Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
In a diplomatic tit-for-tat the Netherlands on Monday recalled its ambassador to Iran after members of its diplomatic staff at its embassy in Tehran were expelled, Foreign Minister Stef Blok announced on Monday.
“[We] Have decided to recall the ambassador in Tehran for consultations,” Blok said in a tweet. “The decision follows the expulsion of two Dutch embassy staff. That is unacceptable.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (R) meets with visiting Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 21, 2018. Image source: Xinhua.
Though the immediate reasons for this latest spat between the two countries remains unclear, tensions have heightened after the European Union first began accusing Iran of “assassination attempts” and state-sponsored “terrorist plots” in Europe.
Last month Iran slammed EU charges as “groundless” — charges which Dutch officials had helped push into the open in tandem with other European leaders.
Earlier, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) publicly leveled accusations against Iran’s intelligence service of planning an assassination operation against an Iranian separatist and opposition group member in Denmark. The Dutch Foreign Minister led efforts to bring Iran to account for plotting violent acts on European soil.
Stef Blok alongside Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in January when the issue came to a head that they had “strong indications” that Tehran was behind assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin in 2015 and 2017.
Heb besloten de Nederlandse ambassadeur in Teheran terug te roepen voor consultaties. Besluit volgt op de uitzetting van twee Nederlandse ambassademedewerkers door Iran. Dat is onacceptabel. Lees hier de Kamerbrief: https://t.co/90ZF35c9un
— Stef Blok (@ministerBlok) March 4, 2019
Iran’s Foreign Ministry responded last month: “The unsubstantiated accusations, such as with regard to assassination attempts and attempted terrorist attacks in Europe, have been groundless and surprising from the very beginning. We are disappointed with such accusations and concerns of the Europeans, while in Europe itself terrorist and criminal groups are being active,” according to an official statement.
It’s not the first time diplomatic personnel on either side have been expelled from the embassy host country. Last June Iranian embassy staff in the Netherlands were expelled for unknown reasons, and there have been other instances as recently as last year.
During the incident last summer, one senior Iranian official told Reuters at the time, “All these arrests and expulsions are part of our enemies’ attempts to harm efforts to salvage the nuclear deal.”
Iran’s foreign ministry has of late bemoaned European efforts to salvage the 2015 JCPOA in the face of Trump administration renewed sanctions as not nearly enough and too little too late.
The creation of INSTEX by Britain, France and Germany to bypass SWIFT as a financial vehicle to transact (initially) merely humanitarian related purchases has been hailed by European leaders as a strong start; however Iranian FM Zarif said it falls short, and has demanded that Europe “walk the walk”.
“INSTEX falls short of the commitments by the E3 to save the nuclear deal,” he said. “Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of US unilateralism.”
Most likely, the latest diplomatic row is related to repeat EU accusations against Iran of conducting subterfuge and assassination plots on European soil.
EU bull, MEK comes to mind.
Precisely
” they had “strong indications” that Tehran was behind assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin ”
It seems that when the British meme , ‘ Highly Likely ‘ is now joined by ‘ Strong Indications’, which is reality means that there is ‘ No evidence with any merit ‘.
“accusing Iran of “assassination attempts” and state-sponsored “terrorist plots” in Europe.”… Boy, the Dutch are openly in with the Zionists. Now they’ve been infected with the western disease of delusionary reality. This is where one entity is confused with another. In this case, Iran is confused with Israel.
israel, although I prefer to call thm squatters, has a powerful lobby operating in holland and it is necessary to assemble any kind of opposition now that the moron’s attempt in warsaw to form a league of nations willing to attack iran failed miserably. it goes together with uk all of a sudden declaring hezbollah a terror orgnisation despite the fact that it is in the lebanese parliament. israel is really really very very desperate to isolate any kind of threats in the middle east so that they can continue with their DEPALESTINATION-program which aims to make the land the squatters stole palestinen-frei in a similar vein that hitler aimed to make germany judenfrei. ther is no end to the evil coming out of tel aviv.
The unfortunate reality is that Holland is no different than any other country in the west. The Israelis learned long ago to infiltrate and control through intimidation and threat of exposure. It is a tactic that has served them well, to the detriment of the entire world. The only option seems to be to not vote for anyone that has Israeli support…as they are likely compromised and controlled.
hey iran, kick the ambassador of the netherland all the way back to holland. they are not part of the nuclear agreement even if dutchman timmerman is likely to succeed juncker once the old lush quits.
Junker and his cronies are unelected leeches in the European Parliament, it is going to far getting involved in Fairytale like Tehran terrorism in Europe. Its about planting the information as 100% factual when there is only aqusations at present. Its the Dutch doing the work of zionists in DC Cabal. The Dutch are totally controlled by zionist pressure the enquiry into the downing of MH17 was a complete stitch up to blame Russia. The final report is like the 9/11 commission report. Underfunded and full of crap
Netherland, the home of street drugs and legal prostitution at all levels. Morally lost, they are exporting their butt smelly ”values” to the world. Sick country.
Every country has street drugs. That’s because in every country there is an insatiable appetite for drugs. If you think your country is any different I have an old 2nd hand car for you. Only driven by an old lady on sundays. Honest to god!
The only drug that is sorta legal in the Netherlands is weed, and only sale and use in small amounts for certified vendors. But the production is still illegal. And if anything the Netherlands is still regressive when it comes to drugs as Canada and some US states have full legalization of weed. And if memory serves me right, so does Uruguay.
As for legal prostitution, why doesn’t your country have that? Making it illegal doesn’t make it go away, its not being called the oldest profession on earth for nothing. And by making it legal prostitutes gain legal rights and protections, while illegal prostitutes are fully at the mercy of organized crime. It’s one of the corner stones of the illegal slave trade. Men are forced to work, women are forced into prostitution.
