AJC calls for Berlin to expel Iranian ambassador for spying on Israel
"We expect clear political steps. Diplomatic dialogue alone is not enough here. We need a clear public measure."
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: JANUARY 18, 2018 05:24Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a television address in Tehran, Iran, October 13, 2017. (photo credit: HANDOUT/REUTERS)
The Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee urged Germany’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to expel Iran’s ambassador because of his country’s alleged spying on Israel’s embassy and a Jewish kindergarten.“We expect clear political steps. Diplomatic dialogue alone is not enough here.We need a clear public measure.The expulsion of the ambassador [Ali Majedi] would be an important first signal,” said Deidre Berger, the director of the Berlin AJC office.Berger responded to a Focus magazine online report on Tuesday that German authorities raided Iranian regime locations in the states of Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Berlin.The crackdown and searches took place because of 10 persons who are considered especially dangerous, are members of the al-Quds Brigade of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and were allegedly involved in espionage targeting Israeli and Jewish targets. No one was arrested.Iran’s regime along with Hezbollah carried out a terrorist attack on Kurdish dissidents in 1992 in Berlin, resulting in the murders of four Iranian dissidents. Israel’s embassy told the mass circulation Bild on Wednesday that “we again see how active the Iranian regime in Europe and Germany is. It maintains an infrastructure for terrorism.”The embassy warned that one should not be fooled by the friendly face of the Iranian regime. “What is behind the laugh of [Iran’s] President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif? Hostile activities on the ground in democratic countries of Europe,” said the Israeli Embassy.The AJC Transatlantic Institute, American Jewish Committee’s EU office in Brussels, called on Wednesday for the EU to respond to Iranian aggression by sanctioning the Revolutionary Guards and expelling Iran’s ambassador in Germany.The US government in October sanctioned the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity.The institute added that “the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee ought to disinvite Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi, scheduled to speak at the EU legislature next week.”“Only last week, High Representative [of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] Federica Mogherini together with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain lunched with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif while at the very same time his agents may have been plotting the murder of Jewish children and Israeli diplomats in Germany,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute.“This is nothing short of a hostile act against an EU member state by the world’s foremost state-sponsor of terrorism. There can be no more business as usual for the EU with Iran,” Schwammenthal added.
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