Denmark stated on Tuesday that the Iranian government may have been behind the plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil.
An Iranian intelligence service had tried to carry out the attack to target the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), Danish intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen said.
“We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil. Obviously, we can’t and won’t accept that,” Andersen told a news conference.
A Norwegian citizen of Iranian background was arrested in Sweden on October 21 in connection with the plot and extradited to Denmark, Swedish security police said.
The Norwegian has denied the charges and Tehran also rejected the allegations on Tuesday.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi dismissed the accusations.
Andersen said the arrested Norwegian citizen had denied charges in court of helping a foreign intelligence service plot an assassination in Denmark.
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said on Twitter that the reported attack plot was “completely unacceptable”.
“The government will respond to Iran and is speaking with European partners on further measures,” Samuelsen said.
The Danish ambassador was later recalled from Tehran, he revealed. Denmark will push for fresh EU-wide sanctions against Iran over the development.
"It is totally unacceptable that Iran or any other foreign state plans assassinations on Danish soil," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen wrote on Twitter.
"Further actions against Iran will be discussed in the EU."
In Oslo, where he was participating in a meeting of Northern European leaders, Rasmussen met with British counterpart Theresa May, whom he said expressed "support" for Denmark in the matter.
"In close collaboration with UK and other countries we will stand up to Iran," he added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US stood behind Denmark.
"We congratulate the government of Denmark on its arrest of an Iranian regime assassin. For nearly 40 years, Europe has been the target of Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks. We call on our allies and partners to confront the full range of Iran's threats to peace and security," he wrote on Twitter.
On September 28, Danish police shut two major bridges to traffic and halted ferry services from Denmark to Sweden and Germany in a nationwide police operation to prevent a possible attack.
A few days earlier, the Norwegian suspect had been observed photographing and watching the Danish home of the ASMLA leader, police said.
In November 2017, Ahmad Mola Nissi, an Iranian exile who established ASMLA, was shot dead in the Netherlands. The Danish security service then bolstered police protection of the ASMLA leader in Denmark and two associates.
Last week, diplomatic and security sources said France had expelled an Iranian diplomat over a failed plot to carry out a bomb attack on a rally in the Paris area by an exiled Iranian opposition group.
