IRAN’s clerical regime could be planning to use a “dirty bomb” or small, tactical nuclear device in a future terrorist attack on European soil, EU leaders have been warned.
The international committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) has written to European Union leaders ahead of the trial in Belgium of Assadollah Assadi, a senior diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, for allegedly passing 500gms of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) – the potent explosive thought to have been used in the Manchester Arena bombing – to an Iranian couple from Antwerp.
He had allegedly told them to drive to Paris and detonate the bomb at a rally organised by the Iranian opposition in exile, the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI), which was attended by tens of thousands of people, with international political figures and media representatives, including from this newspaper.
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Four signatories of the letter – former MEPs Struan Stevenson, from Scotland, and Paulo Casaca, from Portugal, Alejo Vidal Quadras, a former European Parliament senior vice-president and Italy’s former foreign minister Giulio Terzi – were also at the event. Assadi was arrested on July 1, 2018 and his trial starts on November 27.
Speaking from Madrid, ISJ president Quadras said news agencies had reported that Assadi had warned of violent reprisals against European targets should he be convicted.
He added: “Having learned of the existence of a top-secret nuclear weaponisation complex in the Sorkheh-Hessar region to the east of Tehran, we fear that the mullahs will deploy a ‘dirty bomb’ or even a small tactical nuclear device, in a renewed terrorist strike in Europe. It is therefore imperative that the EU ends its ludicrous determination to restore the toxic [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] JCPOA nuclear deal with the Iranian regime.
“To do so, against the background of these latest developments, would constitute a betrayal of EU citizens and place their safety in jeopardy.”
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