointing the finger at “an Iranian intelligence agency.”

ASMLA is an Arab Iranian separatist group that has been linked to violence in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan. Most recently, a spokesman for the Denmark-based group claimed responsibility for a Sept. 23 attack on a military parade in the provincial capital of Ahvaz that left over two dozen Iranians dead. In response, Iran summoned the British, Dutch and Danish envoys and called on Denmark and the Netherlands to extradite Iranian nationals on their soil who Iranian officials claimed were responsible for the attack. After the Iranian protestations, the Denmark-based group withdrew its claim of responsibility. Of note, Israeli media later reported that the Jewish state’s Mossad spy agency had assisted Denmark’s PET with thwarting the alleged assassination attempt. 

Iran has vehemently denied any connection to the alleged plot, calling it the result of a “Mossad program to kill the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action].” Al-Monitor has learned from Iranian sources that while a call for the extradition of the Iranian Arab separatists was made, no formal extradition request was issued.