TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has accused the Netherlands of plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime by supporting the opposition through the media and the Internet, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
"One of the countries which has given financial support to the opposition over the past few years is Holland," according to a statement issued by a centre run by the Guards, the Khorasan newspaper said.
It said the parliament in the Netherlands had in 2005 adopted a 15 million euro budget proposed by a Dutch MP of Iranian origin which was used to fund Persian Internet sites hostile to the Islamic regime and to help rights groups.
"The Dutch project aimed to encourage sexual and moral deviation in society," the Revolutionary Guards centre said, and to support the idea that the "threats (against Iran) are increasing (and) ... the idea that the current Iranian government is incapacitated."
The plot was led "in coordination with Britain" and involved "secret planning by the United States," said the Guards, an elite ideological corps set up to defend the Islamic republic.
The Guards said last month it had dismantled several networks it accused of setting up anti-Islamic, counter-revolutionary and "obscene" websites, and arrested a number of suspects including people normally resident abroad.
Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington and London of backing violent and non-violent actions against the state and has launched a number of crackdowns on bloggers and Internet users deemed to be hostile to the authorities and their Islamic values.
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