![Former leader of Spain's main right-wing political party in Catalonia and co-founder of far-right party Vox, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, holds his first press conference since he was shot in the head last November, in Madrid on February 23, 2024. Vidal-Quadras, who is close to the exiled Iranian opposition, accused the leaders in Tehran of being behind the assassination attempt. [Thomas COEX / AFP / Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-2024873459.jpg?fit=1200%2C729&ssl=1)
The Iranian Foreign Ministry today summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran’s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts, Reuters reports.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions”, according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran’s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published yesterday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
READ: Netherlands summons Iran ambassador over alleged assassination attempts
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