This is just the latest in a series of statements from European governments that Iran has been behind murder or terror plots in their country.

In October, the Danish government reported that it had foiled an Iranian plan to assassinate a leader of the separatist Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz. One of the men involved in the plot – a Norwegian citizen of Iranian descent – was arrested in Sweden and extradited to Denmark.

Then, there was the thwarted bomb plot in Paris in June, targeting the rally of the Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which attracted 100,000 people. The French government have said that they have no doubt that Iran’s intelligence ministry was behind the attempted attack, organised by an Iranian diplomat to Vienna.

Finally, there was another bomb plot targeting the MEK at their headquarters in Albania in March.

It is also worth noting that both France and Germany carried out major raids against Iranian spy-terror networks last year, with Germany discovering that Iran was gathering information to create a list of people to be assassinated.

Of course, none of this is new behaviour from the Regime. Indeed, one of the mullahs’ first acts in 1979 was to take over the US Embassy in Tehran and hold dozens hostage.
Other malign actions include, the 1983 US Marines barracks bombing in Lebanon, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Argentina, and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

They’ve also routinely murdered Iranians abroad who have spoken out against the mullahs, starting with Shahriar Shafiq, the Shah’s nephew, assassinated in Paris in December 1979. This has continued to this day without abatement. Iranians who criticise the Regime domestically are subject to the same treatment, but with less public outcry.

But the real question is why these acts of terror and murder on European soil by the Iranian Regime is not causing Europe to change its policy on Iran and pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal, as the US did last year.

US sanctions came back into full force in November, but Europe still wants to help Iran evade these sanctions and, as such, remain indirectly complicit in the terrorism that they condemn.