TEHRAN - Nozar Shafeie, an expert on international affairs, has said that the European Union’s sanctions against an Iranian intelligence service over claims of Iran’s assassination plot is a “criminal” act.

“The act of Europe in giving shelter to groups opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran and imposing sanctions against the country because of those groups is criminal,” Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

If European countries have the political will to continue cooperation with Iran they should not let terrorist groups do activities on their soil, he suggested.

Danish intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen claimed in October that an Iranian intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on Denmark’s soil.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed the claim as a plot by enemies to affect Tehran’s growing relations with European countries.

Anders Samuelsen, the Danish foreign minister, tweeted on Tuesday that the European Union agreed to enact sanctions against an Iranian Intelligence Service over claims of assassination plot.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has told Europeans that making accusations against Iran won’t absolve them of the responsibility for harboring the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) - also called Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK)  -- who has murdered tens of thousands Iranians.

“Europeans, incl Denmark, Holland & France, harbor MEK—who killed 12000 Iranians & abetted Saddam’s crimes against Iraqi Kurds—as well as other terrorists staging murder of innocent Iranians from Europe. Accusing Iran won’t absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists,” Zarif tweeted Tuesday.

The MKO did numerous terrorist acts in Iran, especially in the early years of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also sided with Saddam Hussein’s army in the war against Iran in the 1980s.

Saddam also used the extremist group in violent crackdown on the Iraqi Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south.

NA/PA