GERMANY AGREES TO EXTRADITE IRANIAN DIPLOMAT IMPLICATED IN BOMB PLOT

▶ The alleged spymaster is accused of giving explosives to a sleeper cell in Belgium to carry out an attack in France

A German court has approved the extradition of an Iranian diplomat accused of giving agents half a kilogram of explosives to blow up an opposition rally in France.

Assadollah Assadi is wanted in Belgium after being accused of organising a failed attack against the National Council of Resistance of Iran at an event near Paris on June 30 attended by thousands of supporters and high-profile backers.

Belgian police said they foiled the plot when they stopped a Mercedes-Benz driven by an Iranian couple living in Antwerp and found the explosives hidden inside a toiletries bag.

Mr Assadi is accused of passing the explosives to the couple at a meeting in Luxembourg.

The court ruled out diplomatic immunity for the claimed spymaster based in Vienna, Austria, because he was on holiday in Germany at the time of his arrest in July, rather than carrying out diplomatic duties between Iran and Austria.

Mr Assadi was accused of activity as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit murder.

German prosecutors are now reviewing the extradition decision. It was not immediately clear when Mr Assadi would be sent to Belgium.

Members of the Iranian opposition claim he played a pivotal role as head of intelligence for Europe since 2014 and had previous experience in demolition and handling explosives.

Iran’s embassy in Vienna is considered a major centre for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry in Europe.

The opposition said his immediate boss was Reza Moghaddam, an important figure within the ministry who reported directly to the Iranian Minister of Intelligence.

They say Mr Assadi was put in charge of the operation to bomb the French rally because of the sensitivity of targeting mainland Europe.

He was said to have sought to distance the regime from the plot by using a Belgian sleeper cell. Belgian nationals Amir Saadouni, 38, and his wife Nasimeh, 34, lived in Antwerp for up to 15 years before the operation, friends told The National.

They were stopped on the outskirts of the Belgian capital as they headed to Villepinte, France, where Donald Trump’s lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich were attending the conference.

The couple remain in detention in Belgium.

Another alleged Belgian accomplice, identified as Merhad A, has also been extradited from France.

The opposition council claims Iranian agents have increased their activities in the West since the start of the year with plots in Albania, which is the base for the exiled opposition group, and spying operations against activists in the US.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said in June that Iran “conducts covert assassination operations in the heart of Europe”, but gave no further detail.

The failed operation in France came a month after Mr Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal with Tehran.

Analysts said the attack would have been highly provocative on the eve of a visit to Europe by President Hassan Rouhani to lobby European leaders to continue the deal.

Analysts said the attack could have been an attempt by regime rivals to undermine his leadership. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbass Araghchi called it a “plot aimed at damaging EU-Iran relations” and denied involvement.

The opposition council is controlled by the militant Mujahideen-e-Khalq, which has long been considered a terrorist organisation by Tehran.

Diplomatic immunity was ruled out because the suspect was on holiday in Germany at the time of his arrest