Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has lodged a renewed protest with the Iranian chargé d’affaires in The Hague over what he described as excessive violence used against demonstrators in Iran at the weekend. Mr Verhagen reported the move on Sunday evening while responding to the way foreign diplomats have come under attack on Iranian state-run television.
 

Like many other Western countries, last week the Netherlands protested to Iran about the circumstances of its presidential election. Mr Verhagen, currently on a tour of Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories, expressed his concern both at the way the Iranian election was conducted and at the degree of violence used to suppress demonstrations. He also complained about the obstruction of foreign journalists in Iran, among them Dutch correspondents.
 

The Iranian chargé d’affaires denied the use of violence and said the Netherlands should not interfere in internal matters in Iran.
 

In Amsterdam at the weekend, around 500 Iranians held a ceremony in remembrance of those killed in the violence in Iran over the past week. The participants lit candles and torches. In The Hague, around 200 people attended a demonstration at the outcome of the Iranian election. Police seized a poster showing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Nazi uniform.

Demonstrations in support of the Iranian opposition were also held in other European cities, including Brussels, Berlin and Hamburg. The largest of them was in Paris, attended by tens of thousands of Iranians from all over Europe.
 

Photo: ANP