Four teenagers arrested by Dutch police in connection with a suspected terrorist attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam last week were likely “recruited,” Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel told lawmakers on Tuesday, adding that ties to Iran were being investigated.
He made the remarks at the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, during a Q&A about the arrests.
“Everything indicates the suspects were recruited,” the ANP news agency quoted van Weel as saying. Asked by lawmaker Ulysse Ellian whether Iran was behind the act, van Weel said: “The possibility that Iran is involved in this attack is being seriously considered,” ANP reported.
According to a report published Monday by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, the March 12 Rotterdam attack was one of three attacks in the Netherlands and in Belgium since March 9, all attributed to a hitherto unknown jihadist group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya.
The Israeli ministry’s report did not tie that group to Iran, but did note that videos of the attacks “spread quickly on Telegram channels affiliated with Shi’ite militant networks and pro-Iranian circles, including channels linked to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
Iran has long been suspected of orchestrating antisemitic attacks, including major terrorist conspiracies, worldwide.
Earlier this month, British counter-terrorism police arrested four Iranians, three of whom are also U.K. citizens, on suspicion that they carried out surveillance linked to Jewish communities in London, according to Metropolitan Police .
Iran is widely believed to have helped plan the AMIA Jewish center bombing in Argentina in 1994, where 85 people died and more than 300 others were wounded.
Last year, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador, leading to a
reciprocal move, over accusations that the Islamic Republic was behind two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
