BUndescancer Olaf Scholz (SPD) has sharply criticized Iran’s leadership for human rights violations there and defended the planned new sanctions. “What kind of government are you that shoots at its own citizens? Anyone who acts like this has to reckon with our resistance,” said Scholz on Saturday in his weekly Internet format “Kanzler compact”.
“The Iranian government is solely responsible for the explosion of violence,” said Scholz. The country is a member of the United Nations and is committed to upholding and protecting human rights. “This is how we measure the Iranian leadership,” said the Chancellor.
In view of the brutal crackdown on the protests that have been going on for weeks, the EU foreign ministers want to impose new sanctions on Iran on Monday. Because of the violent action taken by the Iranian authorities against demonstrators, more than 30 responsible persons and organizations are to be banned from entry and property.
Scholz demands “immediate end to violence”
“More than 300 dead – rows of death sentences, more than 14,000 arrests” – hardly anyone in Germany can imagine how much courage it takes to take to the streets in Iran for freedom and justice, Scholz continued. The daily pictures shook him. Germany is demanding an “immediate end to the violence” and the release of political prisoners and imprisoned journalists.
Iran had already announced an “appropriate and decisive” response in the event of new sanctions. “Provocative, interventionist and undiplomatic positions do not show maturity and wisdom,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Twitter a few days ago, addressing his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (Greens).
Scholz was not the only one to reject Tehran’s threats. Green leader Omid Nouripour also called them “outrageous” and “completely out of the question”. Nouripour said on ZDF that the Iranian Foreign Minister’s reaction was “beyond all diplomatic regulations” and “outrageous”. But it also shows “that our pressure is on.”
Activist demands end of nuclear deal
Canadian-Iranian activist Hamed Esmaeilion, who organizes many foreign protests against the leadership in Tehran, called for even harsher consequences. “Western governments have to understand – a revolution is taking place in Iran right now,” he said on ZDF. “They should end all negotiations with the regime – including the nuclear deal.”
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil called the actions of the Iranian security forces against the demonstrators “disgusting”. “The protests, which are also being supported by more and more men across the country, are being brutally suppressed,” he told the Rheinische Post. People would be “beaten up, tortured, imprisoned because they take to the streets for granted”.
The trigger for the current mass protests was the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16th. Amini was arrested by the moral police because she is said to have worn her headscarf improperly. She died in a hospital shortly after her arrest. Activists accuse the authorities of mistreating Amini.
