PARIS—“This extremely serious act envisaged on our territory could not go without a response,’’ the French government said after it accused Iran’s ministry of intelligence of being behind a plot to bomb a rally of Iranian opposition groups near Paris in June.
The government announced it was freezing the assets of two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives.
“In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory,” the French government said.
At the same time, two Belgian citizens of Iranian origin had been arrested in Brussels by police in possession of half a kilogram of explosives and a detonator.
An Iranian diplomat stationed in Vienna, presented as a “sponsor” of the plot to attack the rally and named Assadollah Assadi, was arrested in Germany. German prosecutors said he is an intelligence agent who met Belgian couple in Luxembourg where he ordered the attack and handed them the explosives.
Austria stripped him of his diplomatic status after his arrest and he now faces extradition from Germany to Belgium for prosecution.
Iran called the alleged plot a ‘’fabrication.’’