Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Freddie Everett/State Department
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Indo-Pacific Quad Foreign Ministers (Australia, Japan and India) at the State Department, on July 1, 2025
(JNS) — The United States and 13 European nations condemned attempts by the Iranian regime’s intelligence services to kill, kidnap and harass people, including Jewish citizens, in their respective territories on Thursday.
“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” according to the joint statement published by the United States, the United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
The Tehran regime is “increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens and current and former officials,” read the statement shared by the U.S. Department of State. “This is unacceptable.”
The 14 governments stressed that they view the Islamic Republic’s attacks, “regardless of the target,” as violations of their sovereignty.
“We are committed to working together to prevent these actions from happening, and we call on the Iranian authorities to immediately put an end to such illegal activities in our respective territories,” the governments stated.
Tehran tried to hire assassins to kill politicians, including U.S. President Donald Trump, former U.S. President Joe Biden and former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, according to FBI documents released last year.
A federal jury in March convicted two senior members of an Eastern European crime group who were ordered by the regime to kill a prominent Iranian-American dissident living in New York.
Earlier this month, the Netherlands’ intelligence agencies warned of the threat posed by Iran and its operatives, including assassination threats facing Jews and Israelis, as well as opponents to the Islamic Republic.
“Iran has a long history of carrying out attacks on dissidents abroad,” read the report, which noted that intelligence indicates Iran was behind a June 2024 attempt on the life of an Iranian dissident living in the country.
“Criminals from Amsterdam previously murdered an Iranian-Dutch citizen in Almere in 2015, and criminals were possibly involved in the 2017 assassination of another Iranian-Dutch citizen,” the agencies said.
“Similar incidents likely occurred in Belgium, Germany, France, the U.K. and Sweden. In addition, Iran sometimes deploys extremist groups such as Hezbollah or individuals to carry out attacks, often using Shi’ites with a nationality other than Iranian or Lebanese,” the report stated.
In 2024, Swedish intelligence agency SÄPO said Iran may have orchestrated terrorist attacks on Israeli targets in Scandinavia.
The statement came shortly after two blasts, likely caused by hand grenades, occurred close to Israel’s diplomatic mission in Denmark, days after gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the embassy in Sweden.
Fredrik Hallstrom, head of operations at SÄPO, noted that “there are some things that could point in that direction,” namely, Tehran’s involvement in the two assaults.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has also claimed that the Islamic Republic is behind a series of terrorist attacks carried out by criminal gangs targeting Israeli embassies across Europe, including Sweden.
