Paris - France froze the assets of two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives on Tuesday in retaliation for an alleged bomb plot uncovered near Paris in June, in a move that could cause diplomatic tensions with Tehran.
- French interior, foreign & economy ministers
The French government announced it had frozen assets belonging to two Iranians and Iran’s ministry of security and intelligence following the alleged plot to bomb an Iranian opposition group in a Parisian suburb in June.
“This extremely serious act envisaged on our territory could not go without a response,” France’s interior, foreign and economy ministers said in a rare joint statement.
“In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory,” they added.
The foiled attack in June was to have targeted a meeting of thousands of Iranian opposition supporters which was also attended by leading US figures, including close allies of President Donald Trump.
Asadi was targeted by France for the six-month asset freeze on Tuesday along with another man named as Saeid Hashemi Moghadam.
Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged bomb plot and said the opposition group, the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MEK), had orchestrated the plot to discredit Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as he embarked on a tour of Europe.
The counter measures by France could have major diplomatic repercussions at a time when France is working to keep Iran in the 2015 accord to limit its nuclear programme amid major tensions in the Middle East.
- Statement by local French police authorities
French President Emmanuel Macron had vowed to visit Tehran early in his term as president, but major differences between the countries on issues such as the wars in Syria and Yemen, as well as the bomb plot, have led to tensions.
Also Tuesday, around 200 police launched a dawn anti-terror raid on one of the biggest Shiite Muslim centres in France, the Zahra Centre France, as well as the homes of its directors.
A total of 11 people were questioned and three were arrested, security sources told AFP, including for the illegal possession of firearms.
The Zahra Centre France was founded in 2009 by Yahia Gouasmi, who has spoken in support of Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah and the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Gouasmi is also the founder of the Anti-Zionist Party in France and is an associate of controversial comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, a convicted anti-Semite.
The raids on Tuesday were staged as part of the “prevention of terrorism” procedures, regional authorities said in a statement.
Police have been closely following the activities of the Zahra Centre “because of the strong support by its leaders for several terrorist organisations and in favour of movements backing ideas that are contrary to the values” of France, a statement from local authorities said.
On its website, the association says its purpose since its foundation in 2009 has been “to make known the message of Islam through the eyes of the Prophet and his family.”
Iran’s trail of terrorism in Europe
Iran’s footprint of terrorism in Europe goes back to 1979, when the Islamic Republic was formed, though the attacks escalated in mid-eighties. Following are some of them:
December 1979: Iranian agents assassinate the nephew of the Shah, Shahriar Shafiq, in Paris.
1980: A five-person ‘hit squad’ attempts to murder the last prime minister before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Shapour Bakhtiar, in Paris. The assassins failed to kill Bakhtiar.
1991: Three Iranian agents murder Bakhtiar in his Paris home.
February 1984: General Oveisi, the Shah’s former martial law administrator, and his brother are shot dead in Paris.
May 12: A car laden with explosives detonates near an Iraqi Airways office in Cyprus. Iraqi dissident groups supported by Iran claim credit.
July: Three radical Lebanese Shiites hijack an Air France plane flying from Frankfurt to Paris and divert it to Tehran.
August: A gunman attacks a Kuwaiti businessman in Spain and kills his driver.
September: A Saudi engineer is assassinated in the same town. Islamic Jihad callers claim responsibility for both attacks.
December: Bombs are found under the cars of four Iraqi diplomats in Athens. An Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition group claims responsibility.
July 13, 1989: Iranian intelligence agents in Vienna assassinate Abdul Rahman Gassemlou, secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
1990: Iranian assassins murder Professor Kazem Rajavi, a human rights advocate and the elder brother of Iranian opposition leader Massoud Rajavi, in Switzerland.
1992: Two men implicated in Rajavi’s murder are arrested in Paris. Switzerland requests their extradition, but in December 1993, France sends both men back to Iran.
September 1992: Gassemlou’s successor, Sadegh Sharafkandi, and three of his associates are assassinated at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin.
1993: A German court begins a trial of Iranian suspects in October, and finds four Iranian officials guilty of the murders in April 1997.
June 30, 2018: Plot to attack an exiled Iranian opposition group’s rally outside Paris is foiled, and an Iranian diplomat is arrested with two others suspects.
October 2: France seizes assets belonging to Iranian intelligence services and two Iranian nationals in response to the June plot.
— Compiled from agencies
