PARIS – France has accused Iran s intelligence ministry of being behind afoiled plot to bomb an exiled opposition group near the French capital in amove that risks straining already complicated ties between Paris and Tehran.
The French government announced Tuesday it was freezing assets belonging totwo suspected Iranian intelligence operatives, as well as others belongingto Iran s ministry of intelligence and security.
France s decision to take retaliatory measures and go public with theaccusations was taken three months after the alleged plot to bomb a meetingof the People s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) in a suburb of Paris.
“This extremely serious act envisaged on our territory could not go withouta response,” France s interior, foreign and economy ministers said in arare joint statement.
“In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fightagainst terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory.”
A French diplomatic source told AFP that the security forces had concludedthat “the head of operations at the (Iranian) intelligence ministry orderedit”.
Iran immediately denied any involvement, as it did in July when the MEKaccused it of being responsible.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told AFP in an interviewthat Tehran rejected the French complaint “completely and forcefully”, butsaid the door for discussion was open.
“If there is a misunderstanding… about a thing that does not exist, be ita conspiracy by others or a mistake, we can sit down and talk about it,” hesaid Tuesday.
The US, which has been intensifying pressure on Iran, warned that “thisoutrageous behaviour will not be tolerated” in a tweet from the WhiteHouse s National Security Council.
The alleged bomb plot came to light two days after thousands of Iranianopposition supporters gathered at an exhibition centre outside Paris onJune 30.
The meeting was attended by two allies of US President Donald Trump, formerHouse speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The People s Mujahedeen was formed in the 1960s to overthrow the Shah ofIran and it continues to organise opposition to the current leaders of theIslamic republic who took power following the 1979 revolution.
Belgium announced in July that it had arrested a couple in a Brusselssuburb who were suspected of preparing to drive a car packed withexplosives to the French rally.
A total of six people were then detained in coordinated raids by Europeanpolice, including an Iranian diplomat based in Vienna.
The diplomat, Assadollah Asadi, was targeted by the asset freezes announcedby French authorities Tuesday, along with Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, who theFrench diplomatic source said was head of operations at the intelligenceministry.
Asadi is set to be extradited to Belgium to face trial, German authoritiesannounced on Monday.
“We deny the accusations and forcefully condemn the Iranian diplomat sarrest, and call for his immediate release,” a statement from the Iranianforeign ministry said earlier Tuesday.
The measures announced Tuesday come as French President Emmanuel Macron andhis Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani are at odds over a host of issues.
Macron, who hoped to improve ties with Tehran at the start of hispresidency last year, has allied with Iran over the 2015 nuclear deal whichlimits the Islamic Republic s atomic programme.
While Trump has pulled out of the agreement and denounced it, Macron hasbeen a vocal supporter and has worked to keep the accord alive despite USsanctions.
But Macron is at loggerheads with Rouhani over the wars in Syria and Yemen,in which Iran is a major player, and has raised concerns about thecountry s ballistic missile programme.
The US considers Iran to be the world s biggest state sponsor of terrorismbecause of its links with a host of armed groups, particularly the powerfulHezbollah militia in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, aswell as other networks in Iraq and Yemen.
Iran has been blamed in the past for carrying out attacks in countries asfar afield as Argentina, India and Thailand.
The French diplomatic source said Iran was suspected of carrying out”several” assassinations of opposition figures in the European Union since2015.
Also Tuesday, around 200 French police launched a dawn anti-terror raid onone of the biggest Shiite Muslim centres in France, the Zahra CentreFrance, as well as on the homes of its directors.
Two of three people arrested were released, according to sources close tothe inquiry, while the centre s treasurer will face a hearing on Wednesdayfor the illegal possession of firearms.
The Zahra Centre France was founded in 2009 by Yahia Gouasmi, a pro-regimeactivist and religious figure who has spoken in support of Hezbollah. -APP/AFP