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Tehran Protests to Belgium over Iranian Envoy's Bomb Plot Case

A heavily armed policeman stands outside the courthouse in Antwerp. (AFP)
A heavily armed policeman stands outside the courthouse in Antwerp. (AFP)
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Tehran Protests to Belgium over Iranian Envoy's Bomb Plot Case

A heavily armed policeman stands outside the courthouse in Antwerp. (AFP)
A heavily armed policeman stands outside the courthouse in Antwerp. (AFP)

Iran on Tuesday summoned Belgium’s ambassador in Tehran over the conviction of an Iranian diplomat in a Belgian court on charges of planning to bomb an exiled opposition rally near Paris, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

On Thursday, Vienna-based diplomat Assadolah Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in the European Union since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Belgian prosecution lawyers and civil parties to the prosecution said Assadi was found guilty of attempted terrorism over the 2018 plot, which was foiled by German, French and Belgian police.

“The Antwerp Court ruling violates international law and ignores Belgium’s obligations to the Republic of Iran, therefore Iran does not recognize it in any way,” IRNA quoted an Iranian foreign ministry official as telling the ambassador.

Three other Iranians were jailed for 15, 17 and 18 years in the trial for their role as accomplices.

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Putin Vows to Further Develop Ties with Xi Just Hours After Trump Inauguration 

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a videocall with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on January 21, 2025. (Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a videocall with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on January 21, 2025. (Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP)
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Putin Vows to Further Develop Ties with Xi Just Hours After Trump Inauguration 

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a videocall with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on January 21, 2025. (Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a videocall with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on January 21, 2025. (Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday in which he proposed further developing their strategic partnership just hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president.

Putin waved at Xi and addressed Chairman Xi as his "dear friend", saying he wanted to outline "new plans for the development of the Russian-Chinese comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation."

The Kremlin released a video of their meeting.

"I agree with you that cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is based on a broad commonality of national interests and a convergence of views on what relations between major powers should be," Putin told Xi.

"We build our ties on the basis of friendship, mutual trust and support, equality and mutual benefit. These connections are self-sufficient, independent of domestic political factors and the current global situation."

Russia, waging war against NATO-supplied Ukrainian forces, and China, under pressure from a concerted US effort to counter its growing military and economic strength, have increasingly found common geopolitical cause.

Putin and Xi, who have pushed back against the perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance of China, have sought to portray the West as decadent and in decline.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat. Former US President Joe Biden has said the world's democracies face a challenge from "autocracies" such as China and Russia.