Citing Iranian officials’ rhetoric on Israel’s destruction, a senior Dutch politician protested his government’s decision to dispatch a defense attache to Tehran.
Joël Voordewind of the Christian Union party said he was “dismayed” by the discovery earlier this week on the posting by the NIW Dutch Jewish weekly. In addition to developing missiles capable of reaching Europe, “Iran oppresses its own population and seeks to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth,” said Voordewind, whose party is a coalition partner.
“I assume we don’t want military cooperation with Iran,” Voordewind told the weekly.
His party, the Party for Freedom and the Reformed Political Party are formulating a parliamentary query for the foreign and defense ministries, Esther Voet, the editor-in-chief of NIW, told JTA.
According to NIW’s expose, the initiative for posting a military attache in Tehran came from the foreign ministry, which is currently led by Sigrid Kaag. Kaag, a former employee of the UNRWA aid agency and the wife of a Palestinian Authority former representative to Switzerland, visited Iran last month.
She came under criticism in Dutch media for covering her head, as required by Islamic laws, while meeting Iranian Hassan Rouhani at a time when Iranian women were being jailed for protesting laws that require them to cover their heads in public.
The Dutch ambassador to Iran, Susanna Terstal, met last month with Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami, NIW reported. Iran’s Mehr News quoted her as saying: “The Netherlands is interested in starting military relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Earlier this month, the chief commander of the Islamic Republic’s regular army, Abdolrahim Mousavi, said: “We will finish off Israel’s life within less than 25 years.”