Germany to shut Iranian consulates

Germany will close all three Iranian consulates on its soil in response to Tehran’s execution of a German-Iranian dual citizen for terrorism offenses, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced on Thursday.

Berlin will seek EU sanctions against those involved in the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, who was reportedly put to death on Monday for “planning and orchestrating a series of terrorist acts,” according to Iranian state media.

“We have repeatedly and unequivocally made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences,” Baerbock said in a televised address in which she announced the closure of the consulates in Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg.

A citizen of both Iran and Germany, Sharmahd had been living in the US since 2003, where he led a group of Iranian exiles dedicated to overthrowing the country’s ruling clerics and restoring the US-backed monarchy that ran the country before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Sharmahd was arrested by Iranian security forces in the United Arab Emirates in 2020. He was taken to Iran and accused of orchestrating multiple terrorist acts, including the 2008 bombing of a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz that killed 14 people and injured 200. He was found guilty last year and sentenced to death.

Earlier this week, Baerbock accused the Iranian government of “using death as a weapon,” and warned that Sharmahd’s “murder” would have dire consequences for Tehran.

“Enough with the gaslighting,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded. “Jamshid Sharmahd openly and unashamedly led a terrorist attack on a MOSQUE that killed 14 innocent people. A German passport does not provide impunity to anyone, let alone a terrorist criminal.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said this week that the bloc condemned Sharmahd’s “killing in the strongest possible terms” and was also “considering measures in response.”

“How about ‘an EU measure’ to end the killing of more than 50k Palestinians in Gaza?” Araghchi replied to Borrell. “How about ‘an EU measure’ to support the families of those killed by Jamshid Sharmahd? If not, Europe only stands for hypocrisy.”

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