Germany closes all Iranian Consulates in country after Tehran executes American man of German-Iranian descent


Germany has ordered all three Iranian Consulates in the country to be shut down after an Iranian-German man who was a resident of the United States was executed by the Iranian regime on Monday.

69-year-old Jamshid Sharmahd was a journalist and outspoken critic of the Tehran government who had been living in California since 2003 before he was kidnapped by Iranian security forces in Dubai in 2020. The Iranian regime unfoundedly claimed he was involved in a 2008 terror attack on a mosque and had committed “multiple terrorist acts” under the orders of US and Israeli intelligence services. He was executed after years of torture in an Iran prison.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced the decision to close the Iranian Consulates located in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich on Thursday, which leaves the Islamic Republic only an embassy in Berlin, the Associated Press reports. The decision came after Iran’s charge d’affaires was summoned by the German Foreign Ministry and the German Ambassador in Iran was recalled on Tuesday in protest of the execution.

Iran pushed back the protests, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posting a lengthy message to X: “No terrorist enjoys impunity in Iran. Even if supported by Germany. Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd openly and unashamedly led a terrorist attack on a MOSQUE that killed 14 innocent people—including women and children. More than 200 were injured. The evidence is public and available for all to see. A German passport does not provide impunity to anyone, let alone a terrorist criminal.”

He called on Baerbock to stop “gaslighting” Iran in the message posted Tuesday, adding “Stop supporting child killers and terrorists and do not hide yourself behind hypocritical human rights slogans. We have not forgotten about the chemical weapons provided to Saddam’s regime by German nationals. Your government is accomplice in the ongoing Israeli genocide. Germany is the No#2 provider of lethal weapons to Israel for its genocidal campaign in Gaza and carnage in Lebanon. Look around. Even your own people ridicule your arrogant human rights claims.”

Sharmahd’s family had proclaimed his innocence and had worked for years to have him freed. His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, called the Biden-Harris administration “incompetent and corrupt” for failing to save her father.

This Story originally came from humanevents.com

 


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It appears President Vladimir Putin is jumping at the opportunity of pursuing a serious reset with the United States under the future Trump presidency. In surprisingly positive Thursday remarks, Putin issued congratulatory statements and heaped praise on Trump for winning the election, also saying he acted “like a man” following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania last summer.

“His behavior at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me,” Putin said at the Valdai Club in the Black Sea city of Sochi. “He turned out to be a courageous man. And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals… He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man.”

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“It seems to me, it deserves attention what was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said. “I have always said that we will work with any head of state who has the trust of the American people.”

Without doubt, these mark the warmest words issued by Putin regarding the spiraling US relationship in years, and certainly the most positive remarks since the invasion of February 2022. Rhetoric between Moscow and Washington have over the course of the war up to now been marked by severe accusations and even veiled nuclear threats.

And importantly, Putin signaled he might speak to Trump, per state media:

Putin congratulated Trump on his win, and said that he is open to a phone call with the president-elect. “It wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself,” Putin added.

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President-elect Donald Trump said that Vladimir Putin wasn’t among the “probably” 70 phone conversations he has held with world leaders since winning the election, but that he still is planning to speak with the Russian president, according to NBC News. 

“I think we’ll speak,” Trump told NBC, Thursday, the news organization said. 

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Interestingly, despite their recent subtle tensions, Ukraine’s Zelensky and President-elect Trump have spoken in the wake of the landslide election victory. Trump confirmed to NBC that Zelensky was among the congratulatory phone calls from world leaders he’s received so far since Tuesday.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poured cold water Thursday on a plan by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to strike a rapid peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, arguing it would amount to a “loss” for Ukraine.

“I believe that President Trump really wants a quick decision” to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, Zelenskyy told journalists in Budapest. “He wants that. It doesn’t mean that it will happen this way.”

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