‘Old Dreams:’ German-Iran Relations Turn Sour
Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador Mahmoud Farazandeh for talks Thursday, Berlin’s foreign ministry spokesman told reporters Friday.
Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador Mahmoud Farazandeh for talks Thursday, Berlin’s foreign ministry spokesman told reporters Friday.
This followed Iran summoning German ambassador Hand-Udo Muzel Thursday, when Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani criticized Berlin for provoking “rioting and law-breaking in Iran” contrary to international law.
Germany had Wednesday said it would tighten entry restrictions on Iranian officials, issuing visas only where “absolutely necessary.” In a statement Wednesday announcing the measure German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said there could be “no ‘business as usual’ in bilateral relations with a state that treats its own citizens with such contempt for human rights.”
Iran has repeatedly criticized European states over ‘interference.’ Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said October 18 that European Union sanctions over the September 16 death in Tehran ‘morality police’ custody of Mahsa Amini amounted to “exploitation of human rights as a tool to achieve political goals.” Tehran has also alleged foreign-owned media and social-media operations have fostered violence.
Following Tuesday’s attack on a shrine in Shiraz, claimed by one outfit linked to the Islamic State group (Isis- Daesh), Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said Iranians had “a duty to deal with the enemy and its traitorous or ignorant agents.”
State media reported Wednesday the killing of two Basij militiamen in the northern city of Amol, a Revolutionary Guard in Tehran province, and three people in Mahabad who had tried to occupy government and security centers. The US-based activist agency HRANA has said at least 252 protesters have died in the unrest, while state media have said around 30 security-force members have been killed.
Change through trade?
Iran is one issue gnawing at Germany’s coalition government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, formed December 2021 as the first for 16 years without the Christian Democrats.
When the Social Democrat Party (SPD) won last year’s German elections, Iran’s official news agency IRNA predicted a more positive relationship. But while foreign minister Baerbock, a member of Alliance 90/the Greens Party, has upheld a commitment to international talks aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the recent protests in Iran have led Saskia Esken, an SPD co-leader, to call for ending the talks. “The talks must end in the way that the women and men on the streets are being dealt with at the moment,” Esken said October 16.
Lars Klingbeil, another SPD co-leader, in mid-October questioned the party’s long standing belief in ‘change through trade,’ the notion that increased commerce, linked to effective diplomacy, would moderate states deemed authoritarian. The SPD applied the approach particularly to Russia, but the same argument has been widely accepted within the EU in support of the Iran nuclear agreement.
While Germany has dragged its feet over reducing Russian energy supplies, straining relations with France, it has promised Ukraine €1.2 billion ($1.19 billion) in military aid – delivering howitzers – behind only Poland on €1.8 billion, the United Kingdom on €3.74 billion and the United States on at least €27.6 billion. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also a Social Democrat, said Friday the Ukraine crisis had replaced “old dreams” – referring to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s dream of a “common European home” – with “a time marked by war, violence and flight…”
"A bombing in Mo'ali Abad Street in Shiraz was detected and foiled by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence," Sepah news said, without giving further details.
There is no possibility to verify IRGC's claim, as the ideological-military-business organization and also Iran's Intelligence Ministry in the past have made numerous similar claims without presenting any evidence. In most cases no public trial of suspects were held or even names released.
The IRGC-linked Fars News quoted “an informed security source in Shiraz” as saying that the remotely-controlled bomb was found and neutralized by security forces and intelligence ministry agents after the gun attack on Shahcheragh shrine.
Wednesday's shooting, which was claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group, killed 15 including children and injured dozens more at the Shahcheragh shrine. Officials said they had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the shrine. The attack took place amid widespread antigovernment protests across the country which began nearly two months ago following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, on September 16.
The Iranian government has organized nationwide demonstrations against the shooting following Friday prayers. Funerals were also due to take place for the victims. Officials said they had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the shrine.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed on Thursday to retaliate against those threatening the country's security without further elaboration as to whether this meant those responsible for the attack, protesters, or both.
"We will take revenge for the blood of the martyrs of Shiraz," said Tehran Friday prayer Imam Haj Ali Akbari about the attack on the shrine.
Many Iranians did not trust the authorities or believe that ISIS was responsible for the attack. They accuse the regime of being behind the attack or orchestrating it to blame protesters at home for causing unrest and insecurity and justify harsher crackdown against opponents.
On October 23, US Special envoy for Iran Rob Malley sent out a tweet that became a source of controversy and triggered a strong backlash from Iranian-Americans and others. Malley wrote that protesters in Iran wanted “their government” to respect them and safeguard human rights, while clearly, they simply reject the Islamic Republic and want a secular, democratic government.
Iranian activists began an online campaign against Malley, even demanding his resignation.
Malley on Monday admitted that his choice of words was wrong, in an interview with Iran International, and the new line from the State Department became, “We cannot speak on behalf of Iranian protesters.”
Reporters on Wednesday asked the deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel again how the US would characterize the demands of the protesters, or what is the US government’s understanding about their demands.
Patel, again avoided an answer, saying that no one in the US government “should claim or can claim to speak for these protesters; only they can do that. And we, our role is to continue to take steps and take practical efforts to use the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable for what we are seeing happen across Iran.”
But pressed further, Patel did begin to characterize the aspiration of the Iranian protesters. “What we are seeing is the Iranian people demand basic human rights, rights of expression, as this started in the death of Mahsa Amini, and we’re seeing the Iranian people make their voices heard. But I don’t have any other specific assessment to offer.”
Saying that the Iranian people want “basic human rights” is not much different from what Rob Malley said a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, Iranian activist and women’s rights advocate Masih Alinejad has launched an online petition demanding Malley’s resignation that has collected nearly 100,000 signatures.
Tehran has been claiming from the start of the protests that the United States and “other enemies” are behind the unrest, because Iran has become “too powerful,” as President Ebrahim Raisi said this week, and they want to weaken it.
It is not clear if the Biden Administration is concerned that if it speaks about the real demand of the protesters, it might help Iran’s unsubstantiated claims, or it is just loath to uttering ‘regime change’, a term more popular with the former Trump administration.
Former President Donald Trump who pulled the United States out of the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Tehran and his administration officials had no qualms about calling the clerical regime the main cause of trouble in the region.
Otherwise, the White House has been outspoken about the need to condemn the Islamic Republic for its violent crackdown on unarmed protesters. The administration has imposed sanctions on a series of Iranian officials and also adopted a tough position against Iranian drone deliveries to Russia that have terrorized Ukrainian civilians.