The Netherlands on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran for consultations after diplomats at its embassy in Tehran were expelled, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said.
“The government has decided to recall the Dutch ambassador in Tehran for consultations,” Reuters quoted Blok as saying in a statement on Monday. “This decision follows the announcement by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that two Dutch diplomats at the embassy in Tehran have been declared persona non grata and have to leave the country.”
The diplomats have already returned to the Netherlands, Blok said.
The Iranian ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in The Hague to explain the expulsions, which Blok said in a letter to parliament “is not acceptable and is negative for the development of bilateral relations.”
Reuters report added that in a letter to parliament, Blok said the expulsion of Dutch staff from Tehran was in response to the earlier expulsion of two Iranian diplomats from the Netherlands in June 2018, due to strong indications from the AIVD (intelligence agency) that Iran has been involved in the liquidations on Dutch territory of two Dutch people of Iranian origin.
Iran has strongly denied any involvement in alleged plots in Europe.
Almost two months ago on January 8, 2019, the Netherlands accused Iran of being behind killing of a member of anti-Iran terrorist group MEK Mohammadreza Kolahi Samadi, who according to Iranian authorities, was suspected of planting a bomb at the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) that killed more than 70 officials in 1981.
A Dutch court's evidence showed that Kolahi Samadi had been killed by gangsters in 2015. Meanwhile, the Dutch prosecutor explicitly stated during the trial that there was no evidence of Iran's involvement in the murder.
KI/PR