Participants carry a banner reading 'Stop the genocide in Gaza' as they walk in front of the Berlin Cathedral (left) and the TV Tower (right) during a rally in reaction to the ban of the Palestine Congress in Berlin, Germany [Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE]
Berlin, November 2 (RHC)-- Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has slammed Berlin for closing three Iranian consulates, stating that this action, taken in support of a terrorist, amounts to sanctions against thousands of Iranians.
“In support of a terrorist who took 14 innocent lives and injured more than 200 others, the German government is sanctioning tens of thousands of other Iranians holding German passport. Anyone can see the wisdom in this decision,” Araghchi said in a post on his X account on Friday.
In an announcement on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the Iranian consulates in the cities of Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich are to be closed over the execution of convicted terrorist Jamshid Sharmahd.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned German charge d’affaires in Tehran in protest against the European country’s "irrational" decision to shut the missions of the Islamic Republic and deprive Iranians of consular services.
In his post, Araghchi pledged that his ministry would do the "utmost" for Iranian compatriots living in Germany to compensate for such an “inconvenience” by strengthening the consular sections of the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Berlin and other nearby diplomatic missions.
“Behold the terrorist criminal that German authorities sought to protect,” the top Iranian diplomat wrote, linking back to a post published by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on X two days earlier which shows part of the trial and confessions of Sharmahd.
On Monday, Iran's Judiciary executed Sharmahd, the ringleader of a U.S.-based terror group behind a series of deadly attacks against the Iranian nation. Germany protested to Iran by recalling its ambassador to Tehran and summoning the Iranian charge d’affaires in Berlin.
Iran on Tuesday summoned German Ambassador to Tehran Markus Potzel over Berlin officials meddling in the internal affairs of the Islamic Republic. The Iranian foreign minister earlier said granting a German passport to an individual "does not provide impunity, let alone a terrorist criminal."
Iranian judicial authorities charged Sharmahd with masterminding multiple terrorist attacks within Iran, including the 2008 bombing at the Seyyed-ol-Shohada mosque in the southern city of Shiraz.
About 800 worshipers were attending a sermon when a powerful bomb exploded. The explosion injured 215 and martyred 14 people, including five women, two children and an infant, making it one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iranian history.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV]
