UPDATE - Germany shuts down Iran’s consulates after execution of dual national

UPDATES WITH MORE QUOTES FROM GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - Germany announced on Thursday that it would shut down Iran’s consulates in the country, in response to the execution German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd.

Speaking to reporters in New York, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sharmahd was executed despite Berlin’s intense diplomatic efforts at the highest political level.

“We have repeatedly made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences, so I have decided to close Iran’s consulate generals in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Hamburg,” she said.

Baerbock argued that the latest developments have demonstrated that the Iranian regime only "knows the language of blackmail, threats and violence,” and the new government is also not willing to change the course of foreign policy.

“The fact that the murder took place in light of the latest developments in the Middle East shows that a dictatorial, unjust regime of the mullahs does not act in accordance with normal diplomatic logic. It is not without reason that our diplomatic relations are already at a low point,” the minister said.

Baerbock accused Iran of carrying out destabilizing activities in the region, launching direct attacks on Israel with drones and missiles, supplying weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine, repressing its own population, kidnapping and murdering dissidents.

Sharmahd, a 69-year-old German-Iranian national, was executed in Iran on Monday, following his conviction for “plotting terror attacks,” which he vehemently denied.

He was accused of leading a US-based group known as “Tondar,” which seeks to restore Iran's monarchy, which was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian authorities had claimed that the group planned numerous terror acts against Iran under the orders of Western and American intelligence agencies.