Well, drugs are everywhere is true, so the prostitution. If you open the TV you even found out how it became to be like this. Making some drugs legal and keeping the production illegal is illogical. You realize why, don’t you? Some people accept prostitution because they want to cut the government revenues. Well, that’s silly, really, government earns now more money from tax than anytime in the history and if you want to be 100% legit you have to accept living on the edge. The miserable edge. Some other people are compassionate to the women forced into prostitution. Forced most of the time by themselves and in a small percentage by others. I know there are dramas and the slave trade is blooming. It wouldn’t be if it wouldn’t be customers to this. So you see, it’s all about attitude. Either you respect woman and you don’t use these “services” and if 100% of the people would do that we won’t have this “job” anymore, either you think this is an ordinary job and if 100% of the people would think this, we’d have legal and ethical prostitution. I am making an extrem example to show you which the two directions are. Of course we will never have a perfect society but we can always aim to the best. Or, we can accept the evil until it becomes one of us.
>>Making some drugs legal and keeping the production illegal is illogical. You realize why, don’t you?<>Some people accept prostitution because they want to cut the government revenues. Well, that’s silly, really, government earns now more money from tax than anytime in the history and if you want to be 100% legit you have to accept living on the edge. The miserable edge. Some other people are compassionate to the women forced into prostitution. Forced most of the time by themselves and in a small percentage by others. I know there are dramas and the slave trade is blooming. It wouldn’t be if it wouldn’t be customers to this. So you see, it’s all about attitude. Either you respect woman and you don’t use these “services” and if 100% of the people would do that we won’t have this “job” anymore, either you think this is an ordinary job and if 100% of the people would think this, we’d have legal and ethical prostitution.<>I am making an extrem example to show you which the two directions are. Of course we will never have a perfect society but we can always aim to the best. Or, we can accept the evil until it becomes one of us.<<
Making things illegal out of a wish to strive for a better society never EVER has worked. Prohibition has shown us what happens when you make alcohol illegal, it turned the mafia from small time crooks in Little Italy into an organization that had whole cities on its payrole. The war on drugs has turned Latin America into a battleground where Narco Kartels basically own whole governments. And making prostitution illegal has only made lives miserable for the women involved as it delivered them mind body and souls into the hands of pimps.
And why, because we don't want to accept that people want to get high and want to get laid. We want to act like we are better then that. But we're not. It's both basic biology and basic economics. Where there is a demand there will always come a supply. Supply does not create demand, demand creates supply. Unless we do some radical social engineering we cannot eliminate demand. And that's excluding the fact that radical social engineering has ALWAYS made societies worse.
Is illogical to allow drugs for sale but to forbid them from manufacturing because manufacturing and selling is one economical process, nether part makes sense without the other one. So it doesn’t make sense to break only half of the chain, either you break it all or you allow it all. That is 5 yo logical problem, but instead of thinking, you just talk about how to get high and how to get laid. So, live with your obsessions and your weird ethics, and go for a free society where prostitution, drugs, rape, pedophilia, homofilia (yes, don’t forbid those too because “making things illegal out of a wish to strive for a better society never EVER has worked”) but KEEP it for yourself. Not everything is economics in this life, but as a matter of fact SUPPLY creates DEMAND. Otherwise, you can’t explain why 100 years ago usual people were majority moral and now usual people are majority immoral. Sex is supplied now on every channel and in every form and people like you, without a compass, take it as a normal thing and create the demand.
You’re just exposing your ignorance in public by making comments like this. It is US, aka the world elites, who wage war on drugs and prostitution precisely because when they are illegal they make massive profits from both (undeclared and untaxed). That the Dutch have also succumbed to the Empire is no surprise, but they are not alone. In fact there seems to have been a concerted effort to subjugate the Dutch. Look who’s based in the Netherlands: OPCW, Amnesty International, the MH17 investigation board, and many others. It can’t be a coincidence.
Oh, so you tell me these should be legal so the government doesn’t make “massive profits” anymore and instead tax them. Like any other occupation. Probably you call this freedom. I completely disagree. And, for your information, certain European countries (Netherlands among them) are way more advanced to Sodoma than US. Even this liberal attitude of yours towards sex and drugs (admitting you are a Dutch) is a proof that no one subjugated Netherlands but the Dutch themselves.
It’s not the government that makes massive profits You really don’t get it do you. Shall I spell it out to you: It is the criminals who make massive profits! Illegalising these activities makes criminals rich! Just what you want, isn’t it. The knock on effect is that places like US there are literally tens of thousands of people in prison for nothing worse than possessing cannabis. Society then has to support them while they are in prison, continuing to use cannabis, and as it is illegal, the criminals are still making big profits, even though the users are in prison. Anyone who supports this kind of logic must be mad (or just a bit young and thoughtless). It is a scheme devised by Satan himself, and dunces go and support it thinking they are doing “good”. It’s perfect symmetry for the beneficiaries who laugh all way to the bank, or garage, or wherever they stash their gigantic loot.
You don’t get, don’t you? Stop using prostitution services and nobody will make any profit of it!!! Stop using drugs and again nobody will make any profit of it. It’s bad for your health. And for your brain, it seems.
Our foreign minister is basically just the mouthpiece of whatever his master in Washington wants him to say. The de facto US ambassador to the Netherlands, as the real US ambassador is just a cushy job being given to guys who made a big campaign contribution to a president’s election. And I fail to see the outrage in this. Even if Iran did kill these people, who they claim are terrorists, the Netherlands bombs people in Syria it deems as terrorists as well, with no authorization of the Assad government there and it also violates Syrian air space. When you break international law and disrespect other countries yourself, how can you huff and puff when others do the same to you in return?
Do as I say! Not as I do!