Leaked US diplomatic cables from the embassy in The Hague show that the Dutch government in 2006 supported UN sanctions against Iran as long as they did not harm the interests of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell. The sanctions were imposed because of Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Later cables show that Shell eventually did scale down its activities in Iran as a result of international pressure. The cables from the US embassy in The Hague were leaked by WikiLeaks and subsequently published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS and the commercial RTL Nieuws news channel.

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