Iran summons Danish ambassador over attack on embassy

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran after the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen came under attack once again by a group of hostile elements.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Tehran expressed its “strong objection” to the Danish ambassador after six hostile elements attacked the Iranian diplomatic mission in Copenhagen a day earlier.

The Foreign Ministry slammed the move as a violation of international norms and Denmark’s domestic laws, criticizing the Danish government’s failure to provide security for Iranian Embassy staff, Qassemi said.

The Iranian official further said Copenhagen was urged to take “resolute and responsible” action against the intruders, and subsequently announce the results.

The Danish diplomat was also told that the repetition of such attacks and Copenhagen’s failure to seriously address the assaults could “harm the growing ties between the two countries, and would definitely elicit an appropriate response [from Tehran],” Qassemi added.

According to Qassemi, the Danish envoy, in turn, denounced the attack as “unacceptable,” pledging to follow up on the issue and announce the results.

This is not the first time Iran’s diplomatic premises are violated in Denmark.

On January 19, Danish police arrested six people who had earlier scaled the walls of the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen, in an attack that elicited a strong protest from Tehran.

The six, described as four Iranian expatriates seeking asylum in Sweden and two others holding Swedish residency, violated the Iranian diplomatic premises in the Danish capital.

The incident saw the invaders enter the mission’s courtyard earlier in the day, putting up profane placards and forcing down the Iranian national flag from the flagstaff.

Following the incident, Danish Ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, being notified of the Islamic Republic’s protest over the attack.

Also in April 2016, Iran summoned Denmark’s temporary chargé d’affaires over acts of vandalism and destruction carried out by four anti-Iran protesters against the Islamic Republic’s Embassy in Copenhagen.

Members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have on many occasions trespassed on Iranian missions abroad.

The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.