Belgian Security Chief: Iran Directed Terror Attacks in Belgium

Iran was directly responsible for two terror attacks in Belgium, confirmed Gert Vercauteren, head of Belgium's Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (CUTA). Speaking to French broadcaster RTBF on Thursday, Vercauteren stated with certainty that the perpetrators acted on instructions from Tehran to target Jewish sites globally. In May, an explosive device was detonated outside a synagogue in Liege, and in the same week, arsonists set fire to a car in Antwerp's Jewish quarter. No one was injured in either incident. An organization calling itself "Asias al Yamin" claimed responsibility on social media. Vercauteren emphasized that the attacks were part of a coordinated campaign, not isolated acts of vandalism. These events in Belgium occurred concurrently with a series of attacks in the Netherlands and the UK. Intelligence agencies thwarted several simultaneous operations, including a plot to bomb a synagogue in Heemstede, Netherlands. Belgium's national terror threat level remains at level 3 out of 4, classified as "serious," a status in place since a deadly shooting in Brussels in October 2023 that killed two Swedish football fans. CUTA relies on continuous intelligence to assess radicalization levels. The arrest of a key suspect, Saad Daoud Al Saadi, in Turkey in May led to the dismantling of a central cell in the network responsible for organizing attacks across Europe. Belgian security forces have not reported further attacks since that arrest.